Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons Reviews
It’s cheap from both a visual and combat standpoint, it’s unpleasant to control, and the incentives for enduring multiple “runs” are among the worst rewards and unlocks I’ve ever seen. All it accomplished was getting me to replay Shredder’s Revenge and Streets of Rage 4, two games that completely embarrass this sorry little thing.
An occasionally interesting attempt to update the Double Dragon formula, which understands the appeal of the original but fails to offer any longevity or variety.
It's hard to recommend Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons to anyone but the the most hardcore fans of the series. Everyone else should probably give this one a pass.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Even if Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is technically a new game or a "one-off" from the franchise, I can't say it's a comeback. The dazzling flame of novelty is quickly snuffed out, leaving a lukewarm experience marked by underdeveloped roguelike elements and difficulty balance issues. In short, it's fun, but only for very short periods.
Review in French | Read full review
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons is set in the year 199X where a nuclear war has devastated New York City. Citizens are left to their own devices by fighting for their survival as riots and crime invade the streets. The city has been overtaken by criminal gangs fighting for total dominance of the now-destroyed Big Apple. It’s up to young Billy and Jimmy Lee to take it upon themselves to drive the gangs out of their city.
A solid side-scrolling action adventure beat-em-up. I loved being reunited with Double Dragon in all its revamped glory and enjoyed my time playing it. I’ll no doubt dip into the game from time to time or even play it split-screen with friends and family. There’s tons of replayability and it’s challenging enough especially with the various difficulty modes for it not to get boring quickly.
Despite it's issues, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is easily a highlight of the franchise's modern era. It's simple, yet addictive combat, impressive animation and replay value makes it among the best Double Dragon games we've had in decades.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons is a smart reinvention of the side-scrolling beat-em-up with its roguelite spin, selectable missions, and explorable environments. There’s some really clever ideas bubbling around in this game, in fact it probably holds the key to the future of the genre in its DNA, but sadly Secret Base don’t lean into it quite enough and give us the content to sustain the concept.
Double Dragon Gaiden tries to make itself interesting with roguelite mechanics, but these sabotage its chances to be great.
From the arcadey '80s through the modern day, beat 'em ups are a dime a dozen. But the best of them offers a satisfying gameplay loop with thrilling co-op and unique visual stylings. Double Dragon Gaiden gets some of that right. It's not the worst beat 'em up game you could spend your time on. But it's most definitely not the best, either.
It’s doesn’t add a ton to the franchise’s legacy, but it’s easy enough to settle into and be a worthwhile new diversion, especially in co-op.
A call back to the Double Dragon series golden days. Gaiden offers a fair beat 'em up experience, but its rogue-lite mechanics aren't well implemented.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise Of The Dragons does a reasonable job of bringing back a classic series, but it's unfortuantely hit and miss. Some imaginative stage design, a fantastic soundtrack, and stages changing dependent on the order you pick are all satisfying additions. But a focus on making money to earn tokens, some nasty difficulty spikes, and what feels like forced replayability detracts from the experience. This is close enough to a classic Double Dragon title that it'll likely attract some fans of the originals. However, it's also an example of a game that could have gone a little further and perhaps should have considered taking some inspiration from other successful recent revivals in the genre.
While the new fighting mechanics and large roster of playable characters hit the mark, the rogue-lite elements don't quite stick the landing. Still, the game is a fairly fun beat-'em-up experience, especially with a friend along for the ride.
Double Dragon Gaiden continues the trend of the series’ ups and downs. While it has some truly great designs, it has a lot of frustrating choices that hold it back. I was really excited to see a new game in the series, but it feels like they just want to build something new with each entry instead of capitalizing on what made the original so great. With the recent revival of so many classic beat ‘em up franchises, Double Dragon Gaiden just doesn’t impress nearly as much as it should have.
Double Dragon Gaiden focuses on replayability to its detriment. Solid combat mechanics give way to balance considerations made to justify all of the difficulty sliders and upgrade systems. If I had to pick between a game with a lot of "replayability" versus a game I simply like to play, the latter will win out every time. Double Dragon Gaiden isn't far off from being enjoyable on the merits of the gameplay alone, but it's far enough to consider going back to the dojo and polishing its Sou-Setsu-Ken technique.
Slightly above average or simply inoffensive. Fans of the genre should enjoy them a bit, but a fair few will be left unfulfilled.
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons dives headlong into renewing the franchise, even though it respects the classic a lot and avoids mischaracterizing it, thus preserving the nostalgia factor. The changes that bring new perspectives to the gameplay and fighting strategy in the campaign are very welcome, thus differentiating the title from its contemporaries. The stumbles in difficulty and the injustice caused by wrong decisions, however, take the shine out of the journey – both solo and in duo –, which is fun most of the time, until it becomes extremely frustrating.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Overall, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons has creativity sparks in its fun and fast moments, but it's necessary to be willing to face its blunders.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Overall I’d argue this is probably the best Double Dragon game yet. It does just enough to modernise the franchise without straying from the path well traveled and alienating fans of the franchise.