At the Tokyo Game Show 2024 we played a lot of games. A lot. Starting this series of previews with Double Dragon Revive may be an unexpected idea. But after the controversy of a few days ago, it would be worth breaking a lance in favor of Arc System Works.
Days ago, one of the creators of the original Double Dragon said that this new game looked bad. However, even him has gone to TGS 2024, tried it, and ended up saying that he will buy it when it goes on sale. It is logical, since there is nothing smart about sinking a game from a saga as ancient as this one. And we must not forget that, although the first Double Dragon is a legend, some of its sequels were terrible. This is a series of ups and downs that will probably not get out of that path, at least not soon.
2D gameplay with 3D graphics
Double Dragon Revive’s approach is not like the recent River City, Ninja Turtles or Streets of Rage games (or even the last Double Dragon). Instead of opting for a pixelated or 2D aesthetic, 3D graphics are chosen that end up not causing much impact. There is something that reminds us of the aesthetics of the times of the first PlayStation, but, of course, with a higher definition. The style is totally different from what we could imagine and, yes, it helps to give the game its own identity. Even the brothers Billy and Jimmy have a somewhat generic look.
With the enemies, many of the famous ones that we have faced for years have been respected, but they have also been redesigned and adjusted to recent fashion trends. If in the original Double Dragon it was obvious that the opponents were typical of the 80s, here we find a much more modern aesthetic. In addition, it has also been derived by a more apocalyptic design because the story of the game tells that 15 years have passed since the end of the nuclear war that occurred in the world. The only thing we would need to see would be Marian, because, for some reason, we still can’t get the version of Alyssa Milano in the movie out of our heads. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to follow the style that the movie has.
Fighting in the streets
After the first visual impact, the game just has us throwing punches and kicks non-stop. The system is the classic scrolling system of any other beat’m up, highlighting the availability of a wide variety of techniques. Pressing square you do a normal attack, holding down the button you do a strong attack and, of course, you have combos, as well as a back attack. In addition, the triangle button is used to do a special attack and different movements by combining it with other buttons, such as L1. That’s where the back attack or the anti-air attack are.
Other available actions include grab with R2, the special hyper blow with circle (a tornado of kicks) and the finishing blow by pressing square + x at the right time. So far, the movements we could expect and which are traditional. We have seen little presence of the classic elbow, but the game is changing as is logical.
What Double Dragon Revive introduces are parkour and wall actions. This is what makes the game unique and gives it more identity. We may like it more or we may like it less, but it seems that it will have a fundamental presence throughout the adventure. We have, for example, two special actions: wall strike and wall crash. The first is done by pressing square four times doing a combo while the enemy is against the wall. On the other hand, for the wall crash we have to grab an enemy with R2 and then take him to a point on the illuminated stage where we can press circle. The latter is reminiscent of Like a Dragon and is a good method to add spectacularity to the fights.
In addition, the brothers in Double Dragon Revive can jump on walls, do acrobatics and use the stage in various ways. Keep in mind that this game is a Belt-scroll Action genre, so freedom of movement is one of its main features.
Coming in 2025
Double Dragon Revive does not have a release date yet, but we know that it is coming in 2025. It will be available on Steam, PlayStation consoles (PS4 and PS5) and Xbox (Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S). Multilingual localization has already been confirmed in all of these languages: Japanese, English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, German, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese.
Does it look good or bad? We wish we could play more! For now, it doesn’t look like the best Double Dragon, but it’s not the worst either. There are many factors to take into account. We could have continued playing the demo for longer without any problem and the mechanics included are more than interesting. We can even kick basketballs in the street, which is interesting. And, one last detail: the soundtrack does a remix of the classic song with a lot of rock and good rhythm. It certainly helps you feel like you’re inside Double Dragon.
And as a bonus, why not, we took this picture at the Arc System Works booth at the Tokyo Game Show 2024. Maybe it’s Marian, but she doesn’t seem to have any problems with Abobo in this case. Anyway… Stunning!
