Since the Atari and Anstream partnership announcement (read it here), we at Atari Edge have been taking some time to look at games that have not been officially announced, but should be available in the exclusive Atari VCS games library at launch. One game that jumped out at us from the start was the arcade hit Double Dragon. This all time classic arcade game was ported to all of the major gaming and computing platforms, and remains a name that is well recognized. Double Dragon was the first of a series of three games released in the arcades, and all three games are available through the Antstream service. This should be good news for fans of the series who have pre-ordered the Atari VCS, or are planning to purchase the VCS after it launches. If the Double Dragon arcade series is available for the Atari VCS Anstream game library, fans will be able to revisit the classic beat em up, or introduce the iconic game to new gamer's of the series.
The first of the three games was the original Double Dragon, released in 1987 by Taito, and is a successor of Taito's earlier released game Renegade. Many consider Double Dragon as the first commercially successful side scrolling fighting game released to the market, and the success of the game led to the release of the additional two games. What made Double Dragon unique, and much more enjoyable was the option to fight along side a friend in two player mode. One player could choose to play as Spike while the other would play as his brother Hammer. Another important aspect of game play released in Double Dragon was the ability to pick up weapons dropped from your enemies after you defeat them, and use the weapons to battle the next line of enemies. With games like Fortnite, Call of Duty, Metal Of Honor, and countless other games, the concept of picking up enemy weapons after defeating them is common and expected, but in 1987, this was something introduced to the world by Taito through Double Dragon.
In Double Dragon, you take on the character of Spike or Hammer in a battle to rescue a young woman who was captured by a street gang. The hero's can play in single mode or as a team in two player mode, as you battle your way through the stages of ruthless thugs in an attempt to free the young woman from captivity. If your game ended while playing in the arcade, you could continue where the game left off, by inserting another quarter of course. Having the game to play on a home console without the need of a stack of quarters for continues could help you beat the game if you never had the opportunity to defeat the gang and free the woman.
The huge success of Double Dragon led to the release of Double Dragon II: The Revenge
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| Double Dragon II: The Revenge |
