Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a Side-Scrolling Beat-em-ups games was released in July 2023 for PS4, PS5, XBONE, XSX/S, Switch, and PC. It was developed by Secret Base and published by Modus Games, and it is also a spin-off title of the Double Dragon series.
Back in the golden age days of gaming in the mid-80s when Technos Japan had bought Double Dragon to the arcade platform.
It's a Beat-em-ups game where you take control of duo martial artists known as the Lee Brothers must battling against various of gangs and thugs in order to rescue damsel-in-distress named Marian.
It is the pure examples of being one of the major pioneer of Beat-em-ups genres, as the first original Double Dragon became a huge hit arcade game resulting in a flood of beat-em-ups during the late 80's and early 90s.
Not only it created the genres, it also influenced various of game developers went onto creating their own titles such as Capcom's Final Fight, SEGA's Streets of Rage, and Konami's TMNT IV: Turtles in Time which firmly established Beat-em-ups as a popular game genre at the time.
The success of Double Dragon has spawned with numerous of sequels, spins-off, 1993's animated series, and 1994's live-action film adaptation.
I strongly agree on the first original game that invented the genre are considered to be not just being one of the best in the entire series, but also one of the best arcade beat-em-ups of golden age era thanks to simple fighting techniques and 2-player co-op were praised by gaming media press. The console releases such as NES, SMS, and Genesis/MD are also being praised for being a faithful to the arcade counterpart.
The second title such as Double Dragon 2: The Revenge are also well-received on arcade releases, while the console port such as NES and PCE-CD are just as good, until the later title such as Double Dragon 3, Super, and 5 are considered to be the weakest entry of the whole series, except the Neo Geo 1995's fighting game titled as Double Dragon are actually pretty decent making it the very last good title again by Technos Japan before the company went out of business in 1996.
Following the closure, the series IP had sold to licensing company named Million allowing them to continue to produce new titles for GBA, as well as reissuing older titles on digital store platform such as Wii's VC and other services.
Then there was a 2012's reboot title called Double Dragon Neon developed by WayForward Technologies was originally released for PS3, X360, and PC, then was later re-released on Switch in 2020. It is the first game in the series where Million had no involvement in its development before the series IP had sold to Arc System Works in 2015.
It garnered with the mixed reception but some considered it as the improvement over the previous entries, and then we had 2017's title such as Double Dragon 4 for PS4, XBONE, Switch, and PC which sadly received not as good as everyone expecting from the developers.
Out of all these games I've explained above, there are not many of good Double Dragon games besides the first and second are the only two titles that are actually doing right, where as the later ones had done such a poor job of how they handle the series that created the beat-em-ups genre.
There's one way to give the game a second chance that we are hoping to see a yet good beat-em-ups title doing the series a justice, so that is Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons created by Secret Base.
I am expecting this game just to be a good again, so I've picked up a copy off from online store at day one to see if this game are actually doing right this time? the answer is yes it's better than I'm expected because I thought this game might not be quite close to same level as the other modern beat-em-ups like TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Streets of Rage 4 which I considered these two as a superior title, but don't get me wrong because this game does shares with pretty good stuff going on which is why I am here to review the latest Double Dragon games to point out some goods and some bads depending on how the quality content and game's design does add ups to game itself.
I'll be covering the gameplay, visuals, sounds, and others that might really helped the game's overall quality, where as I'm also gonna point out some of the things that could have made the game bit better.
So without go further do, let's start the review.
Presentation
The game takes place in the year 199X where nuclear war has ravaged the New York City leading the population of citizens had struggled to survive. The city has been overtaken by criminal gangs who terrorise it's ruins as they fight for total dominance.
One day later, the elected mayor came to visit at the dojo and offered Lee Brothers for help, as the whole city still in under attack by the gangs, so they accepted the mayor's offer.
With the help of Marian and Uncle Matin had joined the Lee Brothers, their goal is to get rid of all the gangs as possible in order to bring the whole city back in peace.
The opening story has a late 80's cliché stuff going on just like the any of the classic beat-em-ups titles, so instead of damsel-in-distress getting kidnapped like in the first original game, you'll hear something similar like the group of bad guys had conquered the whole city resulting a mass population of crimes that harms the entire innocent citizens who are desperate for help, then the good guys went on the mission to save a day.
I really liked the changes of the game's story taking in the similar approach as the classic beat-em-ups series that we know from the late 80's and early 90's like Capcom's Final Fight and SEGA's Streets of Rage in terms of opening story introduction which involve groups of gangs has taken over and controls the whole city, so this really works well on the Double Dragon series.
The game does share with likable characters like these brothers such as Billy Lee and Jimmy Lee which I considered them as the badass kung-fu duos wearing the red and blue outfits went on brawling and start kicking everyone asses in pieces.
Then you have Billy's love interest named Marian is one of the character you may know her as damsel-in-distress from the first original game, but instead they turned her into kick-ass police officer giving her a more proactive role. She's not the only being the first playable character in this game because she's also previously appeared with the other titles like Double Dragon (Neo Geo) and of course Kunio-Kun's spin-off title such as River City Girls 2.
Lastly the game introduced Uncle Matin made a first debut in the series. He's a former soldier and was Master Lee's old left hand took care of the Lee Brothers and Marian, as he aids them to join forces to fight against the corrupted gangs and saving the city.
The game also featuring 4 gang leaders as a villains, such as M.G.Willy which you may know him as a major antagonist of first and second games. Then you have Duke first appeared as major villain from Super Double Dragon. Lastly Anubis and Lady Okada made their first debut as two of the 4 boss characters in this game.
The game does share with likable mid-bosses you may recognise them from the previous entries of the series such as Abobo, Burnov, Chin Tai Mei, and Linda.
The presentation as a whole are actually pretty decent, so I don't understand why anyone just makes fun of these artwork design choices as they say it's nowhere near quite good as the other beat-em-ups games in terms of artwork design. To me, it doesn't seems to be much big of the deal which I find these artwork design choices in this game seems to be fine as it should, so it's colorful, it's bold, and it does suit the game's presentation pretty well which really adds up the arcade-inspired feel to it.
Each of the stages does shares with great environment settings such as Willy's stage has wracked security offices and rooftops buildings, Anubis's stage filled with sandy junkyard with scraps and underground Egyptian tombs, Lady Okada's stages has casino rooms and huge dojo temples, and Duke's stage has underground subway station which I got to say these settings in each section of stages are looking quite solid in this game.
Overall, it has good opening story, likable characters, and decent overall presentation.
Gameplay
First of all, you'll have the list of customisable difficulty options such as enemy stats, enemy aggression, upgrade cost, revive cost, player's health, and of course continue type, so if you set it to the highest difficulty then your exchange rate will be cost lower per token, where as setting to the lowest difficulties will gradually increase the exchange rate per token.
Then you get to choose any 2 of your playable characters, so one of them will be primary and others will be secondary, and then you'll get to select any 4 missions to choose from.
You take control any of 4 playable characters in 2D perspective, as your main mission is to beat the entire stages by defeating all 4 bosses.
You'll have a player's health and special bar on the top-left or top-right corner of the screen which indicates how much the health points you have left, as well the special meter bar when being used, and of course you have a money on the top-middle screen indicates the remaining currencies which can be used for saving up tokens, upgrading abilities, and using them to keep continuing the game.
You'll start off with the basics such as pushing the left stick or d-pad button to walk around the area, while holding the right trigger button then pushing the left stick or d-pad button to run.
Hitting the square button to attack the enemy, while the triangle button or two shoulder buttons which allowing the player to perform the special techniques, so you will have 3 techniques moves in each characters such as Billy's dragon kick, Jimmy's uppercut, Marian's bazooka or devices, and Uncle Matin's wrestling moves which deals heavy blow on the enemies, so if you successfully perform the special moves combos when the bunch of enemies surrounding near close to you then you will be awarded with the food items such as hotdog, burger, and turkey which increases your health points, while on full-health will also increases your currencies as well.
Using up the special technique moves which depletes the special meter bar are also can be slowly recharged automatically unless you collect the blue diamonds to increase it bit faster.
You can also use the circle button to pick up items and weapons which can be found on breakable objects, and it is also used as grappling moves which means that while grabbing on enemies you can either beat them up by mashing square button or throw them with the circle button.
Each of the weapons can be found somewhere in the stages such as knife, glass bottle, and hard pipes which deals severe hit damage on the enemies, but you can also do throwing weapon attack by hitting the circle button as well.
You can swap your character around with your partner by pushing the left trigger button meaning that if your primary character has a low health then you can swap it with your secondary character to join in the fight which saves your primary character from getting knocked out by enemies.
So far, the game plays it fine as should which I had no issues with the controls because I can able to pull-off the numerous of combos, special moves, and others techniques. It may be a bit tad slower compared with other modern beat-em-ups titles, but I'm pretty sure you will get used with the gameplay itself when progressing further, so you can also customise your control options by remapping these buttons to suit your playability.
What makes the gameplay system played good is the rogue-lite elements which means that your playable character needs to improve their fighting skills to be good enough to take advantage against the strong enemies and bosses, so in order to do that is to collect many currencies as possible so once you've beaten the stage then you get to select any of ability items such as extended health points, increased attack damage, boosting up speed, and reducing special points cost which adds up the player's stats meaning the more you purchase these ability items the stronger you become makes the enemies and bosses feel vulnerable in later next stages.
Secondly most defeated enemies will drop down the bunch of coins can be collected to increase your currencies which you can save these for purchasing ability items, and gaining tokens when quitting the game or continuing the game without gaining the tokens.
Lastly the game does have a permadeath difficulty mode which means that you'll be fighting through the stages till at very end without using the continues, so if you die once in the game then it's game over for you meaning you had to start the new game at the beginning again.
This adds up a game's overall challenge is what made the game quite enjoyable to play, and speaking of being enjoyable is when you beat the first stage, this will expand your second and so forth stages into 2 or 3 more sections which adds up in-depth levels further more such as train fight segment in Duke's stage, dark-pyramid room with the spotlight in Anubis's stage, a inside-dojo with full of spear traps in Lady Okada's stage, and rooftops building fight in M.G.Willy's stage, so this really highlights the game's replay-ability.
The boss battles are quite fun and entertaining as you've expected, so you have M.G.Willy welds with his machine gun while flying on the helicopter, Anubis uses his magic powers with green mist and lighting, Lady Okada has samurai sword deals with lethal tornado attack, and Duke's has insane amount of his evading and attacking techniques, while the game also shares with mid-bosses like Abobo, Burnov, Chin Tai Mei, and Linda are also quite as fun in the game.
While both of single-play and 2-player co-op as locally are pretty solid, but it's kinda bummer that they didn't include stuff like online play and 4-player options so these both features could have made the game bit better, and also I wanted to point out that there's not many of game modes besides being stuck with the story mode, so I wish they add more to this game like boss rush and duel mode could helped the game a bit.
The loading times are kinda annoying when playing on 8th gen consoles like PS4, XBONE, and Switch which many people really hate to sit and wait till it's load up, but thankfully it didn't happened on 9th gen consoles like PS5 and XSX/S consoles thanks to SSDs taking system advantage which really helps the game most without having to stare at the loading screen in 30 seconds.
There's one thing that kinda bugs me the most is that two of these PSN trophies that I encountered with the issues which sadly I cannot able to unlock these due to bugs, so I'm hopefully that the developers behind this game will able to address the issues with the patch update pretty soon.
The positive sides is that the story mode has two different endings after beating all 4 bosses which gives you an option to make decision are also adds up a replay value, and I also wanted to praise the game for it's unlockable characters where you get to play as these bosses which each of them has the own unique fighting style, so that's really cool having to play as different brawlers.
Overall, it has fine controls, good rogue-lite elements, fun 2-player co-op, and entertaining boss battles.
Graphics
The visuals is actually pretty good for its retro art-style environments that I've mentioned it before, so I really liked the boldness of the stages with hard textures surfaces, colourful details, has some great layouts in some stages, and of course the character's sprite has some nice use of the animation.
I heard some people are finding these visuals a bit tad cartoony and quite too simplistic for Double Dragon series, but this doesn't bothered me because I really liked the retro-feel aesthetics which kinda reminds me of those Technos Japan's other franchise like Kunio-Kun in terms of visuals design elements just really appeals to my eye.
I agree that it may not match the same level as the other modern Beat-em-ups titles like TMNT: Shredder's Revenge and Street of Rage 4 which these games has lot more detailed graphics with better art-style design, but to me this game are just as good enough for small indie stuff.
Overall, it has nice character's sprite, colorful art-style environments, and retro-feel visual design.
Music and Sounds
The original soundtrack are sounds fantastic because you have great selection of arranged music from the previous Double Dragon games that you may recognise it from the titles like the first, second, third, super, and of course fourth in each stages.
Stuff like you have memorable theme tune on the title screen, DD1's first stage song from the M.G.Willy stage part 3, SDD's staff roll song from Duke's stage part 3, and SDD's casino song from Lady Okada's stage part 1 are just sounds pretty amazing with the rearrangements, so it was composed by Sophie Song and other composing team did a stunning job for delivering these nostalgic soundtrack from the previous games to this title.
The sound effects are also pretty fine with many hard blows punches, booming explosions, and heavy collisions just sounds right for this type of game.
Overall, it has fantastic soundtrack and fine sound design.
Special Features
The game does have really cool unlockables such as playable boss characters, art-gallery, musics, and of course guide tips which can be unlocked by gaining enough tokens.
The physical copy boxset comes with really nice poster and stickers which is awesome for game collectors really loves the bonuses, and the good news is that the PS4 physical copy are also comes with free PS5 upgradable which means that if you had a physical copy of PS4 version then it gives you an option to download the PS5 version for free when playing on the PS5 consoles.
Overall, a yet solid additional features.
Advantages
Decent presentation
Good gameplay system
Fun 2-player co-op
Entertaining boss battles
Colorful graphics
Fantastic soundtracks
Cool unlockables
Disadvantages
Missing online play and 4-player option
Lacks any game modes
Minor buggy PSN trophies
Moderate loading times (8th gen consoles)
Final Verdict
Presentation 7.5/10 - good opening story, likable characters, and decent overall presentation.
Gameplay 7/10 - fine controls, good rogue-lite elements, fun 2-player co-op, and entertaining boss battles.
Graphics 7.5/10 - nice character's sprite, colorful art-style environments, and retro-feel visual design.
Music and Sounds - 8/10 - fantastic soundtrack and fine sound design.
Special Features 7.5/10 - unlockable content, physical copy bonuses, and free PS5 upgradable.
Overall 7/10 - After long wait of finding a good Double Dragon games again since the first and second titles of the series, this game deserves to have a yet second chance because I previously got really disappointed with the third and fifth title, where as I can't get into with the Super and Neon as much which really turns me away from the franchise, but thankfully the Gaiden just does the job right for its good gameplay system with rogue-lite elements stuff on it, has local 2-player co-op, the boss battle are solid, has unlockable content, and shares with the replay-values thanks to expanded stage section and two endings options just adds up a game's positive sides, but I wish they should have added the online play, 4-player option, and two or more game modes could have made the game a bit better, so that I could give the final score a slightly bit higher.
That being said, I'm pleased to see the game like this turned out to be a good once again which I did not feel regret purchasing this for my PS4.
The physical copy on all console platforms cost around £25 or more mostly on some online stores, where as on the digital storefront such as PS Store, Xbox Store, Nintendo eShop, and Steam just cost £20 which is a £5 cheaper.
So it may not be the casual beat-em-up player's cup of tea unless if you're a fan of this franchise will likely gonna give this game a shot.
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