It’s finally here, the beat ’em up that EVERYONE knows: Double Dragon! An arcade smash hit in 1987, for a period of time it was just about anywhere that had room to put an arcade cabinet. It turns out that punching (or in this case, maybe elbowing?) guys was really fun. Who knew?! But there’s a good chance that the version you played wasn’t even the arcade version! The NES and Master System ports were extremely popular, and though my first brush with Double Dragon was the original arcade version, I probably spent more time playing the NES port!
This video really is a great companion piece to the previous Scrolling Down the Belt about Renegade/Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (https://youtu.be/xcIgG2WwXG0) though. Why? Because they were both Technos Japan titles, created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto! Unlike Renegade, Double Dragon didn’t need to undergo any transformation when it came west, since it was designed with international popularity in mind! It’s also kind of the reason that Kishimoto left Technos Japan, but you’ll have to watch in order to hear more about that!