Rage of the Dragons is a tag team fighting game released for the Neo Geo in 2002. It was originally intended to be a sequel to the Double Dragon fighting game released for the Neo-Geo in 1995, but Evoga, the developer of the game, couldn't get the rights to the characters, so the game became more of a homage to the series. This is most evident when one looks at Jimmy and Billy Lewis, who are based on the similarly named Lee brothers from the original Double Dragon games. Sub-boss Abubo also resembles Abobo from the first game. In May 2020, Piko Interactive acquired the intellectual property of the game.
This game provides examples of:
- Acrofatic: Kang Jae-Mo. The wrestler is large, fat, can rack up surprisingly fast combos, and has lots of spinning attacks.
- Alice Allusion: Alice Carroll. If her name alone isn't enough of a tip-off (her surname is from Lewis Carroll, writer of the original books), then the fact she's a young girl in a blue-and-white dress from England should be. Her "dislike" listed on her bio is "rabbits."
- All There in the Manual: In-game, you get most of the story from the characters' endings. To get the full story and understand all of what's going on, you need to track down copies of the legend of the dragons and the background story. The Double Dragon fansite Double Dragon Dojo as well as the SNK Wiki are good sources for this, but there are other sources around as well.
- Anti-Hero: Jimmy. He's on the side of good, but he's constantly hot-headed and angry and has a dark past. Also, most of his win quotes involve him telling the opponent to go away and quit bothering him.
- Apologetic Attacker: A lot of Cassandra's win quotes are some form of apologizing for the beat-down she just delivered.
- As the Good Book Says...: Minor example with Elias. A lot of his win quotes attempt to "save" the opponent, though in his case it's more "saving the opponent from self-destructive tendencies" rather than "saving them for God."
- Badass Family: Radel is part of a dwindling dragon hunter clan that is believed to be descended from Siegfried, a dragon slayer. Lynn received most of her martial arts skills from her grandfather, who unfortunately dies of old age in the game's backstory. Oni and Cassandra are a Badass Adopted Family.
- Badass Preacher: Elias is a man of the cloth who is able to literally kick arse for the Lord.
- Big Man on Campus: Pepe is one of the most popular guys in his school, despite the fact that he constantly gets into trouble due to his adventuresome spirit. His "Big Man" status is because he is generous and friendly and outgoing to everyone.
- Brother–Sister Incest: Cassandra and Oni. Oni is Cassandra's adopted older brother (they're both orphans and not blood-related), but a lot of the motivation for Cassandra's behavior revolves around Oni. She withdraws from society partially to avoid upsetting him or making him jealous in addition to her autism, she tags along with him during the tournament to help sate his bloodlust so he won't cause too much destruction, and in Oni's backstory Oni attacked her in her sleep out of his addiction to fighting and yet when Cassandra doesn't know what happened only that Oni left (in reality, Elias sent Oni away because of the aforementioned "attacked in sleep" incident), she left the orphanage too just because he did. The only part of Cassandra's motivation that doesn't revolve around Oni is that she wants to know the truth about her parents and her and Oni's past. On Oni's part, he affectionately nicknames her "Cass", becomes angry enough to kill Johann just because Cassandra took one of Johann's blows for Oni, and while he sometimes bullies his sister he also sees Cassandra as his "lone treasure" in the world. The player would be forgiven for mistaking these two as lovers instead of "adopted siblings."
- But Now I Must Go: Elias in Elias and Alice's ending. Elias leaves Alice thinking that he died to save her, but it's for the greater good: he needs to search for the Black Dragon, and Alice needs to live a free life.
- Captain Ersatz: The Lewis brothers and Abubo to the Lee brothers and Abobo in Double Dragon.
- Color-Coded Characters: All characters have a specific color associated with them on the character select and VS screens:
- Crossover: Four characters (Jimmy, Lynn, Elias, and Mr. Jones) appear in another game produced by Noise Factory, Matrimelee. Due to licensing issues, they were left out from the PS2 port.
- Cute, but Cacophonic: Alice is a nice gal but she's possessed by an evil spirit. The spirit is the one with the screaming, screechy voice, not her; she speaks normally in Elias and Alice's ending.
- Dynamic Entry: Unlike most tag team games, the character rushing into the battlefield, instead of flying in from the side of the screen, runs up to the opponent and delivers a standing attack.
- Female Angel, Male Demon: Cassandra and Oni are themed around this. Oni uses sharp claws and fire in his moveset and has hair shaped like horns, while Cassandra wears pure white clothing and uses angel themed moves like "Angel Slash" and "Innocence".
- Gratuitous English: A shining example even by Japanese fighting game standards. Nearly everyone speaks piss poor English, with Elias, Billy, and Jimmy speaking more of it than they do Japanese.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sonia, but not in-game. It's in her backstory. And Sonia face-turned twice! She was raised as an assassin under one of her father's partners, only to find out it was her boss who killed her parents in the first place, and that she'd ended up murdering innocent people in her boss's way. This caused her to flee to America and join Johann's Black Dragon sect. But her relationship with Johann also ended up troubled and she only stayed for the money. She then falls in love with Jimmy while out on a job and decided to tag along with him.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- In Annie and Radel's ending, Radel sacrifices himself to protect Annie from a last-minute attack by the Black Dragon. Unfortunately, this may not have been a good idea; his death leaves Annie distraught and wondering what to do next, as a mysterious figure in Johann's clothes watches...
- Subverted in Elias and Alice's ending. Alice thinks Elias sacrificed himself to save her, but in reality, Elias left Alice to follow the Lord's command to search for the Black Dragon, and Elias thinks Alice can handle herself now.
- Identity Amnesia: Neither Oni nor Cassandra remembers anything about their past before their stay at the orphanage. They're looking for answers from to who their parents are as well as to the source of the powers inside them.
- Left Hanging: Since there's been no sequel, almost everyone in their respective endings. Billy and Jimmy realize the Black Dragon was only the beginning, Jimmy might soon be consumed with the Red Dragon's power he feeds with hate, Sonia is left chasing after Jimmy again, Radel is killed and Annie may or may not fall under the thrall of a mysterious figure wearing the same outfit as Johann, Cassandra and Oni still have no answers as to the source of the rage inside them, Pepe and Pupa never did find Pupa's brother, and Alice is freed from the spirit but now she thinks Elias is dead because Elias left to find the Black Dragon and so Alice could live a free life. Only Jones and Kang get a completely happy ending (Lynn may also count, though). Abubo isn't left hanging but his election win is marred by rumors of corruption. All of the above may or may not be canon.
- Not Quite the Right Thing: Radel's sacrifice in his and Annie's ending may have done more harm than good; Annie is so distraught at his death that it leaves her vulnerable to a mysterious Johann-dressed figure.
- Psycho Ex-Girlfriend: Psycho Ex-Boyfriend Johann, if one is being completely literal. Sonia, in her backstory, actually got into a torrid relationship with Johann, but it didn't go well, to say the least, and now she has her sights on Jimmy. Johann's a psycho, and this makes him Sonia's ex-boyfriend, but he's not really an example of this towards her.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: Billy and Jimmy. The colors they wear (and the Blue and Red Dragons' powers they wield) match the personalities of this: Billy wears blue and is much more calm and level-headed, giving advice to Jimmy about not being too hate-filled (and Billy has a steadier romantic life, to boot; he and Lynn have a cute romantic moment in their ending while Jimmy can't get past his previous girlfriend's death and Sonia must continue to chase him). Jimmy wears red and is constantly hot-headed and angry, refusing attempts at the camaraderie and brooding over the death of his previous girlfriend, who was killed in a gang fight that Jimmy partially caused due to his conflicts with the gang.
- Sheltered Aristocrat: Annie was this in her backstory. She's descended from an archaic family of psychics and led a secluded lifestyle until the patriarch asked her to be a guide for the dragon hunter Radel.
- Self-Made Man:
- Kang trained himself to be a wrestler, which is how he gained fame in his backstory. In Mr. Jones' backstory, he gained fame for himself both as a fighter and an actor based on his own skills as he traveled from city to city protecting the weak. And in Jones and Kang's ending, Kang succeeds in his real dream, becoming a big-shot movie producer by producing the movie whose starring role helps Jones fulfill his dream, becoming a stylish "Dragon" by starring in the movie and winning an award.
- Billy has made a bit of fame and fortune for himself on the street racing professional circuit, which is basically his "day job" when he's not training in martial arts. Lynn has a habit of dodging some of the harsher training to go to the mall and buy clothes; to make money to pay for shopping, she gives martial arts lessons to students in the backyard of the dojo (they appear on her stage and in her ending; they're also little kids which is why Lynn is qualified to teach them despite still training herself).
- Shout-Out: Mr. Jones strongly resembles Jim Kelly from Bruce Lee's ''Enter the Dragon'' as well as the black man who challenged Bruce Lee in ''Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story''.
- SNK Boss: In the finest traditions of Neo Geo 2D fighter end bosses, Johann is friggin' brutal. The biggest problem is just how much priority his flame pillar gives him, which makes closing in on him almost impossible, never mind his ability to throw you out of anything, his total immunity to chip damage, and his input-reading AI.
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Spiritual Successor: Of Double Dragon (Neo Geo). - Two-Timer Date: Depending on how you interpret Pepe's behavior in Pepe and Pupa's ending, either Pepe intentionally tried to set this up with both his girlfriend Pau and his fighting partner Pupa, or he did it by accident not realizing he'd scheduled them both at the same time. It obviously doesn't work; the ending ends with both Pau and Pupa mad at him.
- Wrench Wench: Pupa. And she'll hit you with it, too.
- You Killed My Father:
- Radel's backstory, although without the "swearing vengeance" part of this trope. His parents, part of a dwindling dragon hunter clan, were killed by the Black Dragon. They sort of get avenged in Radel and Annie's ending: Johann, who is currently wielding the Black Dragon, falls, but at the cost of Radel's life. And the Black Dragon survives anyway promising to be back for Annie.
- Lynn is also motivated by a murdered relative, in her case her grandfather...sort of. The man wielding the Black Dragon would have killed him but the old master succumbed to old age before the fight; Lynn assumes that the dead body on the floor is courtesy of the strange man she saw in the dojo. Again, this is without the "swearing revenge" part of this trope.
- You No Take Candle: A very minor example with Pupa. Her backstory notes that Pupa speaks "broken English," which combined with her wrench wench hobbies and attractive looks actually made her popular among her classmates. Her win quotes are in fact in broken English, but not all of them, and it's not glaring.
