🐳 Moby v2023.03.16 update

Double Dragon

aka: Arcade Archives: Double Dragon, Double Dragon Advance

Description official descriptions

Set in a post-apocalyptic New York, Double Dragon is the story of Billy and Jimmy Lee, twin brothers trained in the fighting style of Sou-Setsu-Ken. Together, they manage a small martial arts training school, teaching their students in self-defense. One day, Billy's girlfriend, Marian, is kidnapped off the street by the "Black Warriors", a savage street gang led by a man named Willy. The Black Warriors demand the Lee brothers disclose their martial arts secrets in exchange for Marian's freedom. The Lee brothers set out on a rescue mission to crush the Black Warriors and save Marian.

Using whatever techniques they have at their disposal, from the basic punches and kicks to the invulnerable elbow strike, as well any weapon that comes into their hands, the Lee brothers must pursue the gang through the city slum, industrial area and the forest before reaching their hideout to confront the big boss, Willy.

The NES version of this game also has an additional VS. fighting mode for one or two players. Players choose from a field of six different characters (Billy and 5 of the enemy characters) and enter into a one-on-one fighting match. Players have to punch, kick, jumpkick, and even use a weapon against their opponents until someone's health bar is fully drained. The winner is the last one standing.

Spellings

  • アーケードアーカイブス ダブルドラゴン - Japanese PS4 / Switch spelling
  • ダブルドラゴン - Japanese spelling
  • ダブルドラゴン アドバンス - Japanese GBA spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (Arcade version)

20 People (16 developers, 4 thanks)

Director and Producer
Programmers
Animator
Designer
Music
Sound Effects
Art Staff
Special Thanks
Director and Designer
Presented by
  • Technos Japan Corp.

Reviews

Discussion

Subject User Date
MSX Screenshots RetroArchives.fr (703) 2018-11-30 15:35:18

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Double Dragon appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Board game

In 1989, Tiger adapted this video game into a board game.

C64 version

Two C64 versions exist, the original Melbourne House release by Binary Designs and a later, rare cartridge only release by Ocean, ported by Imagitec Design. Here's an interesting bit of trivia from the US Commodore 64 Mastertronic/Arcadia (Binary Designs) instruction manual:

A NOTE FROM THE PROGRAMMERS:

Dear Game Player,

During our Herculean task of cramming as many as possible of the multitude of animation and graphic elements that make up the arcade game into the Commodore 64, we were faced with a problem. To get both one- and two-player options, and to achieve the authentic feel of two-player simultaneous action, simply took more memory than we had available.

But we knew how disappointed you would be if the game didn't have the same two-player mode as the arcade game you know and love. So we came up with a memory-saving solution. We implemented sprite stacking techniques to create the animated characters (using two smaller sprites instead of one larger one to create each figure).

The resulting small gap you may notice in the characters at waist level, is the compromise that the architecture of the C64 forced us to make.

This should not impair your enjoyment of the game in any way.

The Programmers

Amstrad CPC versions

Basically two completely different versions of the game were released: a dodgy port for standard CPC 464 and superior conversion for CPC 6128 which were both developed by Binary Design. The latter was an Atari ST conversion and released for the French market. The former was ported from Spectrum and put into UK shops.

Comic

Marvel published a six-issue line of comic books based off of the video game in 1991, giving Marian an early casting as a police officer and giving the Lee brothers a very Marvelous father -- Stan!

Movie

In 1994, Universal released Double Dragon, the movie, starring Mark Dacascos as Jimmy Lee, Scott Wolf as Billy Lee, Alyssa Milano as Maria, and Robert Patrick as Koga Shuko, the evil gang leader.As the film would have it, in the year 2007, what was once called Los Angeles is now "New Angeles", a city half-destroyed by The Big One in 2000. The city is now a metropolis out of Hell, where earthquakes and tidal waves are part of the typical day. The smog is so dangerously thick that huge fans are on top of buildings to blow it away and phone booths are oxygen booths. The Hollywood River has overflowed, making many famous landmarks mere wrecks. The urban areas that once stood in the south all the way to Long Beach are underwater. By day the police are out doing their jobs and normal people go about their lives, but there is a curfew. At night, the police and people lock their doors and the gangs emerge causing mayhem, including the "Mohawks" and the "Gloves". The only ones who go out to fight the gangs are a group of kids and teens called the Power Corps.

The movie's plot primarily concerns Shuko doing all he can to acquire the Double Dragon. While he has one half, the Lees have the other. It becomes good vs. evil as the Lees, along with the Power Corps' leader, Maria, team up for some good old butt-kicking action to defeat Shuko and prevent him from using the Double Dragon to take over "N.A." All in all, the movie was unsuccessful.

Multiplayer

If you are playing a two-player game and both characters are still alive after you beat Mr. Big, Billy and Jimmy must fight each other to see who gets the girl. In the NES, Gameboy (and possibly other versions); it is two player but not simultaneously. Both players will play as Billy and Jimmy will remain a enemy boss character regardless. As a consolation prize however, the NES version features a "Mode B" in which 1 or 2 players can engage in a 1-on-1 fighting match with six of the game's characters using graphics more faithful to the arcade.

NES version

The NES release has a few bugs that should not have passed quality control since they can be triggered fairly easily. For example, you can climb up the wall at the end of the first level while it's obvious you shouldn't be able to. Also, the game was originally to have a staff roll (the one you see in this entry), but an invalid JSR forced Technos to abandon it during production.

References to the game

In the movie The Wizard, Jimmy is seen playing the NES version of Double Dragon at the bus station. Of course, the arcade version didn't look like that but this was Nintendo's movie so they put their Double Dragon in it.

Sales

According to the magazine Retro Gamer (issue #1), the game was Mastertronic's #7 best selling game (289.510 copies).

Awards

  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #75 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Retro Gamer
    • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #88 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Olivier Masse, PCGamer77, Pseudo_Intellectual, Robbb, Servo and WildKard

Related Games

Double Dragon
Released 1993 on Game Gear
Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone
Released 1992 on DOS, Genesis, Game Boy...
Super Double Dragon
Released 1992 on SNES
Battletoads / Double Dragon
Released 1993 on Game Boy, SNES, 1994 on Genesis
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Released 1989 on DOS, Amiga, Genesis...
Saint Dragon
Released 1990 on Amiga, Atari ST, Commodore 64...
Dragon Saber: After Story of Dragon Spirit
Released 1990 on Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, 2022 on Nintendo Switch...
Dragon Buster
Released 1987 on MSX, NES, 2008 on Wii...
Thunder Dragon
Released 1991 on Arcade, 2021 on PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch

Related Sites +

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 1839

Contribute

Know about this game? Add your expertise to help preserve this entry in video game history!

Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Macintrash.

Commodore 64, NES, SEGA Master System, Atari 2600, Amiga added by PCGamer77. Nintendo 3DS added by CrankyStorming. Nintendo Switch, Xbox One added by Rik Hideto. Wii U added by is_that_rain_or_tears. Game Boy Advance, Game Boy added by Kartanym. Antstream added by firefang9212. Xbox 360, PlayStation 4 added by Sciere. Amstrad CPC added by Kabushi. Wii added by gamewarrior. ZX Spectrum added by Dean Swain. Genesis added by Satoshi Kunsai. Arcade added by The cranky hermit. Atari ST, Atari 7800 added by Servo. MSX added by koffiepad. Lynx added by Jeanne.

Additional contributors: Satoshi Kunsai, chirinea, Sciere, Xoleras, Freeman, Johnny Undaunted, LepricahnsGold, DreinIX, Patrick Bregger, mailmanppa, S Olafsson, ryanbus84, Jo ST, FatherJack, Bart Smith.

Last modified March 2nd, 2023.