The Double Dragon series returns once again with an ultra-modern homage to the original game.

I started going to arcades in the late 80s, and one of the first games I remember playing was the 1987 beat-em-up. Double Dragon. It’s probably not the most appropriate game for a seven-year-old, but I invested a lot of coins in it and then spent a lot of time playing the NES port. After its heyday in the late ’80s and early ’90s, the Double Dragon series has gone through a number of strange iterations and reworks, and a new game based on the original is set to arrive in 2025.

Double Dragon Revive is produced by Japanese developer/publisher Arc System Works, who acquired the rights to Double Dragon in 2015 after original developer Technos went bankrupt. Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons, which was released in 2023 and featured a very distinctive cartoon style, Relaunch is moving towards an ultra-modern and more realistic atmosphere, relatively speaking.

It reminds me a bit of recent Street Fighter games; similarly, the characters seem to have a significantly expanded moveset to take down waves of bad guys. There aren’t many details on the game yet, though Arc System Works stresses that this game isn’t a pure button-mashing game, saying it “requires adaptation and variety.”

Visual style isn’t the only thing that sets them apart Relaunch Since The Rise of the DragonsThe 2023 game featured ropuelike elements, 13 playable characters, and a tag-team ability to let you swap between those characters. Relaunchas the name suggests, will likely stick more to the tried and tested Double Dragon formula. How well this will resonate with gamers in 2025 remains to be seen, but there are surely enough young people nostalgic for the 80s who will give this one a chance. It will be available on PS4 and PS5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and Steam.