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[[File:DD2_flyer_6572.jpg|frame|Beating the punks, saving the chicks. Just another typical day for Billy and Jimmy Lee.]]
'''''Double Dragon''''' is a series of side-scrolling [[Beat'Em Up]]'s that helped popularize the genre back in the late [[The Eighties|
The original 1987 arcade game, developed by the now-defunct Technos Japan Corp. and distributed by [[Taito]], featured a rather simple and standard premise: twin martial artists Billy and Jimmy Lee must save their lady-friend Marian from the clutches of the Black Warriors, a ruthless gang that controls the city.
While not the first of its kind, as ''Double Dragon'' was originally intended to be a sequel to their previous game ''Renegade'', the game improved upon its predecessor's formula by allowing up to two-players to play simultaneously and adding the ability to pick and use weapons against the enemies (both features would become standard in subsequent games in the genre). The 2-Players Mode also provided a twist in the end: {{spoiler|if both players manage to make all the way through the end, then the two would be forced to fight each other to the death, with the survivor getting to claim Marian for himself
''Double Dragon'' was followed by two arcade sequels and numerous home versions for various platforms. The three NES versions (along with the first two Game Boy games and the SNES-exclusive installment) were actually developed by Technos themselves, while most of the other versions were licensed out and developed by other companies. The series died out after Technos went out of business in 1996 (long after the beat-'em-up boom ended), despite attempts to adapt it into a [[Fighting Game]] format. The series was revived when Million Corp., a company founded by former Technos staff members, bought the IP. While the series is nowhere near as prevalent as it was back in the day, it still gets an occasional new game once in a while.
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In addition to the games, there was also an [[Double Dragon (animation)|Animated Series]] and a [[Double Dragon (film)|live-action movie]], as well as a comic where their dad was [[Stan Lee]]. Yes, that one.
'''Games include:'''
* ''Double Dragon'' (1987, arcade)
** Ports released for the [[NES]], [[Master System]], [[Game Boy]], [[Atari 2600]], [[Atari 7800]], [[Atari Lynx]], [[Sega Genesis]], Mobile Phones
* ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'' (1988, arcade)
** Ports released for the NES, the Japanese [[Mega Drive]], and the [[TurboGrafx-16|PC Engine]].
** An unrelated ''Double Dragon II'' was released for the Game Boy in 1991. It is actually a localization of a ''[[Kunio-Kun]]'' game.
* ''Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone'' (1990, arcade)
** ''Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones'' (1991, NES)
** Ported to the Game Boy and Sega Genesis as ''Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game''.
* ''Super Double Dragon'' (1992, SNES)
** Released in Japan as ''Return of Double Dragon''. It was based on a [[Bad Export for You|later build than the American version]], but was [[Obvious Beta|still far from finished]].
* ''[[Battletoads]] & Double Dragon: The Ultimate Team'' (1992, NES)
** Ported to the Game Boy, Sega Genesis
* ''Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls'' (1994, SNES)
** Ported to the Sega Genesis and [[Atari Jaguar]].
* ''Double Dragon'' (1995, Neo-Geo)
** Ported to the [[PlayStation]].
* ''Double Dragon Advance'' (2003 GBA)
** Ported to mobile phones as ''Double Dragon EX''.
* ''Double Dragon Zeebo'' (2009, Zeebo)
* ''Double Dragon iPhone'' (2011, iPhone)
* ''Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons'' (2011, Xbox 360)
* ''Double Dragon Neon'' (2012, PS3 and Xbox 360)
* ''Double Dragon IV'' (2017, [[PlayStation 4|PS4]], [[Microsoft Windows|Windows]] and [[Nintendo Switch]]): A [[Retraux]] sequel set after ''Double Dragon II'', developed by [[Arc System Works]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acrofatic]]: Chin Seimei (and his [[Palette Swap]] brothers who appear only in the third arcade game), as well as McGuire from the SNES game.
* [[Action Girl]]: Marian and Rebecca in the Neo-Geo fighting game.
* [[Adaptational Villainy]]: Jimmy Lee in the first NES game, who went on from being the Player 2 character to becoming the "[[The Man Behind the Man|shadow boss]]" of the Black Warriors.
* [[Adaptation Distillation]]: If there's any game that gets the iconic feel, play mechanics and overall experience of the entire series, it's ''Double Dragon Advance''.
* [[Adaptation Dye Job]]
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: The GBA game is a remake of the original arcade game that not only features almost all the stages, moves and enemy characters from the arcade version, but also feature quite a few stages, enemies and moves clearly inspired by later ports and installments.
* [[After the End]]: "In the year 199X, violence ruled the streets of New York after the nuclear war."
* [[All There in the Manual]]: The names of the enemy characters are never mentioned in-game in most of the titles (except for the NES version, where all the bad guys except Willy are playable in the Versus Mode, although Williams' name is shortened to "Will" and Chin Taimei is only referred by his surname). This was before ''[[Final Fight]]'' introduced the idea of giving the enemy characters life gauges with their names.
* [[Alternate Continuity]]: The NES version of the trilogy have many plot differences from their original arcade counterparts ({{spoiler|specifically when it comes to the identity of the Black Warriors' leader in the first game and Marian's survival in the second}}). All the later games are stand-alone.
* [[An Axe to Grind]]: Added to the arsenal of the weapons in the GBA version.
* [[The Apunkalypse]]
* [[The Artifact]]: The input for Jump Kicks in the original arcade game is different depending on the direction the player is facing. Pressing the kick button while jumping only does jump kicks to the left and in order to do a jump kick to the right, the player must use the punch button instead. This is actually a leftover mechanic from when the game was conceived as a ''Renegade'' sequel (which used direction-based attack buttons).
* [[Artifact Title]]
** The Game Boy version plays this straight by lacking a co-op mode as well and ending the game with the final boss fight with Willy.
** The arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'' introduces a previously-unseen third Lee brother named Sonny exclusive to that game. Apparently, "Triple Dragon" didn't have quite the same ring to it.
* [[Ascended Meme]]: "Bimmy", a misspelling of Billy's name in the 2-player intro to ''Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones'' (NES), is reused in ''Double Dragon Neon'' as a pair of Abobo-sized mutant clones of the Lee Bros. named "Bimmy and Jammy": they also have the [[Boss Subtitles|Boss Subtitle]] "Mistranslated Mutants" to make it even more obvious.
* [[Asian Rune Chant]]: When Amon from the Neo-Geo [[Fighting Game]] is performing his super move.
* [[Asskicking Equals Authority]]: Duke and The Mysterious Warrior (Raymond in ''Double Dragon Advance'').
* [[Ass Kicks You]]: Marian in the Neo-Geo fighting game.
* [[Attack Reflector]]: In the SNES game, hitting a knife will launch it back towards the enemy.
* [[Back from the Dead]]
* [[Badass in a Nice Suit]]: [[The Men in Black|The Steves]] in ''Double Dragon Advance''.
* [[Badass Mustache]]: Abobo's in-game sprite sported a horseshoe mustache in the original game. The character illustrations for the NES version gave Abobo a clean-shaved look though, giving him an appearance similar to [[God of War (series)|Kratos]] or [[Street Fighter|Sagat]].
* [[Bald of Evil]]
* [[Barrier-Busting Blow]]
* [[Batter Up]]: Whenever anyone uses a baseball bat, they always swing for the fences.
* [[Battle Boomerang]]: In the SNES game.
* [[Big Applesauce]]
* [[Blond Guys Are Evil]]
* [[Boomerang Comeback]]
* [[Boss Rush]]
* [[Bottomless Magazines]]
* [[Bottomless Pits]]
* [[Bowdlerise]]
* [[Bribing Your Way to Victory]]
* [[Bruce Lee Clone]]:
** The Lee brothers are somewhere between this and being Kenshiro expies. Billy Lee is even named after Billy Lo, Bruce Lee's character from
** Chin Taimei in the NES version of the first game.
** Li Chenglong, the Mission 2 boss in the third arcade game is a rather blatant example.
** The Japanese version of the [[GBA]] game flat out gives a dedication to Bruce Lee in the ending.
* [[The Cameo]]
* [[Captain Ersatz]]
* [[Catch and Return]]: In some games, it's possible to catch a knife, leading to this trope.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: A real weird word, "Chikky!" seems to be getting like Abobo's [[Catch Phrase]], especially in the the Neo-Geo fighting game, and gets carried over in his [[Spiritual Successor]] Abubo in ''Rage of the Dragons''.
* [[Character Level]]: The first NES game added a leveling system that only allowed the player to use his basic punches and kicks (and the headbutt) at the start of the game, gradually giving him access to the rest of his moves as he levels-up.
* [[Charged Attack]]
* [[Clean Dub Name]]: In the second NES game, the enemy gang was changed from the Black Warriors to the Shadow Warriors in the English version, presumably to avoid the [[Unfortunate Implications]] of the original name. The "Shadow Warriors" name would be used in the later SNES and GBA games, but the iPhone version went back to using the "Black Warriors".
* [[Co-Op Multiplayer]]: Probably the first [[Beat'Em Up]] to feature this.
* [[Color-Coded Multiplayer]]
* [[Combination Attack]]
* [[Competitive Balance]]
** Arcade version:
*** [[Squishy Wizard]]
*** [[Mighty Glacier]]
*** [[Stone Wall]]
*** [[Fragile Speedster]]
** NES version:
*** [[Jack of All Stats]]
*** [[Mighty Glacier]]
*** [[Fragile Speedster]]
* [[Composite Character]]:
** Jimmy Lee in the first NES game, who not only serves as the new final boss, but essentially replaces Jeff (the head-swapped Lee brother boss from the arcade version) as the boss who uses all of the player's moves.
** Abore in the second NES game has the same moves as his namesake from the arcade version, but his appearance resembles that of Oharra's, an Abobo head-swap from the arcade version.
* [[Conservation of Ninjutsu]]
* [[Counter Attack]]: The SNES game features an armlock move that allows the player to grab an enemy's arm by blocking his punches and then use the opportunity for multiple punches and kicks or a throw (which only works on some enemies). The Chen brothers can do the same to the player's kicks, while Duke can counter the armlock. In ''Double Dragon Advance'', this returns in form of nerfed catch and throw combo.
* [[Covers Always Lie]]:
** The promotional illustration for ''Double Dragon II: The Revenge'' (as seen above) shows Marian alive despite being killed in the beginning of the game ({{spoiler|the happy ending where Marian is brought back to life was not in the arcade version and was only added in the NES version}}). Even stranger is the fact that the artwork shows Marian embracing the Lee brother in red, when her boyfriend is established to be Billy, the Lee brother in blue (perhaps a result of Billy and Jimmy having switched hair colors in the console version).
** The Japanese cover art for the Game Boy version also depicts Billy wearing red instead of his traditional blue. But given that the Game Boy version has black and white graphics, his outfit could be in any color.
** A much straightforward example can be seen in the cover art for the first NES game, which shows Billy and Jimmy as literal [[Bash Brothers]], clenching their fists together at the background and teaming up against a pair of punks on the foreground
* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Subverted a little, weakened enemies will be more vulnerable to certain attacks (head grab, stomp etc, etc) and will take more time to recover, but otherwise will continue fighting like nothing happened until they're knocked to the ground.
* [[Crossover]]: ''[[Battletoads]] & Double Dragon''.
* [[Damn You, Muscle Memory!]]:
** All versions of ''Double Dragon II'' use a direction-based attack system where one button attacks to the left and the other to the right, which Technos previously employed with ''Renegade''. This takes awhile to get used to players more accustomed to the original game, since one button does the standard punch combo and the other a back kick depending on the direction the player character is facing.
** The NES version of ''Double Dragon'' uses A+B as the command for a jump kick
* [[Damsel in Distress]]: Marian in the first game, where [[Save the Princess|the objective was to rescue her]]. She's worse-off in the second game, where she's [[Disposable Woman|killed-off instead]], {{spoiler|although [[Back from the Dead|she does return to life]] in the [[Spared by the Adaptation|NES version]]}}. The English localization of the third NES game even changed the script in order to make it seem as if Marian was kidnapped once again and ends up being possessed by an evil spirit (even though she never appears in the cut-scenes and the final boss who is supposed to be her was actually a different character in the Famicom version). Averted in the Neo-Geo game based on the movie, where Marian underwent [[Xenafication]].
* [[Deadly Dodging]]: Somebody thrown a knife at you? Just step aside and let it hit the mook behind you.
* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: Chin Seimei is said to be friends with the Double Dragons after his defeat in the third NES game (despite introducing himself by vowing revenge on them for killing his brother in a previous game).
* [[Degraded Boss]]:
** Happens during the final two stages in both, the arcade and NES versions, where the bosses from the first two stages appear as regular grunts. The "degraded" versions are generally just as tough and sometimes have just as much health as the boss versions.
** In the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'', the head-swapped bosses from the previous game appear only as sub-bosses.
* [[Delinquent Hair]]
* [[Demoted to Dragon]]
* [[Deus Ex Machina]]
* [[Difficulty by Region]]:
** The Famicom version of ''Double Dragon II'' allows the entire game to be played at any difficulty level, while the NES version restricts the game's length depending on the setting (3 stages on Practice, 8 on Warrior, and 9 on Supreme Master). The NES version also requires the player to input a cheat codes after getting a [[Game Over]] in order to continue, whereas the Famicom version had no such requirement. There are other specific differences between the two versions as well: traps are much easier in the Famicom version on the normal setting than in the NES version's equivalent setting (especially the disappearing platforms in Mission 6), but enemies have more health on the Famicom version's hardest setting.
** The Famicom version of ''Double Dragon III'' starts the player off with more health than in the NES version (10 hit points per character), and there are less enemies to fight. On the other hand, the ending is affected depending on which characters survive the final battle, whereas the NES version always plays the full ending.
** ''Super Double Dragon'' has no adjustable difficulty settings, in contrast to its Super Famicom counterpart ''Return of Double Dragon'', which had three settings (Easy, Normal
* [[Direct Continuous Levels]]: The first two arcade games. Missions 1 throughout 3 are set one after the other, with no cut-aways in-between. It is isn't until reaching the entrance to the enemy's hideout that the game switches to a new level.
* [[Divergent Character Evolution]]: Billy and Jimmy in the SNES game, where not only their sprites are different (rather than just being palette swaps of each other like in previous games, they started sporting different hair styles), but their basic punches and kicks were different as well.
* [[Dolled-Up Installment]]: The second [[Game Boy]] game was actually a ''[[Kunio-Kun|Kunio-kun]]'' game that had its graphics, music and story changed for its overseas release.
* [[Do Not Drop Your Weapon]]: Willy and his machine gun, the stick wielding version of Chin Taimei, the ninjas in the second and third NES games with their throwing stars and blades, the Japanese swordsmen and Roman gladiators in the third arcade game, the dual-sword wielding Baker from the SNES game, and Kikuchiyo and his cronies in the GBA version.
* [[Doppelganger]]: Taking a cue from ''Zelda II'', the Lee brothers must fight their own shadows at the end of the second game.
* [[Downer Ending]]: {{spoiler|In the original arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'', Marian does ''not'' come back to life}}.
* [[Dragons Up the Yin-Yang]]: The video games included gratuitous dragons in promotional imagery. The cartoon and film adaptations added various gratuitous dragon-themed accessories, such as masks, tattoos and medallions.
* [[Drunken Boxing]]: Cheng-Fu from the Neo-Geo fighting game.
* [[
* [[Dual Boss]]: Quite a few examples.
** The twin Abobos in the first game (in both, the arcade and NES version).
** The arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' has the twin Burnovs at the end of Mission 3, plus twin versions of all the previous bosses in Mission 4.
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** The twin Lee Brother clones in both versions of ''Double Dragon II'' (but only when two players are present).
** The SNES game has the Chen Brothers (Ron-Fu and Ron-Pyo), while the GBA version has Hong and Wong (the Two Tigers).
* [[Dual Tonfas]]
* [[Dumb Muscle]]: Abobo, especially in the ''Battletoads & Double Dragon'' crossover.
* [[Dummied Out]]:
*
** The Ninja and Migiude enemies from the second NES game were also supposed to appear in the PC-Engine version, but they were cut out from the main game. Their sprites (with full animation frames) are still viewable through a hidden sprite viewer mode, along with Bolo (who is listed in the manual, but it's actually his head-swap Oharra from the arcade version who appears in the game).
* [[Easily Forgiven]]
* [[Easy Mode Mockery]]
* [[Eighties Hair]]
* [[Elevator Action Sequence]]: ''Return of Double Dragon'' has one, as does the PC-Engine version of ''Double Dragon II''.
* [[Epic Flail]]: Lindas from ''Double Dragon II'' use these and Ropers use something that looks like a flail boomerang in the NES version. If the game has a nunchaku, then it's usually the most powerful weapon.
* [[Everything's Better with Spinning]]: The Cyclone Kick.
* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Chen Ron-Fu and Chen Ron-Pyo, the Double Dragons from Chinatown in ''Super Double Dragon'', as well as their [[Expy|expies]], Hong and Wong, the Two Tigers from ''Double Dragon Advance''.
* [[Evolving Attack]]: The first NES game gives Billy new moves as he gains experience points from fighting enemies.
* [[Expy]]:
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20130327235428/http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?id=512 The character illustrations] drawn for the first Famicom/NES game makes Billy and Jimmy Lee look like clones of [[Fist of the North Star|Kenshiro and Raoh]]. While Billy was depicted more or less the same way in subsequent games, Jimmy's resemblance to Raoh was toned down considerably [https://web.archive.org/web/20130327235143/http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?id=513 after the first game].
** Chin Taimei from the first NES game resembles the Karate Fighter from ''Mat Mania'', a Technos-developed wrestling game, while Abore in the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' seems to be based on André the Giant from the ''WWF Superstars'' arcade game also developed by Technos.
* [[Fastball Special]]
* [[Fat Bastard]]: Burnov in ''Double Dragon II'', and McGuire in ''Super Double Dragon''.
* [[Faux Action Girl]]: Marian, if we are to believe the back-story given in the original game's official soundtrack and some of the console versions, was formerly an assistant instructor in Billy and Jimmy's old dojo. Seeing how she goes down with only one punch to the gut in the opening of the original game without putting much a fight, her qualifications for such a job are debatable. Her Neo-Geo incarnation, on the other hand, does have actual fighting skills.
* [[Fingerless Gloves]]: The "right arm" thugs who appear only in the second NES game sported them.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: Jimmy Lee is among Marian's kidnappers (instead of Machine Gun Willy like in the arcade version) in the opening of the first NES game, although his palette is different from one used in the final battle (he has blue hair instead of blond and lighter skin).
* [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]]: In the second NES game, all the cut-scenes between stages (as well as the opening and ending) only shows Billy, regardless of whether the game is being played alone (with either Billy or Jimmy) or with both Lee brothers. The only exception is made with the cut-scene when the final boss appears: if both Lee brothers are being used, both of them will appear, but if Billy dies before the final stage, and Jimmy survives, then Jimmy will appear in his brother's place.
** Sonny, the third Lee brother who appears exclusively in the third arcade game, is absent in the game's opening and ending, while only a single member of each of the other three sibling teams (the Oyama, Chin and Urquidez brothers) appear in the ending.
* [[Giant Mook]]: Abobo and his various head/palette swaps.
* [[Giant Space Flea From Nowhere]]: At the end of the second arcade game, after defeating Machine Gun Willy in the end of Mission 4, creepy music starts playing and the player's purple [[Evil Twin]] rises out of his shadow and attacks him. The game has no other supernatural elements (except for Burnov, the Mission 1 boss who "teleports" after being defeated), nor does the end reference it in any way.
* [[Glowing Eyes of Doom]]: Abore in the second Arcade game.
* [[Good Bad Translation]]: The third NES game, while technically not a translation (since it uses an entirely different script from its Famicom counterpart than changes the plot), somehow manages to screw up the spelling of Billy's name as "Bimmy" in the opening of the 2-Players Mode, which has become something of a meme. Strangely, his name is spelled correctly in the single-player version of the opening.
* [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]]: The back-story for the earlier games establishes that the reason why gangs have taken over New York is because of a nuclear war that occurred in [[Exty Years From Now|199X]], just like ''[[Fist of the North Star]]''.
** The PC-Engine version of ''Double Dragon II'', released in 1993, establishes that despite the end of the Cold War someone still launched a nuke, starting a war.
** The manual for ''Double Dragon Advance'' implies that the nuclear war occurred due to [[The War on Terror]].
* [[Grenade Hot Potato]]
* [[Hachimaki]]: Roper in the SNES version. Billy and Jimmy sported some as well in the American cover arts of the earlier games (including the cabinet art for the arcade game), but they never wore any in the actual games.
* [[Hammerspace]]: The knife and explosive throwing mooks never run out of supplies.
* [[Head Swap]]:
** Some of the villains in the series, but most notably the first two boss characters in the original arcade game: the first is a head-swapped Abobo, and the second boss is a head-swapped Lee brother. The third boss is just a palette swap of the first boss, and the final boss (Willy) is the only one with a unique design.
** The SNES version made the Lee brothers themselves into head swaps in order to better match Technos Japan's character illustrations rather than just making Jimmy a recolored version of Billy (as was the case with the arcade and NES games). The later GBA version also made the Lees into head swaps.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]:
** Jimmy was Billy's main adversary in the NES version of the first game, but becomes his ally in the sequels.
** The third NES game allows you to play as two additional characters, Chin Seimei and Yagyu Ranzou, after defeating them as bosses first.
* [[His Name Is--]]
* [[Hurricane Kick]]
* [[Idiosyncratic Difficulty Levels]]
* [[I Have Your Wife|I Have Your Girlfriend]]
* [[Improvised Weapon]]
* [[Inconveniently-Placed Conveyor Belt]]
* [[Kamehame Hadoken]]
* [[Kick Them While They Are Down]]:
** The NES version of the first game took a cue from ''[[Kunio-Kun|Renegade]]'' and added a Sit-on Punch to Billy's attack repertoire, allowing him to pin down fallen enemy grunts and punch them while they're down.
** The third arcade game allows the player to jump over fallen enemies and stomp them.
** Both of the above moves were added to the GBA version.
* [[Lady in Red]]
* [[Launcher Move]]
* [[Let's You and Him Fight]]
* [[Level Grinding]]
* [[MacGuffin]]
** Averted in ''Double Dragon Advance'', where Willy demands the Book of Sou-Setsu-Ken as a ransom for Marian's safety in order to gain greater power. At the end of the game, the book is revealed to be a [[Magic Feather]], as Billy and Jimmy proclaim that they get their strength from their own skills and training.
* [[Martial Arts Uniform]]: The Oyama Brothers in the arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'' and many mooks in the rest of the series.
* [[Mighty Glacier]]: The [[Giant Mook|giant mooks]], with Arcade and PC-Engine Abore being the biggest and slowest.
* [[Mirror Match]]: Mode B in the first NES game is a one-on-one versus game that allows players to control Billy Lee or one of five enemy characters from the main game, but the battles are limited to same character matches (Billy is matched against Jimmy, while the enemies are matched against a palette-swapped counterpart). In the Game Boy version, it's just a Billy vs. Jimmy fight.
* [[Mission Pack Sequel]]: The second arcade game is essentially an improved version of the first one, but with a different attack system, new looks and moves for most the returning enemies and new bosses for each stage. The difficulty has also been fine-tuned to prevent players from completing it with just the elbow strike.
* [[
* [[Nintendo Hard]]: The third NES game is ridiculously hard due to having slower basic attacks and no lives system (although the additional characters obtained by the player in later stages serve a similar purpose). The other two NES games could qualify as well, as both of them have some very unforgiving platforming segments in the later stages. In addition, you have a very limited number of lives without much of an opportunity to collect more, and there are no continues (at least not without inputting a cheat that changes after every third stage).
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: The Abobo head-swap in the first arcade game bear a more than mild resemblance to [[Mr. T]], while Abore in the arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' wears a pair of sunglasses with glowing red eyes underneath them that makes him look like a [[Terminator]]-clone.
* [[No Ending]]: The American version of ''Super Double Dragon'' gets at least an [[A Winner Is You|text only epilogue]], but the Japanese release goes straight from the final boss to the credits.<ref>The extra levels are a good tradeoff though.</ref>
* [[No Name Given]]:
** The characters in the arcade version. The console versions would gave their identities in [[All There in the Manual|the manuals]] though. For the arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'', the licensed soundtrack gives out the names of the bosses in their individual themes (Jim, Li, Ranzou and Giuliano).
** The final boss in the second NES game, who is simply known as the "mysterious warrior".
** The other two enemy characters exclusive to the NES version, "Ninja" and "Migiude" (which is Japanese for "right arm", or more appropriately "right-hand man"), only have official designations instead of names, but those two are just [[Elite Mook|elite mooks]] and not unique characters.
* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]: If the battle between Billy and Jimmy for the heart of Marian ends in a [[Double KO]] (say, if both brother's fall into the spike pit below), the game returns back to the title screen with no fanfare whatsoever.
* [[Obvious Beta]]: ''Super Double Dragon''. Even the [[Bad Export for You|more complete Japanese version]] (''Return of Double Dragon'') was clearly rushed for release. The second half of Mission 7, absent from the US version, is very unfinished (e.g. [[Bottomless Pits]] you can't fall into, stairs you have to jump up). Other things [[Dummied Out]] of both versions include the proposed true [[Final Boss]] battle with Duke's shadow, the [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]] in the airport baggage claim that would lead to a [[Bottomless Pit]], the warehouse section of Mission 5, and the collapsing bridge at the end of Mission 6. Many music tracks were left unused (a few which can still be heard in the Japanese version's sound test), and Marian, who is mentioned in the manual and shown in two pieces of artwork, never actually appears in the game (she would've been a policewoman like her comic and cartoon counterparts).
* [[One Steve Limit]]:
** The names "Billy", "Willy" and "Williams" are all variants of the name "William" (although to be fair, "Williams" is technically a surname).
** The arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'' has a "Jim" as the first boss (not to be confused with the heroic Jimmy Lee), and a "Li" as the second boss (who is unrelated to the Lee Brothers). Then there's two unrelated characters named S'''o'''nny and S'''u'''nny.
* [[Original Generation]]: The Neo-Geo version gave many original characters that's never been in any other [[Double Dragon]] games, which includes [[Ninja|Amon]] (who might at least be based on Ranzou), [[Eagle Land|Dulton]], [[Action Girl|Rebecca]], [[Drunken Master|Cheng-Fu]] and [[Scary Black Man|Eddie]]. They don't even appear in the movie.
* [[Palette Swap]]: In the original arcade game, there are only seven unique enemy characters and two of them are just head-swaps of other characters (namely of Abobo and the Lee brothers). The game simply recycles the same set of enemies for each stage by changing the main palette for all the mooks, including the occasional black-skinned variants. The third boss is also a green skinned palette swap of the first boss, who is nothing more than a black-skinned head/palette swap of Abobo with a Mr. T-like beard and mohawk. The other games in the series also featured palette-swapped versions of the same enemies.
* [[Pistol-Whipping]]: Willy with his gun.
* [[Production Throwback]]:
** The end of Mission 1 in the first arcade game has a billboard for ''[[Kunio-Kun|Nekketsu Koha Kunio-kun]]'', the Japanese version of ''Renegade'' and Technos Japan's previous beat-'em-up, in the building just before the first boss battle.
** The red sports car from ''Road Blaster'' (a Data East laserdisc game, ported to the Sega CD as ''Road Avenger''), a game designed by the same director (Yoshihisa Kishimoto), can be seen inside Billy and Jimmy's garage at the start of the first stage. In the second arcade game, the sports car is replaced by the helicopter from ''Thunder Storm'' (
* [[Punched Across the Room]]
* [[Recurring Riff]]
* [[Reformulated Game]]
* [[Revised Ending]]
* [[Ring Out Boss]]
* [[Sdrawkcab Name]]
* [[Sequel Difficulty Spike]]: The arcade version of ''Double Dragon II'' has more powerful bosses than the first game, only partial health recovery between stages (as opposed to full health recovery like in the first game), and no bonus lives (you're stuck with what you start with). Moreover, the game's time limit is adjustable, and the default settings has the game on the second fastest time limit with the second hardest difficulty and only two lives, which makes the third stage hard to complete on time and the fourth stage almost impossible. All the transition sequences between stages are now done by elevators, making it impossible to carry weapons between stages unlike in the first game.
** The NES version of the third game is also considerably harder than the previous installments at first due to the omission of a lives system. If the player dies in the first two stages, the game ends. However, the additional playable characters introduced in the later stages serve as extra lives on their own, and the player gets a single continue for the final two stages.
* [[Sequence Breaking]]: In the final area of the first [[Arcade Game]], Willy watches on from the balcony and will come down once the Lee brothers have beaten enough mooks. You can bring him down earlier by intentionally letting Abobo throw you up the balcony and knock him down.
* [[She's Got Legs]]
* [[Shoryuken]]
* [[Shotoclone]]
* [[Shoulders of Doom]]
* [[Shout-Out]]:
** The red sports car inside Billy and Jimmy's garage in the original arcade game is the same one from the laserdisc arcade game ''Road Blaster'' (a.k.a. ''[[Market-Based Title|Road Avenger]]''), an earlier game by ''Double Dragon'' creator Yoshihisa Kishimoto.
** A billboard in Mission 1 features an advertisement for ''Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun'', the Japanese version of ''Renegade'' and predecessor of ''[[River City Ransom]]''.
** The second arcade game replaces the sports car inside Billy and Jimmy's garage with the helicopter from ''Cobra Command'', another laserdisc game also directed by Yoshihisa Kishimoto.
** The series as the whole is inspired by ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'', starting from the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co4eGY8kb4w post-nuclear setting] to the [http://doubledragon.kontek.net/games/dd/images/ddfambox.gif character] [http://doubledragon.kontek.net/games/dd3/images/dd3fam.gif designs].
** The masked wrestler [https://web.archive.org/web/20130327235415/http://www.gamengai.com/bn_inf.php?id=513&type=0 Burnov] from the second game seems to be an [[Expy]] of ''[[Kinnikuman]]'' wrestler [https://web.archive.org/web/20121114203645/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/6/6d/King_Neptune_kinnikuman.jpg/180px-King_Neptune_kinnikuman.jpg Neptuneman].
** The GBA version includes a freeway battle atop moving semis with suit-clad enemies who straighten their ties between attacks. If it's not a [[Shout-Out]] to ''[[The Matrix]] Reloaded
* [[Shout-Out Theme Naming]]: The Lee Brothers, along with recurring mooks Williams and Rowper, all take their names from the three main heroes of ''[[Enter the Dragon]]''. The name "Billy" is also a reference to Billy Lo (Bruce Lee's character from ''[[Game of Death]]'') and the female mook Linda shares her name with Bruce Lee's widow Linda Lee Cadwell.
** In the second game, there's an Abobo-like [[Giant Mook]] named Bolo, a reference to Bolo Yeung (who played one of Mr. Han's two henchmen in ''Enter the Dragon''). The arcade version even has a head-swapped variant of Bolo who was given the name of "Oharra" in the Mega Drive port (Mr. Han's other henchman).
** ''Sō-setsu-ken'', the fictional martial art style of the Lee brothers, is named after Bruce Lee's self-developed style called ''Jeet Kune Do'' (''Sekkedō'' in Japanese). Whereas ''Jeet Kune Do'' is the "Way of the Intercepting Fist", ''Sō-setsu-ken'' means "Fist of Twin Interception".
** In the third arcade game, the Lee brothers are joined by the Oyama, Chin, and Urquidez brothers, named after Mas Oyama, Jackie Chan
** The second boss in the arcade version of ''Double Dragon 3'' is named Li Chenglong, a combination of [[Bruce Lee]]'s surname and Jackie Chan's Chinese stage name (Cheng Long).
* [[
* [[Sibling Team]]: Billy and Jimmy Lee.
** Invoked literally in the third arcade game, where the main characters were grouped by teams of siblings. The Lee brothers are joined by the Urquidez, Chin and Oyama clans.
* [[Side View]]
* [[Simple Staff]]
* [[Sinister Shades]]
* [[Spared by the Adaptation]]
* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]:
** Rowper, one of the enemy [[Mooks]], had his name spelled as "Lopar" in the translated manual for the NES version. However, the character's name is actually meant to be a reference to John Saxon's character "Roper" from ''[[Enter the Dragon]]''. The name "Roper" and "Lopar" are also used for two different enemies in ''Battletoads & Double Dragon'' and neither resemble the Rowper from the original game ([[Did Not Do the Research|one of them being a misnamed Machine Gun Willy]]).
** Linda's name is spelled "[[Japanese Ranguage|Rinda]]" in the promotional brochure for the Famicom version.
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** Marian's name is sometimes spelled "Marion" depending on the game. The manual for the Master System version spells it "Mary-Anne" as well.
** Even ''Sōsetsuken'', the fighting style of Billy and Jimmy, has been subject to spelling variations, with the manual for the NES version using the spelling ''So'''sai'''ken'' (since the second kanji can be pronounced both ways).
** The manual for the Neo-Geo version spells Burnov as "Bulnov" and Dulton as "Dalton
* [[Spiritual Successor]]
** ''Double Dragon'' itself was a spiritual successor to ''Renegade''.
* [[Stalked by the Bell]]
* [[Stuff Blowing Up]]
* [[Stuffed in The Fridge]]
** [[Back from the Dead|She did get better]] in the NES version.
* [[Super Mode]]
* [[Suplex Finisher]]
* [[Team Shot]]
* [[Temple of Doom]]
* [[Theme Music Power-Up]]
* [[There Was a Door]]
* [[Throw a Barrel At It]]: The oildrums, along with cardboard boxes and giant rocks, can be picked up and thrown by both, the player and certain enemies (depending on the game, but usually Rowper always uses them).
* [[Took a Level in Badass]]: Marian in the Neo-Geo version, where she's not only a selectable fighter, but is one of the higher-tier characters in the roster.
* [[Treacherous Advisor]]: {{spoiler|Hiruko}} in ''Double Dragon III''.
* [[Turns Red]]: In the SNES game, if the player performs a throw on Williams or Rowper, they will get angry and will move faster and hit harder.
* [[
* [[Unsound Effect]]: The NES version of the second game gives us G*R*A*S*P in one of the cutscenes
* [[
* [[Villainous Widow's Peak]]: Machine Gun Willy in the first two arcade games.
* [[Walking Shirtless Scene]]
* [[Wall Jump]]: Added in the SNES game. The arcade and NES versions of the third game also added a wall-jumping attack for each character.
*
* [[Wasted Song]]
* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]]
* [[
* [[
* [[Wrestler in All of Us]]
* [[Wolverine Claws]]
* [[Would Hit a Girl]]
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Atari Jaguar]]
[[Category:Arcade Game]]
[[Category:Amiga]]
[[Category:Amstrad CPC]]
[[Category:Game Boy]]
[[Category:Game Boy Advance]]
[[Category:Microsoft Windows]]
[[Category:MSX]]
[[Category:Nintendo Entertainment System]]
[[Category:Mobile Phone Game]]
[[Category:PlayStation]]
[[Category:PlayStation 3]]
[[Category:PlayStation 4]]
[[Category:Xbox 360]]
[[Category:ZX Spectrum]]
[[Category:Arc System Works]]
[[Category:Super Nintendo Entertainment System]]
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