Double Dragon

Double Dragon is a 1987 beat 'em up video game developed by Technōs Japan and distributed by Taito for arcades across Asia, North America and Europe. It is the first title in the Double Dragon franchise. The…

39 1 August 1987

Adventure Arcade Fighting Hack and slash/Beat 'em up Action

Double Dragon is an adventure developed by Technos Japan, released 1 August 1987 on Xbox 360 and Arcade.

Verified 29 Sep 2026 Sources: IGDB , Wikipedia

What Double Dragon is

Double Dragon is an adventure game developed by Technos Japan and released in 1987. It was published by Empire Interactive. It is available on Xbox 360 and Arcade.

The premise, in the publisher's words

The player takes control of martial artist Billy Lee, or his twin brother Jimmy (also known as Hammer and Spike in the supplementary materials for the American arcade release), as they fight their way into the turf of the Black Warriors gang in order to rescue their common love interest Marian.

Description from the publisher · source

How it plays

It is played from a side view perspective. Its themes are action. It is a single-player game with no multiplayer component. Available modes: Co-operative, Multiplayer and Single player.

Where it sits in the Double Dragon series

Double Dragon is the first of 70 entries we hold in the Double Dragon series. The next entry was Double Dragon in 1988. Its critic score of 39 is 18 points below the series average of 57. The highest-rated entry is Double Dragon Neon at 76.

See all 70 Double Dragon games in release order →

How it was received

Double Dragon holds a critic score of 39 out of 100. That places it above 3% of the 7,525 rated adventure games in our database, which average 72. Games released in 1987 averaged 72, so it scored 33 points below the year average. Players rate it 57, 18 points higher than critics did — a gap worth knowing about before you buy.