Double Dragon: Neon release date announced with plenty of high-fives

Billy and Jimmy are bad dudes, but not bad guys. They're bad dudes because they punch bad guys. See the difference? If not, you'll just have to wait until September 11th and 12th to figure it out for yourself, because that's the new official launch date for Double Dragon: Neon, a reboot of sorts of the classic arcade franchise.

It will first be coming to the PSN on Sept 11th for $9.99, then swiftly to XBLA the next day for the comparable sum of 800 Microsoft Points.

The most irresistible thing about this game is how self-aware it is about the ridiculousness of the 1980's arcade beat-em-up. This is not at all a straight port of the original concept, many of the locations and enemies return, but the characters are modeled in 3D and a lot of new content has been added. It also clearly includes a good sense of humor, mocking the flex-heavy faux masculinity that populated (otherwise awesome) games like Double Dragon and Contra.

The number of high-fives we've seen in screen shots for this game is very exciting, and will hopefully make up for the condemnable dearth of high-fives in the industry over the last two decades.

Andrew Groen

Andrew is a freelance video game journalist, writing for sites like Wired and GamesRadar. Andrew has also written a book called EMPIRES OF EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online.