Uploaded July 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Double Dragon Gaiden is a brand new Double Dragon game from Secret Base. I'm not familiar with this developer, but the good news is they did a great job!
This game has a pretty unique structure for a beat 'em up: you can play the stages in any order, but every time you clear a stage, the difficulty and length of the next one increases. There's also a roguelike reward system in place - each time you clear a section, you can buy a random powerup with the money you earned throughout the stage. You can even tweak the difficulty before you begin playing, by adjusting your HP, the cost of the powerups and continues, and the enemy's stats and aggression level. They had some fresh ideas, and thankfully they executed them very well.
The combat is pretty fun with some tag team mechanics that encourage you to constantly swap between characters. They do this by limiting your use of special attacks and tags - both are tied to your special meter, but you can only start using them when your bar is full. Once you use a special, you can chain a couple more into your combo and tag out at any point, but once your attack ends, you're locked out of specials and tags until you completely refill your bar. So ideally you'll want to use a special or two, then tag in your reserve character. It flows really well and is quite fun to play with.
I wasn't sure if I'd like this game based on the preview videos, but I'm glad I bought it. It's really good, and I haven't played another beat 'em up like it. Give it a shot, I recommend it.
Chapers
0:00 Intro
1:51 Okada Clan Headquarters
6:35 Royals' Hideout
20:31 Triangles' Junkyard
43:20 Killers' Fortress
1:01:49 Last Boss: M.G. Willy
1:06:14 Ending & Credits
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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
Double Dragon Gaiden is a brand new Double Dragon game from Secret Base. I'm not familiar with this developer, but the good news is they did a great job!
This game has a pretty unique structure for a beat 'em up: you can play the stages in any order, but every time you clear a stage, the difficulty and length of the next one increases. There's also a roguelike reward system in place - each time you clear a section, you can buy a random powerup with the money you earned throughout the stage. You can even tweak the difficulty before you begin playing, by adjusting your HP, the cost of the powerups and continues, and the enemy's stats and aggression level. They had some fresh ideas, and thankfully they executed them very well.
The combat is pretty fun with some tag team mechanics that encourage you to constantly swap between characters. They do this by limiting your use of special attacks and tags - both are tied to your special meter, but you can only start using them when your bar is full. Once you use a special, you can chain a couple more into your combo and tag out at any point, but once your attack ends, you're locked out of specials and tags until you completely refill your bar. So ideally you'll want to use a special or two, then tag in your reserve character. It flows really well and is quite fun to play with.
I wasn't sure if I'd like this game based on the preview videos, but I'm glad I bought it. It's really good, and I haven't played another beat 'em up like it. Give it a shot, I recommend it.
Chapers
0:00 Intro
1:51 Okada Clan Headquarters
6:35 Royals' Hideout
20:31 Triangles' Junkyard
43:20 Killers' Fortress
1:01:49 Last Boss: M.G. Willy
1:06:14 Ending & Credits
-----
Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71
