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- System: Coin-Op Arcade
- Genre: Beat-em-up
Years after a nuclear holocaust destroys society, rival gangs have taken over the world. With little left of civilization, twin brothers Billy and Jimmy Lee, keep the lost martial-arts of Sôsetsuken alive. When a rival gang called the Black Warriors kidnapped Billy's true love, the brothers take to the streets and fight their way through the ranks of every crook, thug and rival gang in their path as they seek out the mastermind behind the Black Warriors.
The game is viewed from a 3/4 perspective, as you progress through four side-scrolling levels: city, factory, forest and the Black Warriors secret hideout. Constant fighting is the key as you beat up every enemy you encounter.
The controls consist of two sets of joysticks, with three action buttons each: Jump, Kick and Punch. The buttons can be stringed together to create over-the-top combo attacks that look like a mix of karate and pro-wrestling. Although Jimmy and Billy don't carry their own weapons, fallen enemy weapons can be picked up.
When Double Dragon hit the arcades in 1987, it was unlike any other fighting game. Sure the genre had previously existed, but none had the scope, features and quality of Double Dragon. The closest predecessor was the innovative game Renegade, the first fighting game to have a 3/4 angle view, multiple action buttons and boss battles. Double Dragon took the style and pushed it even further by adding simultaneous cooperative gameplay in multiple, lengthy and unique side-scrolling levels. Both of these groundbreaking games were designed by Yoshihisa Kishimoto, who also created the classic rail-shooter Cobra Command.
Double Dragon was an instant hit and brought in the golden age of fighting games. This new approach became the standard style of action/fighting games, even more so on home console systems. Soon Double Dragon was retooled for all the popular home systems, the most notable being for the Nintendo Entertainment System. Although the NES version didn't have the two-player co-op, instead relying on a two-player mode of alternating single-player gameplays; it does featured a shocking alternate ending where (Spoiler) the mastermind behind the mastermind behind the evil plot is Bully's brother Jimmy.
