The Bat is a recurring melee weapon in the Double Dragon series. It is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the sport of baseball to hit the ball after it is thrown by the pitcher. While not intended to be used as a weapon, it nonetheless more than makes for a handy and effective device that can be used for melee combat. It was introduced in the original arcade version of Double Dragon, being in fact the very first weapon to appear in the entire series.
It apparently is Williams's favorite weapon, as it is him who normally can be seen bringing it into the fight.
It is generally swung in a powerful, two-handed, horizontal motion, which, besides considerably enhancing the wielder's melee reach, will instantly knock down enemies while inflicting increased damage.
The bat was replaced by the Shovel in the arcade version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge, where it behaves almost exactly the same but was also given the ability to be thrown straightforward for a single use ranged attack, after which the weapon is lost. In the NES version of the same game, the bat was replaced by the Iron Pipe, having pretty much the same behavior as the shovel (i.e., being able to be thrown at enemies).
Despite its rather iconic status in the series, the bat didn't reappear in another Double Dragon game until the remakes of the first game developed by Million (Double Dragon Advance and the Zeebo and mobile remakes) and later in Double Dragon Neon.
Trivia[]
- The inclusion of this specific weapon in the original Double Dragon might be inspired by the 1979 gangs-themed action-drama film The Warriors, which the game is heavily inspired on. In one scene, the eponymously named protagonists battle a rival band called "The Baseball Furies", whose members, not to much surprise, use baseball bats as their trademark weapons.