Double Dragon

Between Punches and Flying Attacks: Ludonarrative Imaginaries in 1980s Beat 'em Up Games

This paper examines how 1980s beat 'em up video games drew on the social and cultural imaginaries of their era, particularly anxieties about urban violence in major American cities, and how intermedial ties to Hollywood cinema shaped their themes and design.

• The paper argues that 1980s beat 'em up games such as Renegade, Double Dragon, Final Fight, and Streets of Rage emerged from a feedback loop between lived social conditions and mediated representations, not as accidental products of a popular genre.
• The genre's origin is traced to Renegade (1986), which launched a series that grew to more than fifty releases across platforms.
• New York City recorded its highest number of criminal incidents in 1980, with a homicide rate roughly three times that of 2020, and these figures did not begin declining until the early 1990s.