Double Dragon fans, I can hear your enthusiasm all the way from here. You’ve gotten Double Dragon Gaiden, an update adding more content with online co-op and an entire Double Dragon collection within the last year. What’s more, Arc System Works unveiled a new 3D entry in the series titled Double Dragon Revive just a few weeks ago. They weren’t done there though, as Arc System’s own River City Girls 2 is getting the main Double Dragon protagonists added in.
Billy & Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon can soon be found in new-school beat-em-up River City Girls 2 as playable characters. A DLC pack including both dudes and a new story where the brothers are on a mission to rescue their girlfriends is coming soon. This should make for an interesting twist as the first River City Girls plot arc revolves around Misaka and Kyoku rescuing their kidnapped boyfriends. In the sequel, they teamed up with their boyfriends and now Billy and Jimmy Lee have to rescue their kidnapped girlfriends instead. Oh how the turn tables.
The Kunio-kun extended universe is an interesting one. Somehow, River City Ransom, Double Dragon, Super Dodge Ball and River City Girls are all a part of it. And that’s just the American games. MCU who? If you’ve never played a River City Girls game, it’s actually quite fascinating how the mechanics work. First off, you get the two-player beat-em-up co-op gameplay and boss ladder structure from Double Dragon. You also get the ability to go back to cleared areas to explore, money drops from enemies and exp towards leveling up like in River City Ransom. What River City Girls adds to the equation is the ability to either defeat a boss or recruit them to be summoned in gameplay. Bosses can also surrender if you’ve defeated every enemy in their area. Overall, it’s easy to look at River City Girls as the definitive brawler experience because of how well it executes its combination of beloved ideas from the genre’s strongest games.
So far, we don’t have a release date yet for the Double Dragon DLC aside from “Coming soon”, but this is a promising prospect. Kunio-kun fans are eating good lately. Now’s a good time to find out why.
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Written by Matthew Powers
Nintendo has been Matthew’s preference for fun video gaming since 2004. In addition to his love for all things Mario, Metroid and beyond, Matthew also enjoys heavy metal, roller coasters, pinball machines, and being a proud cat dad.
