Everything under the sun has a roguelike mode now, and even previous beat-'em-up game Streets of Rage 4 added a mode in a patch. Double Dragon isn't the first franchise I would've guessed would follow suit, but a good beat-'em-up is already designed around roguelike gameplay. In the olden days, it was quarter munching, not meta progression, that guided the game. Despite the odd concept, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons has a lot of potential.

As you might guess, Double Dragon Gaiden plays a bit differently from the standard Double Dragon titles. In our preview build, we played the first stage or so, but even from that, it was clear this wasn't a standard Double Dragon title. Yes, it's still a beat-'em-up, but the core gameplay mechanics aren't built around small fights but larger battles and crowd-clearing super moves. In our brief playtime, it felt a bit more like Dynasty Warriors than Double Dragon.

To start with, you can choose from four characters, but more will be unlocked later. The default characters include Billy and Jimmy Lee; their childhood friend-turned-police officer Marian; and Marian's uncle Matin, who is a beefy, shield-wielding military soldier. Each of the characters has a different play style. Billy and Jimmy are close-up melee specialists and play the closest to a Double Dragon character. Marian fights with a pistol and various gadgets and can dodge attacks. Matin is slow and lumbering but can grab enemies and pound them into the ground. You choose two characters at the start of the game, and you can swap between them.

Just beating up enemies isn't good enough, though. A major element of the game is the SP move mechanic. Somewhat similar to Streets of Rage 4, your character has access to three different special moves. Each special move tends to have a different purpose. Marian can lay down a spark trap, use a rope to toss a distant enemy, or pull out a bazooka to blast multiple foes. Matin can charge enemies with his shield or perform bone-breaking special moves.

These SP moves are limited by a recharging SP meter. Using a move drains a portion of the meter (depending on the move), and no special moves can be used until it refills. In addition, you can't tag in your partner unless the bar is full. Doing damage or taking damage refills the bar quickly, so your standard hits (or gunshots) are less for dealing damage and more for building up your SP bar, so you can unleash another SP attack. It doesn't take much to refill your bar, so this isn't an emergency move. You'll use SP bars multiple times in a fight.

This also factors into the reward mechanics. Enemies who are not defeated with an SP move don't drop loot, but you have a somewhat generous window after their health reaches zero to hit them with an SP move and have it count. Since loot is used to unlock things in the in-game store, it's an important part of the game. Likewise, there's a "Crowd Control" mechanic, where defeating three or more enemies at once causes a health-restoring food item to drop. The more enemies defeated at once, the more rewarding the item. Even if you have full health, the item is worth a lot of money, so getting as many Crowd Controls as you can seems to be a priority. Since money can be used to buy upgrades for your characters, the better you fight, the more power you can gain.

DDG also has a lot of different customization options. At the start of the game, you can customize everything from enemy health and aggressiveness to how punishing the continue system is (ranging from unlimited to permadeath). The higher you pump up the difficulty, the more efficient trading gold for tokens (to unlock additional characters and artwork) will be.

There's a lot of potential in Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons. The nice variety of characters at the start of the game, combined with the surprisingly addictive fun of blowing up swarms of evil mooks with a bazooka, shows an addictive take on the beat-'em-up genre with its own pizzazz. We're less than a month away from the game's release date, so thankfully, we won't have to wait long to see if this dragon manages to rise above the rest.