The Double Dragon animated series loosely adapts the plot of the NES version for its first two episodes, having Jimmy as the show's initial antagonist. Jimmy's change of status from an antagonist to a protagonist in the NES versions of the sequels was left unexplained. The game's sequels on the same platform, Double Dragon II and III, both included their own 2-player co-op modes, thus having both Lee brothers as heroes again. While the arcade version did feature a fight between both brothers, it was an optional battle that occurs if both players defeat Willy together and was simply a contest over who wins Marian's affections. The title wouldn't had made much sense with just one of the Lee brothers in the game, so they made the other one into a bad guy. Presumably this change in the story was done due to developer Technos Japan's inexperience with the NES hardware at the time, making it difficult for them to work around the console's limitations and properly implement a 2-player cooperative mode in the game's conversion. Whereas the original arcade version had both Lee brothers working together to fight against the Black Warriors in order to rescue their female friend Marian, in the NES version Billy fights completely alone and Jimmy only shows up to confront him after Willy Mackey (the leader of the gang in the arcade version) is defeated by the player. It's too bad that Tradewest destroyed the franchise with this crap.In the NES version of the original Double Dragon, Jimmy Lee is the secret leader of the Black Warriors gang. Michael Donovan and Scott McNeil were not bad either. He could had used that talent as a Highlander villain instead of playing goody two-shoes Watcher, Joe Dawson (or maybe he could have a double role as well). Jim Byrnes makes a wonderful villain with his deep voice. The anti-drugs messages and voices are the only good part about this show. None of the supporting characters or villains were actually from the video game and the ones that were bore no resemblance with their videogame counterparts. I thought Double Dragon was about martial arts. Instead, they fought with magical swords instead. Billy and Jimmy wore ridiculous looking costumes and they didn't even use their martial arts. The animation was bad, the music was cheesy and the writers has obviously never touched a Double Dragon game in their life. This is one of the worst adaptation a video game could have. Then they wear ridiculous looking costumes. Jimmy is betrayed by the Shadow Master, so he becomes a good guy, teams up with Billy and unleash the power the Dragon Sword together, which splits in two. The Shadow Master kills off Abobo and Willy and replaced them with more incompetent bad guys (none which were actually featured in the videogames). In the series, we learn that Jimmy is actually a pawn of a guy called the Shadow Master (who looks nothing like his NES counterpart). However, Jimmy and Billy's female cop girlfirend, Marian, are kidnapped by the Shadow Warriors and Billy managed to beat the Shadow Bosses' two henchmen: Abobo and Willy and confronts the Shadow Boss, who at the end turns out to be Jimmy (surprise, surprise). It seems that everythings that happens to Billy, also happens to Jimmy (this includes stains on clothes). I don't remember much after that, except that Billy gets reunited with his long-lost twin brother, Jimmy. As a result, the old master advices Billy that he must leave (actually he dies, but they can't use that word in a Saturday Morning Cartoon), so Billy must take the Dragon Sword and protect Metro City (Ed's Note: W.A.M! I though this was based on Double Dragon, not Final Fight) from a group called the Shadow Warriors. Billy Lee is a martial artist who was raised by a wise old master. The pilot episode is loosely based on the NES version of the first Double Dragon (noticed the word loosely). A company called Tradewest took over the franchise in the U.S and they made this abomination of an animated series (among several other abominations) that eventually destroyed the franchise. While it was not the first of it's kind (Technos' Kunio-Kun came first), it was very popular and spawned three sequels at the Arcade and three home versions for the Famicom/NES and even a Super Famicom-only sequel, Return of Double Dragon. Double Dragon was originally an Arcade game by the late Technos Japan Corp., about two brothers trying to save their girl from a street gang.
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