Double Dragon arrives on XBLA

By Tom Bramwell Published 9 May, 2007

Should be available now.

Empire Interactive's arcade conversion of Double Dragon is this week's new addition to Xbox Live Arcade, arriving on the service this morning at 9am UK time, with a demo version available and a full-version price of 400 Microsoft points (GBP 3.40 / EUR 4.65 / roughly the cost of Salt & Vinegar crisps on Virgin Trains 2.58 to Morecambe).

The coin-op original, released in 1987, was one of the first scrolling beat-'em-ups to feature two-player co-operative gameplay (preserved in this release and available to play either offline or over Xbox Live), and also introduced the idea of nicking your enemies' weapons. This version is described as "a genuine re-creation of the classic coin-op arcade game", which presumably means it differs slightly from the NES and Master System adaptations for those whose memories are rooted with them.

Nonetheless it should be quite familiar in its depiction of a post-apocalyptic New York City and protagonists Billy and Jimmy Lee, although the addition of new music should be obvious and the game's publisher says we can expect to find a new high definition graphics option in addition to a classic version that leaves the game's chunky sprites untouched. Other tweaks to the Xbox Live Arcade release include a hints-and-tips page, the ability to customise the controls, and three online leaderboards for those of you who like to show off - yes, you in the cape. You can even view the Japanese and US sales fliers released in the late '80s. We don't care either.

Anyway, those of you with only a passing memory of Double Dragon can explore its history in its well-maintained Wikipedia entry, or we suppose you could just download the demo and have a crack. Remember though that to get your hands on its 12 Achievements and their 200 succulent gamerpoints you will need to invest the 400 points required to unlock the full version. Watch out for a review soon.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

You may also like...

Comments (20) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Dizzy #1 5 years ago

    80's fasion sense in full motion!

    Bosses with tank tops? Check!

  • speedjack #2 5 years ago

    Space Giraffe ?

    Every Extend Extra HD ?


    /waits...

  • jonsaan #3 5 years ago

    MS you absolute bastards. Just as I closed my LIVE account in disgust over all my dead XBOXES you release my fav. arcade game ever. Ah well, the gba version is better anyway by the sound of it.

  • petebritish #4 5 years ago

    This and track and field cost me a fortune back in the day. Remeber challenging a youth to a game when he won expected cash!! so did a quick getaway.

    If you are that youth reading this. If you didn't waste your youth mastering games you might have been able to run faster..
    Edited by 1 at 09/05/07 @ 09:42

  • Lutz #5 5 years ago

    Screenies?

  • Concrete #6 5 years ago

    Have they kept the feature that you only need to do one move to complete the whole game?

  • MrAtheist #7 5 years ago

    Have they kept the feature that you only need to do one move to complete the whole game?

    Its that long since I played it, was it the Elbow of Doom? :)

  • Darren #8 5 years ago

    All these rubbish "classics" that keep appearing on XBLA are the reason I disabled the Auto-Download feature as I was getting fed up of deleting games I have no interest in ever playing again and I don't want them using up my precious HDD space.

  • Zuiyo #9 5 years ago

    Legendary.

  • octo #10 5 years ago

    I hope it still contains the orginal arcade slowdown!

  • Lagto_Soa #11 5 years ago

    PLAY IT AGAIN FIRST

    Wise words. It's Turtles syndrome, though admittedly not as bad. And the 'updated' graphics are the worst XBLA crime to date.

  • mingster #12 5 years ago

    Ahh man i remember completing this in the arcade with just the one move ..
    such fond memories for a ten pence.

    The back elbow was the move indeed...

  • OnlyMe #13 5 years ago

    I bought it. Thought it was fun, and played through the game once without unlocking ANY achievements (I didn't use the Elbow of Doom though, and I didn't check the achievements beforehand). And I thought the updated graphics looked good. Same as the original, but cleaner and not so pixelish.

    I don't have Gold subscription so I'll have to ask my wife to play co-op.

  • Monkey_Puncher #14 5 years ago

    It's Double Dragon, I'm not really sure what you people were expecting? It was an 8 Bit game for goodness sake, it still feels and play exactly like it did back in the day. Great retro fun, brings back memories etc etc

    Oh and what's the problem you people have with the updated graphics? All they do is make everything look a bit cleaner and sharper.

  • SIDEARM #15 5 years ago

    Actually this is one of those games that is just as great now as it was then. Brilliant.

  • zuljin #16 5 years ago

    @jonsaan

    Damn you. I didn't even know there was a GBA version. Must resist...

    /Fails

  • arty #17 5 years ago

    More old tat! Argh! (actually I quite like this one).

  • Elfish #18 5 years ago

    Well, it's fun for a bit, but the "original arcade slowdown" is still in effect and it's truly horrid. Over in 5 minutes too. Meh.

  • krudster #19 5 years ago

    Man, what a bag o' shite.

  • menage #20 5 years ago

    This held up better than Turtles for some reason. I also prefered the old graphics. The new look didn't feel rigtht.

    Still not buying it. Good to see it again but don't ssee myself playing it for more than I did now. Just like SF2, which I did buy and never touched again.