Double Dragon Collection

The gameplay in most of the games takes place in a pseudo 3D perspective as seen in Renegade and later beat 'em ups, in which the player can move in four directions but is always facing left or right. In almost all cases the player moves to the right in a horizontally scrolling environment, encountering various enemies who attack and try to prevent the player from progressing. The player can perform a variety of unarmed fighting techniques against their enemies, as well as use melee weapons such as baseball bats and throwing knives normally obtained from enemies or found on the floor. In some installments, there are techniques that can be done in combination with another player, the game also has an elbow move that enables the player to move to keep hitting the enemy without getting hit when moving side to side on a fallen opponent.

Double Dragon was created by Yoshihisa Kishimoto, while working at Technōs Japan in the mid-1980s. As a designer, Kishimoto had success with the arcade brawler Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun, known as Renegade in the west, and work began on a sequel to the game. Higher figures in the company suggested that the next game should support two players, which led Kishimoto to develop Double Dragon as a spiritual successor rather than a direct sequel. The name was drawn from Enter the Dragon, which also inspired Kishimoto. Double Dragon was released in arcades in 1987.

The game was both a critical and commercial success for Technōs, in both domestic and international markets. The game popularised the genre and has been considered among the greatest games of all time. Work began on home console ports, including a Nintendo Entertainment System version in 1988, and a Game Boy version in 1990. Various licensed versions were also produced by other developers for gaming platforms such as the Master System, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Sega Genesis, Atari Lynx and for home computers.

While not the first games in the genre, the original Double Dragon titles laid the foundations for modern beat 'em up games. They influenced the creation of titles such as Golden Axe, Ninja Gaiden and Final Fight, which firmly established beat 'em ups as a popular game genre.

Double Dragon ushered in a "Golden Age" for the beat 'em up genre that took it to new heights with its detailed set of martial arts attacks and its two-player cooperative gameplay. Double Dragon's success resulted in a flood of beat 'em ups in the late 1980s. Subsequent beat 'em ups during the late 1980s to 1990s followed the conventions set by Double Dragon.