Double Dragon II: The Revenge started life as an upgrade kit for the original Double Dragon arcade machine and became a standalone game once more memory was available. Technōs Japan released it in arcades in late 1988. It was designed by Yoshihisa Kishimoto, with music by Kazunaka Yamane. The story opens with Marian being killed by the leader of the Black Warriors, and the final boss is a Doppelganger, a clone of Billy or Jimmy.
The Famicom version, released in Japan on 22 December 1989, is a reworked game rather than a direct arcade port. Acclaim published it on the NES in North America in January 1990. Home computer ports by Binary Design followed in Europe, and Japan later got an arcade-faithful Mega Drive port and a CD-ROM remake for the PC Engine.
In 2013 the Internet Archive published the assembly sources of the DOS version.12
Names and releases
| Region | Title on the box | Platform | Date | Publisher | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NA | Double Dragon II: The Revenge | Arcade | November 1988 | Technōs Japan | 1 |
| NA | Double Dragon II: The Revenge | NES | Jan 15, 1990 | Acclaim Entertainment | 1 |
| JP | ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジsources differ: en.wikipedia gives December 1988, ja.wikipedia (series article) gives 1989 | Arcade | 1988 | Technōs Japan | 1 |
| EU | Double Dragon II: The Revenge | Arcade | January 1989 | Technōs Japan | 1 |
| JP | ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジFamicom; a reworked version, not a direct arcade port | NES | Dec 22, 1989 | Technōs Japan | 2 |
| EU | Double Dragon II: The Revengeport of the arcade game by Binary Design; also Atari ST, C64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum | Amiga | December 1989 | Virgin Mastertronic | 1 |
| JP | ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジMega Drive port of the arcade game | Genesis | Dec 20, 1991 | Palsoft | 1 |
| JP | ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジCD-ROM remake | TurboGrafx-16 | 1993 | Naxat Soft | 1 |
| WW | Double Dragon Trilogycompilation (arcade version) first released in 2013 on iOS and Android; Steam release date shown | Windows | Jan 15, 2015 | DotEmu | 3 |
| WW | Arcade Archives Double Dragon II: The Revengearcade version | PlayStation 4 | 2016 | Hamster | 1 |
| WW | Arcade Archives Double Dragon II: The Revengearcade version | Switch | 2018 | Hamster | 1 |
| WW | Double Dragon II: The RevengeNES version added to Nintendo Switch Online | Switch | Jun 12, 2019 | Nintendo | 4 |
Also known as: ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジ JP2DOUBLE DRAGON II The Revenge JP2
Box art by region
NA Double Dragon II: The Revenge 
JP ダブルドラゴンII ザ・リベンジ
Box art © its publishers, shown to identify each release. Scans: libretro-thumbnails.
Version differences
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GameplayArcadeNES
The NES game is very different from the arcade original, which uses two directional attack buttons (left and right) instead of punch and kick.1
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DifficultyFamicom (JP)NES (NA/EU)
In Japan all nine missions are playable on any difficulty. In the Western NES release, Practice ends after Mission 3, Warrior after Mission 8, and only Supreme Master reaches the final mission.5
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DifficultyFamicom (JP)NES (NA/EU)
The Famicom version offers continues by default, while the Western release hides them behind a code on the Game Over screen; the Japanese Difficult setting is also harder than Supreme Master.5
Translations
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English Official
Acclaim Entertainment1990NES · Japanese Famicom versionReleased · complete
Acclaim published the official English NES release in 1990.1
Where to play legally today
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Nintendo Switch Online Subscription
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Steam Purchase
Reception
In March 1989 Game Machine listed the arcade game as Japan's seventh most popular table arcade unit. The home computer ports did well with the UK press; Sinclair User gave the Spectrum version 87%.1
In lists
Sources
- 1en.wikipedia.org
- 2ja.wikipedia.org
- 3store.steampowered.com
- 4gameinformer.com
- 5tcrf.net
- 6nintendo.com
- 7ja.wikipedia.org
Checked: 2026-10-13Text reviewed: 2026-10-13
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