Double Dragon
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Developer: Technos Japan
Platforms: Nintendo Entertainment System (NES)
Release Date: July 10, 1987
Why this game mattered: Cooperative platformers have never been particularly common, but Double Dragon is one of the few viewed as having "done it right" very early on in the history of the genre. Creating the space for people to play together in a combat environment just like an arcade game was a big deal, and the game lives on in history as one of the greats as a result.
Fun fact: The way you can only fight two identical enemies at the same time was due to a technical limitation of the hardware the game was originally developed for. There wasn't enough memory for multiple enemy types on the screen at the same time.
Future games influenced by this title: Castle Crashers and Frog Smashers
Where you can play it today: You can punch some bad guys in Double Dragon now on Nintendo Switch Online.
