Early July of this year, Arc System Works and developer Yukes (of WWE 2K game series fame) announced a new entry in the Double Dragon series: Double Dragon Revive. And it looked pretty average. Upon watching it, I got vibes from Double Dragon 2: Wander of the Dragon, and that’s no praise at all as it’s one of the worst 3D-styled beat-em-ups on all time that plagued the Xbox Live Arcade era.

Fast forward to Tokyo Game Show 2024, and the company decided to let the world get a taste of Billy and Jimmy Lee in this generation in this 3D-plus-2D brawler. After 15 minutes with the demo, I can safely say that it isn’t half-bad.

Red & Blue VS The World

Instead of a straight-on 2D flat game, this Double Dragon embraces 3D while still having a side view. That means your attacks and swipes don’t need to be completely precise to hit enemies coming at you diagonally. As long as they’re within vicinity, it’s a confirmed hit.

I picked Jimmy as he seems to sound the most badass and has loads of flame attack specials in his repertoire. He and his brother have the same kinds of attacks: normal attacks, combo attacks, air attacks, special attacks, low attacks, back attacks in case enemies try to flank you, grabs, anti-airs, and Hyper Blows. The latter is the Lee Bros’ patented helicopter kick that combos enemies in the air and can even guard break. When enemies are stunned, you can use Finishing Blows to stylishly knock them out (and enemies around them), though this technique costs 1 Dragon Orb. You can refill these by just fighting and/or getting hit. To defend yourself, you have your Guard and Dodge. The latter defensive move has generous invincibility frames and cooldown, meaning you will be using this a lot against the tougher foes.

To use the 3D arena to the fullest, the game introduces interactive objects and new wall-based techniques like the Wall Strike and Wall Crash. When you see a prompt for an interactive object on the map like a street lamp, you can use it to do a swing and a ground pound for instance. Wall Strike lets you continue damaging comboes once you push opponents to the wall. Wall Crash lets you grab enemies and slam them to walls.

You can also climb up walls and do dive kicks off of them, but I’m busy just having the time of my life just pushing relentless mobs to the nearest concrete wall with my combos & Hyper Blows. The damage you do in the game really gets higher and higher the more interactives and walls you use in your combos. I did get my attacks interrupted by enemies from behind, but that’s only because I learned about back attacks closer to the demo’s end. The dive kicks, air slams, and air combos can be used to style and profile, so there’s that option for players who already master the level they’re in. None of this would be worth talking about if the controls were stale, but I’m happy to report that they’re spot-on and they feel good.

The demo had its gatekeepers in the form of the mid and final boss: Abobo and Roper. Big man Abobo has area-of-effect attacks that hit the entire stage, so you need to either jump or dodge it to avoid taking damage. Roper is a little tricky: he will always have a weapon on-hand and his reach is insane for a melee combatant. Luckily, his wind-up combos are telegraphed easily; dodge at the right time and strike him from behind while being wary of reinforcements he whistles in.

Beatdown Most Bodacious

Double Dragon Revive isn’t quite perfect; a few attacks do miss especially when your target feels like they’re inches closer, but you realize you’re hitting a boss and sometimes they’re not built fairly. That’s just beat-em-ups for you. If you’re not careful, you can get hit to a wall and get dogpiled unless you master the block and dodge. Some of the animations do look a bit janky if you’re spectating. But I’ll be honest with you: it really does play well so far and doing attacks & power moves felt natural and fun, making you feel some agency in a left-to-right beat-em-up that’s meant for arcade-style play. The 3D visuals may not be for everyone, but Arc System Works may have time to polish that all up.

Besides, didn’t one of the best Double Dragon games of all time sported the same kind of visuals at the time? It does goes to show that gameplay, levels, and controls can overshadow skin-deep beauty. Let’s hope that Double Dragon Revive is the case when it releases in 2025 for PC and consoles.