Arc System Works has announced that they are porting 1992’s Super Double Dragon and 2003’s Double Dragon Advance to modern platforms. In addition to that, there will also be a physical release of the two titles combined with the NES Double Dragon 1-3 as well as the modern Double Dragon IV. Unfortunately, the physical collection is Asia only.
Super Double Dragon is the fourth-ish title in the series. It was also the last one to be worked on by the series’ original developer, Technos. Although, series director Yoshihisa Kishimoto did return for 2017’s Double Dragon IV. Which is funny to me because he is credited with working on Super Double Dragon. So Double Dragon IV isn’t really the fourth official title in the series? Agh, my head hurts.
Anyway, it received a rather lukewarm reception in its initial 1992 release. This is reportedly due to a lot of the game being rushed. It’s not bad, but the belt-scrolling brawler genre was starting to get pretty glutted at the point following the success of 1989’s Final Fight.
Super Bimmy & Jimmy Advance
Meanwhile, Double Dragon Advance is something of a remake of the original game. It was tweaked in many ways to include elements that were added to the series over time. It was originally conceived to just be this one big Double Dragon blow-out, where characters and elements from all across the property were crushed in one game, but Atlus would only pony up for the smallest available Game Boy Advance ROM size, which was 32 MB. Director Muneki Ebinuma says that he cut out over half the planned game to fit it into this limited space.
The result was another title that received a lukewarm reception. Once again, it isn’t bad, it just isn’t great.
However, I’m happy to see the titles get modern ports. It’d be awesome if Arc System Works brought back staff to finish the games, but that’s easier said than done. If you’re worried about not getting the physical version, you can import it from Asia, as all the titles will be available in English. Otherwise, you can complete the set with the Double Dragon & Kunio-kun: Retro Brawler Bundle as well as plain ‘ol Double Dragon IV.
Double Dragon Advance and Super Double Dragon will arrive on PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC on November 9. They will be sold separately.
