One of last year's most nostalgic retro beat 'em ups is getting an online co-op mode

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons — (Image credit: Secret Base)

Retro beat 'em up Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of Dragons will soon be getting an online co-op mode, its developer just wants to perfect single-player first.

In an interview with Retro Gamer (Issue 249), developer Secret Base discussed its future plans with its recently released fighting game, Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of Dragons. Despite launching just last week, the developer already has plans to incorporate an online co-op mode, it just might take a while as "making a game work online is a little bit harder," the studio's founder Raymond Teo tells Retro Gamer.

"It requires a lot of work and testing and we want to make sure that part is in a good state when we roll it out," Teo explains. "A lesson I have learned from the past is that, despite the effort to make sure a game will be multiplayer, a lot of players actually end up playing single-player, so we want to make sure that the player has a good single-player experience," the developer continues.

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Elaborating using their own experiences growing up, Teo adds: "As a kid, I often played beat 'em-ups by myself and, if you can introduce a good mechanic, then you can improve the experience. So we want to make sure it works for one or two players locally then, eventually, be like, OK, once all of that is ready let's look at how we can integrate the multiplayer [online] aspect." So we may be waiting a little while to test out the new feature ourselves, but it already sounds like it'll be worth the wait.

If this is the first time you're hearing about Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons, let us fill you in. Released on July 27, 2023, this beat 'em up is a new addition to the long-running fighting game series that originally started in arcade cabinets back in 1987. There's been a lot of iterations over the years, but this particular entry in the series includes roguelite elements and will allow players to team up with a friend via local co-op.

Looking for something else to play? Take a look at our best fighting games list for inspiration.

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After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training. My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.