Double Dragon (???(???????) ,Daburu Doragon?) is a 1987 beat-em-up developed by Technos Japan Corporation and distributed in North America and Europe by Taito. The game is a spiritual and technological successor to Technos' earlier beat-em-up, Renegade (released in Japan as Nekketsu Koha Kunio-kun, the first game in the Kunio-kun series),[citation needed] but introduced several additions such as two-player cooperative gameplay (hence the title) and the ability to arm oneself with an enemy's weapon after disarming them. Double Dragon is considered to be one of the first successful examples of the genre, resulting in the creation of two arcade sequels and several spinoffs.
Home versions of the game were released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Game Boy, Genesis/Mega Drive and Atari Lynx, among other platforms during the series' height of popularity. An enhanced remake titled Double Dragon Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2004. It was re-released for the Wii's Virtual Console in North America on April 28, 2008 at a cost of 500 Wii Points.
The kanji characters in the game's title literally reads Sosetsuryu (??? ?), which roughly means "Twin Intercepting Dragons", a reference to the game's title as well as a reference to "Sosetsuken", the fictional martial art style used by the Lee brothers. However, both the game and series are known as "Double Dragon" even in Japan.