July will be a banner month for beat 'em up fans thanks to the impending release of Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons from Secret Base Games and Modus Games. With the game drawing nearer to launch, the publisher has just released a new trailer that provides lots of details about how the beat 'em up Roguelike will play. Even more excitingly, it also reveals four of the game's 9 unlockable characters!
Story Mode, the main mode of the game, has a Roguelike structure. Players will select from four different missions, each featuring a different gang with unique enemies and bosses. One mission stars The Killers, led by Willy, the boss of the original Double Dragon. Another features The Royals, whose leader is Duke, the final boss of Super Double Dragon and next to last boss in Double Dragon for Neo Geo.
After clearing a mission, the remaining missions will become harder and longer, gaining tougher enemies and a new sub-boss. The heroes will earn mission clear bonuses for their remaining health, Kingpin (boss?) Special KOs, remaining time, top combo, top chain, crowd control moves, and bonus objective completion. The gold awarded from these bonuses can immediately be spent on a selection of upgrades that will last for the duration of the run.
Whenever the team gets a Game Over, Hiruko from Double Dragon III gives players the choice of continuing from the last checkpoint or cashing out and ending the run. Gold that is unspent when a run ends gets converted to tokens. These tokens can be spent in the token shop between runs. The shop has four categories of permanent unlockables: Game (10 tokens each), Tips (1 token each), Art (2 tokens each), and Music (2 tokens each).
The Game category is the most exciting one because it actually contains unlockable characters. Double Dragon Gaiden begins with four playable characters (Billy, Jimmy, Marian, and Matin), and 9 additional characters can be unlocked in the token shop. The new trailer reveals four of those unlockable fighters: Abobo (the classic recurring boss), Burnov (a mask-wearing Double Dragon II boss), Linda (a whip-wielding foe), and Chin Taimei (a recurring boss who wields bastons).
Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons will arrive on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and Steam on Tuesday, July 27. It will sell for $24.99 digitally and $29.99 for physical versions. We'll have more coverage soon!