Arc System Works has announced new rereleases for Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance, as well as a new Double Dragon anthology for modern platforms, called Double Dragon Collection.
As is the case with these retro rereleases and collections, the repeat remakes and rereleases can be confusing, so we will try to help you make heads and tails of the whole thing.
Super Double Dragon was the 1992 game released exclusively on the Super NES. It is the last game made by the original Double Dragon team at Tecmo. However, this team decided to make a new fighting system and story for it. It plays completely different from every other Double Dragon game, but has its own merits.
Double Dragon Advance was the 2003 game exclusive released on the Game Boy Advance. It is mainly based on the original arcade Double Dragon, but adds new enemies, bosses, and moves inspired from the other games.
Both Super Double Dragon and Double Dragon Advance will be available to buy separately, on PlayStation 5 and Nintendo Switch.
As reported by Gematsu, Double Dragon Collection will have Super Double Dragon, Double Dragon Advance, and Double Dragon 1 to 4.
The first Double Dragon was released in arcades in 1987, and was the first beat-em-up game to become a major worldwide hit, essentially creating a beat-em-up boom.
Double Dragon II is it successful, superior follow-up, released to arcades only a year later. This game improves on the sound, graphics, presentation, and scenario, starting things out in a heliport, and taking you to fight at a lumbermill and farm.
Double Dragon III is a strange diversion for the franchise, releasing to arcades in 1990. Outsourced to East Technology, this game adds a 3rd playable character, Sonny, and sees the brothers going around the world to find the eponymous stones, apparently to revive Cleopatra and get her treasure. This game is infamous for being one of the first implementations of microtransactions, and it was not a success.
All three Double Dragon games received various ports and versions across different consoles. Double Dragon Collection collects the original arcade versions of these games. It also includes Double Dragon IV, the game released in 2017, but uses NES/Famicom sprite graphics.
If you wanted to play the NES/Famicom versions of the first three Double Dragon games, they are found in the DOUBLE DRAGON & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle, available on the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
TLDR, if you buy both Double Dragon game anthologies, you will get completely different sets of games, so no worries about overlap here. Arc System Works hasn’t quite made every Double Dragon game available again yet, but they have done an admirable job of making the franchise relevant again. In time, they may make all those other games, such as the two completely unrelated fighting games, available too.
