Double Dragon (series)

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Double Dragon redirects here. For other uses, see Double Dragon (disambiguation).
Billy and Jimmy Lee, the protagonists of the Double Dragon series.
Billy and Jimmy Lee, the protagonists of the Double Dragon series.

Double Dragon (双截龍 or ダブルドラゴン?) is a classic beat 'em up video game series initially developed by Technos Japan Corporation, who also developed the Nekketsu Koha Kunio-kun series. The original game was designed by Yoshihisa Kishimoto, who originally conceived the game as a Kunio-kun sequel using the localized version (Renegade) as a basis. The game was heavily influenced by martial arts films, especially those of Bruce Lee's such as Enter the Dragon, with the post apocalyptic setting based on the popular anime Hokuto No Ken. The recently released Double Dragon Advance was planned by Muneki Ebinuma, who previously designed Super Double Dragon and was also involved in Double Dragon '95 as a fight choreographer.

The series stars twin brothers, Billy and Jimmy Lee, who are masters of a fictional martial art called Sou-Setsu-Ken (双截拳), as they fight against various adversaries and rivals. Double Dragon has had several sequels and has been ported to several different platforms. Due to the popularity of the game series, an animated series and live-action film adaptation have also been produced.

Contents

[edit] Overview

[edit] The original arcade trilogy

The series made its debut at the arcades with the original Double Dragon in 1987. The game was distributed by Technos themselves in Japan and by Taito in North America and Europe. It was the first beat-em-up to feature two-player co-op gameplay and weapons that could be taken from the enemy and used on its own. In addition, some stages were filled with traps and obstacles that the player had to overcome.

Its success led Technos to create a sequel titled Double Dragon II: The Revenge in 1989, which was essentially an updated version of the original. Improvements include updated graphics character designs, new bosses for each stage and a two-way attacking system.

The third arcade installment was Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, released in 1990. Although it was distributed by Technos, the actual game was developed externally by a company called East Technology (Operation Wolf 3, Silent Dragon). Two distinct versions were made. The version released in American and Europe feature a Forgotten Worlds-style shopping system where player could purchase new characters and other power-ups by inserting additional tokens, while the later Japanese version removed this feature and allowed players to choose their character from the start. Despite being the only three-player Double Dragon game, this version was not as well-received as the first two installments.

[edit] Home versions

The popularity of the Double Dragon games at the arcades naturally led Technos to develop their own home versions of the games for the Nintendo Entertainment System the years following their arcade release, including Double Dragon III (which unlike the arcade version, was actually developed in-house by Technos). These home versions were not direct ports of the arcade games, but were more like adaptations, taking a few liberties with the gameplay, stage designs, enemy rosters and even plot elements. For example, the first Double Dragon was single-player only and featured a learning system where player could only perform certain moves by earning experience points and increasing in level. Technos also developed a Game Boy version of the first Double Dragon.

Technos also granted the Double Dragon license to other developers. Some of the most notable versions include the Sega Master System version of the first game (which has often been compared favorably to its NES counterpart due to its inclusion of 2-Player Co-op) and the PC Engine version of Double Dragon II (essentially an enhanced port of the NES version with animated cut scenes and voice acting).

In North America and Europe, the NES and Game Boy versions of the first game was published by Tradewest, giving them the worldwide licensing rights to produce other home versions and merchandise based on the first game. However, with the second and third games, the international publishing rights outside Japan went to Acclaim. Tradewest still produced computer versions of the two sequels.

[edit] Later sequels

The fourth game in the series, Super Double Dragon (aka Return of Double Dragon), was made directly for the SNES and was developed in-house by Technos. It was released in 1992. Unlike the NES sequels, the North American and European versions were published by Tradewest once again. It would also be the last Double Dragon to remain true to the series' beat-em-up roots for awhile.

Tradewest, the publisher of the Double Dragon series in North America, would go on to produce a Double Dragon sequel on their own titled Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls without Technos' involvement. It was a competitive fighting game based on the Double Dragon animated series airing at the time. It was published 1994 and released for the SNES, Sega Mega Drive and Atari Jaguar.

Technos later developed their own one-on-one fighting game version based on the franchise, simply titled Double Dragon, which was loosely based on the movie. It was published in 1995 and released as an arcade and later for the Neo Geo and PlayStation.

Technos went out of business in 1996 while a company named Million Corp eventually picked up the rights to the company's intellectual properties in 2002. Million would develop an enhanced remake of the original arcade game titled Double Dragon Advance for the Game Boy Advance, released in 2003 by Atlus, giving the series a brief revival.

The original arcade game is being ported to Xbox Live Arcade in March, with major graphical enhancements. It is currently being developed by Empire Interactive.

[edit] Complete game list

[edit] Other appearances

Billy and Jimmy Lee appeared as playable characters in the beach volleyball game Super Spike V'Ball, an NES version of Technos U.S. Championship V'Ball. As beach ball players, they have the best defense in the game, but relatively weak power.

Billy Lee also made a cameo appearance as a crowd member in the Technos arcade game WWF Superstars.

In Technos' River City Ransom, two characters clearly patterned after Billy and Jimmy, named Randy and Andy, appeared as bosses and they utilized the same fighting techniques as the Lee brothers. In the Japanese version (Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari), they were known as Ryuichi and Ryuji Hattori and would become recurring characters thorough many Kunio-kun games.

The Lee brothers also appeared in the Rare-developed crossover game Battletoads & Double Dragon. However, like Double Dragon V, Technos were not involved in the production and there are several inconsistencies with how the Double Dragon cast were represented.

The Neo-Geo game Rage of the Dragons was developed as a spin-off to the Double Dragon games, but is not a direct sequel.

[edit] Characters

  • Billy and Jimmy Lee - The titular characters of the series. They are masters of a fictional martial arts style known as Sou-Setsu-Ken (双截拳 Sosetsuken?), which loosely translates to twin interception fist, an obvious reference to Bruce Lee's style Jeet Kune Do. The twins are often depicted wearing matching pants and vests, with Billy having a blue outfit and Jimmy wearing red. Their hairstyles also differs between games. In the original arcade game, Billy has blond hair, whereas Jimmy has brown hair. The hair colors were reversed in later games, with the twins being depicted as having different hair styles (as seen above). Originally this difference in appearance was only depicted in cover and promotional illustrations, but is clearly visible in the actual game graphics of Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance. Their fighting styles also began to differ from each other in Super Double Dragon, with Billy's style focusing on quick attacks and the use of nunchakus (named Southern Sou-Setsu-Ken in the manual of Super Double Dragon), and Jimmy's style focusing on strong attacks and the use of the bo and kali sticks (named Northern Sou-Setsu-Ken). Double Dragon V and the Neo-Geo fighting game feature their own unique depictions of the Lee brothers based on the cartoon series and film respectively.
  • Marian - Billy's girlfriend. Often depicted as having long blonde hair and usually wears a red dress. She serves as the series' damsel-in-distress, often being kidnapped (and at one point, killed off) by the bad guys in many games. The original arcade version of Double Dragon depicted a romantic rivalry between the two brothers over Marian's affection. In the comics and cartoon series, Marian is portrayed as a female friend of the brothers (with no real romantic relationship between either of them) who happens to be a police officer. This portrayal was planned to be used in Super Double Dragon, but Marian is only mentioned in the instruction manual and does not appear in the released version of the game. Likewise the live-action film depicts Marian as the leader of a Guardian Angels-style street gang who aids the Lee brothers. The Neo-Geo game features a version of Marian based on the film's portrayal, who is a female fighter who uses a figure skating-based techniques.

The brothers' enemies are a criminal organization known as the Black Warriors or the Shadow Warriors, depending on the games. In the first two arcade games, the Black Warriors was the street gang of a man named Willy, the machine gun final boss of those two games. He was replaced by a so-called "Mysterious Warrior" in the NES version of Double Dragon II and the organization in that version was depicted as a separate group, renamed the Shadow Warriors in the English localization of the game. The name Shadow Warriors was used for another gang appearing in Super Double Dragon, as well in the enhanced remake Double Dragon Advance.

[edit] Adaptations to other media

Due to the popularity of the Double Dragon games, Tradewest lent the brand name to various tie-ins in the US, including adaptions of the game in media outside of the games themselves. These adaptions strayed from their source material and were very unpopular, with the Lee brothers often depicted as superheroes who inherited their powers from artifacts such as swords or amulets (depending on the adaption) instead of being skilled martial artists like in the games.

[edit] Comic Book

During the latter half of 1991, Marvel Comics published a six-issue limited series (22 pages each) based on Double Dragon. This was the first of several Double Dragon tie-ins produced in the U.S. under license by Tradewest. Written by Dwayne McDuffie for the first four issues and by Tom Brevoort and Mike Kanterovich during the last two issues. In the comic, Billy and Jimmy were the inheritor of a supernatural force known as the "Dragon Force" and the first twins to share this power. Their main adversary in the comic was a demonic mob boss named Nightfall, who was previously a close friend of their parents and was responsible for their mother's death. The comic also featured Marian as a policewoman, a role she would later take in Super Double Dragon, as well as in the cartoon series. The most humorous or saddest aspect of the comic book, depending on how you look at it, was the introduction of Billy and Jimmy's long-lost father, a character by the name of Stan who bears the likeness of Stan Lee. Although Stan's full name is never actually mentioned in the comic, Billy and Jimmy were given the surname of "Lee".

[edit] Animated Series

Main article: Double Dragon (TV series)

The Double Dragon animated series was produced by DiC Entertainment and ran for 26 half-hour episodes between 1993 and 1995. The premise of the show had the Lee brothers separated at birth, with Billy being raised by a wiseman known as the Eldest Dragon. In contrast, his brother Jimmy was raised by the evil Shadow Master to become his right-hand man. As a result, the Lee brothers met each other as adversaries after being reunited as adults. However, by the end of the second episode, Jimmy is betrayed by the Shadow Master, which leads the brothers to set aside their difference and fight against the greater evil. The Lee brothers made use of magical swords which contained special powers and added dragon masks to the brothers' outfit. During the course of the series, the brothers recruited allies in their war against the Shadow Master (voiced by Jim Byrnes) and his henchmen, in the second season gaining stronger magical weapons when the Shadow Master harnessed the strength of the even more evil Shadow Kahn to increase his power. The search for their father, John Lee, was a running subplot throughout the series. The voices of Billy and Jimmy were provided by Michael Donovan and Scott McNeil respectively. The theme song was written by the composer of Stuart Little Alan Silvestri. The first episode could be considered an adaption of the first game, with Abobo (the most known boss of the game), Willy (the main boss of the arcade version) and Jimmy Lee (revealing himself as the "Shadow Boss", being the main boss as in the NES adaption) as villains. However, Abobo and Willy were trapped in the main villain's "Shadow Mural" early on and never seen again.

[edit] Live-action movie

Main article: Double Dragon (film)

In 1994, a live-action Double Dragon movie was produced starring Mark Dacascos as Jimmy Lee and Scott Wolf as Billy Lee, along with Alyssa Milano as Marian Delario. [1] In the movie, the twins are only described as brothers, presumably to explain the differences in ethnicity. It was directed by James Yukich and written by the team of Paul Dini (of Batman: The Animated Series and others) and Neal Shusterman. Reviews by critics, such as the review of the movie by the Washington Post were not favorable. The movie was also shunned by fans and public opinion alike. During the final fight sequence of the movie there is a close-up of Billy in which the Double Dragon arcade cabinet is clearly visible.

In 1991, a live-action Double Dragon-like martial arts movie, called Double Impact was produced starring Jean-Claude Van Damme as both Alex and Chuck Wagner (twin brothers very similar to Billy and Jimmy Lee). The movie's plot and entire cast was an obvious take on Double Dragon. In the movie, the twins are separated at birth and reunited later in life when they join forces to avenger their parents, rescue a girlfriend, and defeat a criminal gang. It was directed by Sheldon Lettich. The movie also stars Cory Everson as a very athletic female villainess very modelled after Linda and Bolo Yeung as a muscle bound barrel tossing henchman modelled after Abobo. Though the film had certain adult themes and was not officially associated with the Double Dragon franchise, it obviously capitalized off of the then extremely popular video game license which was ironically still to be found in the video arcades of many theaters when this movie was released.

The Jackie Chan movie The Twin Dragons (1992) includes "Double Dragon" as an alternate title, according to the IMDB, although it is completely unrelated to the video game series.

[edit] External links


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Double Dragon video games

Double Dragon • II • III • Super • Advance • Double Dragon (Neo Geo) • Battletoads & Double Dragon
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