الأخبار
Double Dragon Revive: How Arc System Works is evolving the classic beat 'em up
L
Lucas White
In its time in charge, ArcSys has overseen successful projects like River City Girls and Double Dragon Gaiden created by external developers. But come October, Double Dragon Revive will take the stage as a mostly internal project and the culmination of this years-long effort to breathe new life into what was once an arcade mainstay.
With that background in mind, we were given the opportunity to speak with members of the Double Dragon Revive development staff about the upcoming reboot, which is envisioned as a sort of reimagining of the first two Double Dragon games. We spoke about what it means to “modernize” the genre, ArcSys’s relationship with Technōs Japan’s classic works, and the connections between Double Dragon and its sibling series Kunio-kun. “Modernization” is a major theme with Double Dragon Revive, and a common piece of the puzzle with brawlers in general these days. While still seen mostly as a classic or retro genre, brawlers/beat 'em ups/belt action games have seen multiple resurgences in recent years, with nearly any classic series you could think of getting a new entry (or at the very least, a remaster).
The team behind Double Dragon Revive agreed, saying, “These awesome games have in common the fact that they both pay tribute to the past entries they're basing themselves on, but also at the same time boldly modernize them, which is the same creative philosophy we went with on Double Dragon Revive and we tried to push this envelope even further.”
What does that mean, though? Side-scrolling brawlers, iconic as they are, draw success from their relative simplicity. Run down the “belt,” punch the baddies, maybe spice things up with a special move or a hearty suplex. You know, the fundamentals of life on the mean streets.
To that end, the team answered with an appeal to the strengths of the first two Double Dragon games.
“It was an occasion for us developers on a personal level to feel once more how revolutionary and how much ahead of their times the Double Dragon games were. For example, in the case of Double Dragon Revive, we chose to center the game design philosophy around the use of environment elements and providing the player with many tools to deal with situations right from the start of the game," said ArcSys.
"The reason for that is that from Double Dragon and Double Dragon II, these elements were already key and already provided exciting—at times cinema-like—situations to the player that were not found in other contemporary beat 'em ups, or in a much lesser amount," they continued. "This is incredibly impressive given the hardware situation in the late '80s, and through Double Dragon Revive we tried to pay tribute to these masterpieces by pushing their game design concept as far as we could.”
Adding new elements like environmental tools makes sense, giving players more options beyond mashing the punch or kick buttons. But there’s more going on with Double Dragon Revive than environmental hazards. ArcSys is working on the game with Yuke’s, which has its own history with complex action games like the WWE and Earth Defense Force series. And for Double Dragon Revive, marketing materials imply that combat draws some influence from fighting games, a genre on the opposite end of the complexity spectrum from most belt scrollers.
It'd be natural to wonder whether chasing innovation might get in the way of the genre's traditional approachability—but ArcSys has tried to strike a careful balance.
“We think that bringing more options to the player makes a game 'rich' in a positive way but that making every one of these options mandatory would risk making the game 'complicated' in a negative way,” said the team.
“For example, in Double Dragon Revive, player character options can be as simple as having many moves to choose from right from the start (like in a fighting game) and external options include the new Critical Assault system, where some enemies have powerful special attacks that can be countered by doing certain type of attacks for great special attack gains, or even the use of powerful environment gimmicks/techniques that can deal massive amounts of damage or even one-shot enemies," ArcSys continued.
"These elements bring possibilities to the player, but are in no way mandatory to use. Players could very well just avoid all enemy special attacks, not use insta-kill gimmicks, and keep to the basic attack combo inputs, and still be able to progress if their positioning and defensive game are solid enough. On the opposite end, they could use every move or gimmick available and have a very offensive ‘power play’ approach to in-game situations.”
Double Dragon Revive also features a tribute to Technōs Japan’s long history, for those who pre-purchase the game. The River City Girls series already brought the worlds of Double Dragon and Kunio-kun together on the brawler side, but Kunio-kun also includes a line of sports games, the most popular of which is known in North America as Super Dodge Ball.
Pre-purchasing Double Dragon Revive unlocks Double Dragon Dodgeball, a Famicom-style mashup of Super Dodge Ball with Double Dragon characters. With these two properties finding a new way to intersect, we had to ask if Double Dragon Dodgeball is a response to the crossovers in River City Girls, and if ArcSys considers this relationship a connected universe or if these events are more for funsies.
“The Double Dragon Dodgeball bonus mini-game may indeed appear to have been inspired by the appearance of Double Dragon characters in River City Girls, but it was actually a project that had been in the works for some time before that. This idea actually existed during the development of Double Dragon IV, before the idea for River City Girls was conceived. However, at the time, it remained only in the idea stage and was not presented to the public because the direction of development was different from that of the main Double Dragon series," said ArcSys.
"Nevertheless, the combination of Double Dragon and Super Dodge Ball—two special series for fans of the time—had the power to deliver nostalgia and surprise at the same time, and we still had a strong desire to make it a reality someday," the team continued. "And now, in the course of our collaboration with the River City series, we have finally been able to make that vision a reality. The sports games of the River City/Kunio-kun franchise have always been very popular in Japan since the NES days, so we hope players worldwide will enjoy it as well!”
Between balancing expectations from veteran Double Dragon fans and attracting new players, rebooting the series after nearly 40 years, and working to increase global relevance for both Double Dragon and Kunio-kun, Arc System Works has had its work cut out for it. When asked how the company feels about working on these classic series, there’s a sense of pride about the transition from Technōs.
“When we first started working on the series as Arc System Works, we worked closely with the Technōs Japan staff, but now the game is being done primarily by our own staff and the generation of fans who have been with the series since its inception. We see such 'passing the torch' as one of the charms of this series," said ArcSys. "And from here on, we would like to evolve the IP so that it can be enjoyed not only by players seeking nostalgia but by a new generation as well!”
We’ll see the climax of this transition when Double Dragon Revive squares up on October 23, 2025. Pre-purchase Double Dragon Revive today on the Epic Games Store.