Kick, Punch, it’s all in the mind.
The Double Dragon series has had a wild history. Numerous developers have attempted to resurrect or add to its legacy, but few have really delivered a solid and satisfying product. While countless beat-em up's have been released since Double Dragon's debut in 1987, few have provided as much variety and replayability as the latest entry in the series, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons.
Rise of the Dragons is developed by Secret Base, the developer behind Streets of Red. Their love for the genre was apparent there and given all the nods and winks to Double Dragon's legacy in Rise of the Dragons, it's clear that this was made by fans for fans. Nearly every boss or unlockable character has a deep-rooted connection to the series, from Abobo to Linda, to Willy and Duke, fans of the series will constantly see several favorites show up and add to this game's impressive roster.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons sees the return of both Billy and Jimmy Lee, joined alongside by Marian and newcomer, Uncle Matin. As New York City is now ruled by four major gangs, each fighting for dominance, riots, and crime begin to consume the streets. The story begins as the newly elected Mayor races into the SoSetsuken Dojo with an injured Marian, hoping that the Lee brothers will aid him in defeating each of these gangs and restoring order to the city.
What really interested me about Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons was the freedom to take on these gangs in any order I wanted, causing the remaining gangs to rise in power and add additional battles, levels, and final encounters to each of their subsequent chapters. It has caused me to play through the game numerous times to see these differences across all the gangs, including a choice made at a crucial moment in the game that provided me a whole additional chapter depending on that choice. Beat’em up’s rarely offer this level of replayability and it truly makes Rise of the Dragons stand out.
This replayability is crucial as you’ll be playing to earn tokens that can be used to purchase additional characters such as Burnov from Double Dragon II: The Revenge, as well as Abobo and Linda, a pair of characters from nearly every entry of the series. You’ll also use tokens to purchase game hints, artwork, and tracks from the game’s soundtrack, which the latter three options ranging from a token or two each.
Tokens are earned through two methods; as possible upgrades made between each level, which I’ll dive into shortly, as well as through converting your cash total at the end of the game. The exchange rate for tokens starts at $1000 per token, but Rise of the Dragons allows you to alter certain difficulty settings such as two-player co-op increasing token cost by $300, or decreasing it by $200 should you favor permadeath instead of being able to continue. Other settings will increase the exchange rate or decrease it, such as player health, revives and upgrade costs, to enemy stats and aggression. This allows you to tailor the game’s difficulty to your needs.
The four gangs that you’ll be tasked with taking care of are the Killers, Royals, Triangle, and Okada. This is done by selecting your starter gang for the four available options. The Killers’ fortress to the northeast occupies abandoned skyscrapers, with the Triangle’s junkyard located in the southeast. The Okada Clan Headquarters is found in the southwest, with the Royal’s hideout running along the old train system. Each level has a solid amount of variety, but your starting location will be a condensed version of its full potential.
As mentioned, each gang will fortify its fighters as well as offer up additional stages as you continue, making the battle to wipe out each of the four gangs to be a fairly difficult one. Should you start with the Okada clan, your battle with the leader is within minutes, but save them for the last and you’ll be fighting on the roof of its central headquarters, with far more to the final encounter than just a few simple attacks. This causes each gang to have its own version of a final stage, causing additional playthroughs to offer something to look forward to.
You’ll begin this adventure with just the four central characters, but additional tokens will soon unlock Abobo, Burnov, Chin Tai Mei, Linda, Willy, Duke, Anubis, Lady Okada, and one additional fighter you’ll encounter throughout the story. Each character feels unique despite the simple control scheme. While weapons will often drop during combat, some characters, such as Linda and Marian, cannot pick up weapons because they both already wield a bladed whip and gun, respectively.
Defeating enemies and performing a KO will dish out not just pain but the ability to earn cash. Cash is your lifeblood here as it will fuel your revives and your upgrades as well as convert to tokens when you have completed the game. You'll earn food if you perform a Special KO and defeat multiple enemies. Three enemies will net your a fully-loaded hotdog, four enemies will provide a hamburger with all the fixings, with four enemies or more offering up a full turkey dinner. Ensuring that you maximize your special abilities to perform a KO on as many foes as possible becomes crucial in the late game as healing will become a necessity.
Special attacks are performed through your special meter, which is also used to tag in your partner as your cast of characters won’t be taking down this gang solo. When playing in co-op, you’ll bring four fighters along for the ride, hence the starting cast of characters featuring that exact amount. You can summon in your tag partner to swap as well as extend your combo and act as a brief moment of defense. You can also upgrade your swap to knock down all enemies to give you a bit of breathing room in tough moments.
When you perform a special move, your special meter enters a cooldown. It’s a small window, but when you are frantically trying to summon in your partner when you have a pixel of health, it can feel like a lifetime. The meter will recover over time, but you can speed it up by hitting or defeating enemies. As each character has three unique special moves, by either pressing the SP button or back-forward SP, or up-down SP, each move will use different amounts of SP. Each SP move is based on defense, range, or one that is unique to them.
Basic controls work as such; RB will allow you to run with LB allowing you to tag in your partner. Attacks are X, Special attacks are Y, with Jump on A and your action button on B. Each character has their own action with some allowing you to grab your foe or roll forward, such is the case with Linda, allowing her roll to actually pick up a healing item in the process. Each character functions by these same controls but feels unique in how they use certain attacks, jumps, and their action button move.
Combat itself feels great but can feel a bit stiff and slower when compared to the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. This is felt in how you recover from a jump, moving around, to special attacks playing out their core animation without the ability to cancel them. This can leave you open to attacks should someone wander in that isn’t being hit. While there are ways to attack enemies on the ground, by performing a jump toward them with attacking, it’s sort of odd that basic attacks don’t hit them or that there isn’t some sort of ground attack. While it’s easy to become stun-locked by ranged attacks as you are trying to get up or bounced off a platform and fall to your death, the same can be said for you yourself performing those actions to your foe.
Now, that stiffness aside, I still had an unbelievably great time here, especially building a duo of many of the game’s roster. Linda was easily my favorite and while I was initially keen on pairing her up with Marian, having two ranged characters that couldn’t pick up weapons had me leaning on either Billy or Jimmy, as they are pretty powerful close-ranged fighters. Regardless of my dream team, I enjoyed using each of the game’s offerings with the hope that Secret Base add even more characters or even whole gangs to add to the variety that is already here.
As you battle through each stage, you’ll be spending your cash on various upgrades that will benefit either combat or your ability to earn tokens. From boosting the power to your special attacks, increasing SP regeneration, or recovering health from every KO, there is a wide range of upgrades here that allow you to create temporary builds as you progress through that run. These upgrades are similar to how rogue-like games offer you your basic skills and abilities with each subsequent run of a game having you start from scratch. These upgrades vary in price from around $500 to $1500, with the option to cut your losses and take a certain amount of money and forgo the upgrade.
From super entertaining sprites to some really vibrant environments, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is either going to impress you with its trip down memory lane or those who have preferred something more akin to Streets of Rage 4, while cartoony, is more of a modern take on the colorful and flashy beat’em up. Regardless, I found Rise of the Dragons to really fit the tone and appeal of what Double Dragon has always been to me, even if Double Dragon Neon was visually cool for its time.
Across its numerous stages with a pretty sizable cast for the genre, the enjoyable music and feel of this brawler certainly kept me entertained. While it doesn't eclipse some of the greats of the genre, it certainly is right up there for me in large part to the rogue-like elements of upgrading your fighters and the way in which each gang feels dramatically different depending on the order you take them on. While I think some players may not get on with some of the title’s stiff movement or maneuverability, I still found Rise of the Dragons to be an absolute riot. While the series’ history has been plagued by very inconsistent titles, let's hope that Rise of the Dragons turns that around, showing that the series can one again reach some incredible heights.
Developer - Secret Base. Publisher - Modus Games. Released - July 27th, 2023. Available On - Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, Nintendo Switch, Windows. Rated - (E 10+) - Mild Blood, Mild Violence, Tobacco Reference, Mild Suggestive Themes. Platform Reviewed - Xbox Series X. Review Access - A review code was provided by the PR/publisher for the purpose of this review.
Jeff is the original founder of Analog Stick Gaming. His favorite games include The Witcher III, the Mass Effect Trilogy, Hi-Fi Rush, Stellar Blade, Hellbade: Senua’s Sacrifice, and the Legend of Heroes series, especially Trails of Cold Steel III & IV.