Posted in: Games, Retro Games, Video Games | Tagged: Neo Geo, PIKO, Playmore, Rage Of The Dragons

Rage Of The Dragons IP Has Been Acquired By PIKO

Published Sun, 10 May 2020 21:40:58 -0500

It looks like arcade fans will get to see something cool from Rage Of The Dragons as the IP has now been purchased by PIKO Interactive. If you're not familiar with this title, that's totally fine, it's more of an awesome hidden gem that had a couple of things going against it as far as promotion and marketing. First off, it was primarily an arcade title that was released in 2002. It's a tag-team fighter in which each player picks two characters and can switch between them during the fight, and it originally was meant to be a part of the Double Dragon franchise until they couldn't secure the rights. So it became its own thing with original characters that are kinda based on the DD series, highlighted by the two brothers as main characters, Billy & Jimmy Lewis. The game was released on console, but not a readily available one. In 2002 with systems like the original Xbox and the PS2 available, they went with the Neo Geo AES. Which fits well for an arcade fighter, but not great for commercialization and popularity.

A poster for the original Rage Of The Dragons video game.

That's pretty much the gist of the franchise as it did okay in arcades and has a place in the hearts of gamers who had a Neo Geo. But like so many games with potential in that era, it just quietly went away to become a rarity cabinet and a collector's item. Now with PIKO Interactive holding the IP, that could greatly change. The real question is what PIKO intends to do with Rage Of The Dragons in the long-term. We're pretty confident, based on their own track record, that we're going to get a re-release of the original 2002 title in multiple formats. But does the company have the desire to create a brand new game from scratch and try to market it as a modern-day fighting game?

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