Mixing the genre style of roguelite and beat ‘em up action turns into another exciting title to play both solo and with a friend. Modus Games and Secret Base have just released Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons which is the latest mainline title in the series. Offering the usual choice of single-player and shared-screen cooperative play styles, this game provides a new round of action-focused gameplay.

Story

Set in the nuclear wasteland of New York City during the year 199X, four different gangs have taken up territories all over town. Now the classic fighters Billy and Jimmy Lee, along with their allies, must face off against the criminal gangs terrorizing the city for dominance. The problem is, with each gang defeated, the others become empowered, enhancing their own abilities and bringing in new sub-bosses.

Keeping the story simple and straightforward with a clear enemy is a trope for beat ‘em up titles that I honestly find pretty great. However, I did like how the story played out in this one once you manage to beat all four gangs in one run. While I don’t want to spoil anything, go into the story with this question in mind - who’s the main bad guy waiting at the end of this campaign?

Gameplay

At the start of the game, you will have to pick the modifications you’d like for the current run and then pick the characters you want to use in the fight. You have options that range from making it easy and free to fight and respawn or the opposite to run a gauntlet challenge once you get skilled enough to do so. This really changes how the game plays for you, but if you want to run a standard run to start, just leave all modifiers to the center. However, it might be worth putting the respawn token count down because it is worth beating the game at least once regardless of skill challenge.

Once you are starting up the game, you pick which of the four gangs you want to take down first and then begin. Note that they get harder as you proceed with the third and fourth picks being at their hardest difficulty at the final fight. Each gang leader has a crazy ability that is hard to fight against, along with some goons to help them out, so it is worth noting how they fight and what they can do for future runs.

Each of the fighters has a different combo attack style, but you essentially have two attack types. Small hit combo into a powerful hit and a special attack option that consumes the SP meter. You can also grab your opponent, which gives you the option to bash them in your grasp or toss them - likely into other enemies. But you should keep in mind that some fighters are different, such as the one with a shield is unable to pick up weapons from the ground like the others.

If you need to heal during a fight, you won’t find health food items by breaking things around you - doing that only provides currency for the run. Instead, you will need to take down three-to-five enemies at once with a special takedown. This can be done either with a weapon you have picked up, using the environment traps, or using your own special attack option which can usually take down all those it lands on. You get a low-tier health item with a three-enemy takedown and a high-tier health item with a five-enemy takedown.

As you go through the campaign, you can swap between your two chosen character fighters. You will need your SP meter full in order to swap out, but part of the health bar that was lost will start to regenerate. The amount that will regenerate is the blue part of the health bar. If you use the special attack to take down enough enemies to get a food heal item out for your second character, you’ll need to hold out until your SP meter refills in order to swap. At least every character can pick up the health items, unlike weapons.

Each chapter finished through the game will present the option for you to buy one power-up for your main fighter and one for your second fighter. You can use this option to pick up tokens, a power-up, or even take some cash and run. The tokens are used to either continue once you get a game over, which is different from respawning which is done with cash currency earned in the run, and they are used in the main menu. You can buy and unlock things from the token shop on the menu, so it is worth stacking those as you progress through each run if you are going to pass on the power-up option.

Audio and Visuals

As a fan of many titles under the beat ‘em up genre, I was a bit surprised with the art style they chose for this game. Holding a cartoon-heavy style, this game features all enemies and characters with an almost chibi-like style. After checking back at the old art styles of the series, I kind of wish they picked an art style closer to Double Dragon II or even Double Dragon Neon. This series has gone through a few different art styles, so it makes sense they would try something different, but I can’t say I am a fan of the kid-friendly approach.

However, the sound crew definitely was on point as the music for the different themes and the sound effects in the game are all pretty well done. The music is entertaining to listen to and does a great job of amping up the situations players end up in, whether that is defeating waves of enemies, heading up an elevator, or fighting a boss.

Replayability

Thanks to the challenge modifiers that are available at the start of each run, the light gains and improvements gained between each attempt, and the player-choice-led campaign route, this game definitely offers multiple replayability options. You can fight the gangs in any order, changing the difficulty of each one depending on when you face them, play with friends, adjust different aspects of the game to change how challenging the current run attempt is, and the character selection options (which has a massive unlockable roster) all work together to add plenty of reasons to keep playing this game after your first victory.

What It Could Have Done Better

I really wish they went with a different art style for the game. While the style they chose does have the benefit of being kid-friendly, it takes away the seriousness and overall “badassery” these types of games usually hold.

The difficulty sliders could be a bit clearer in the description. When I first started adjusting them, I thought “Enemy Aggression” was how actively they pursued the player and not how heavy the amount of enemies there would be.

Verdict

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a fun beat ‘em up that does well to continue the series! While there were a few things about the game I would have liked to have seen done differently, it is entertaining to play both solo and with friends. The simplistic story with a neat twist at the end partnered with straightforward gameplay that evolves based on power-ups and character choices makes for an easy-to-enjoy game. To that, I would have to say that I recommend it to those that don’t mind the few fallbacks it has.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is available now on PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.