Sonny Lee

Sonny Lee^[1] is a playable character introduced in the arcade version of Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone. He is Billy and Jimmy Lee's distant cousin, and is also a martial arts master. After his debut in Double Dragon 3, he has occasionally appeared in some of the series' sequels and spin-offs.

Appearances

Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone

The inclusion of Sonny Lee in the arcade version of Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone was merely to provide another Lee brother for a third player to play as (due to the game allowing multiple players to control the same character type). As such, he wasn't given an official backstory, and his relation to Billy and Jimmy –whether he was actually a third sibling, a distant relative, or simply a fellow martial artist– was left to ambiguity.

Because the export version of the game forced players to start the game as a Lee brother and acquire the other character types through in-game shops, Sonny served as the default third player character in that version (as opposed to the Japanese version, which allowed players to start the game as any character type). As a result, Sonny is prominently shown alongside Billy and Jimmy in the American flyer and cabinet art, which depicted him wearing black pants and a yellow tank top instead of the actual outfit he wears in the game, making him stand out next to the other Lee brothers.

Double Dragon IV

Sonny returned as an unlockable character in Double Dragon IV. While he still wasn't given a background story, it's worth mentioning he was given a different moveset than the Lee brothers, which, while not necessarily makes him more powerful, does raise the question on why his fighting style is different (when and where he learned it, and if he was estranged from Billy and Jimmy during their raising as martial artists).

River City Girls 2

Sonny makes a special cameo appearance near the ending of this game, when Sabuko mentions he has strapped a bomb to the protagonists' "friends", so they have to go rescue them. Sonny is one of these "friends", and is found in Ocean Heights. However, none of the protagonists have a clue who he is (including Marian). He talks about how he is the third "Double Dragon", saying how just because he doesn't appear in every adventure doesn't mean he isn't just as important. He doesn't appear anywhere else in the game.

Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons

Sonny was included in this game as part of the Sacred Reunion DLC on April 4, 2024. In this game, Sonny is finally stated to be the Lee brothers' distant cousin.

Gallery

Artworks

Sprites

Trivia

• Sonny is prominently featured in the artwork of the Tiger Electronics Double Dragon 3 LCD video game, which is reused from the arcade game's American promotional flyer. Despite this, he is never mentioned in the manual, which instead mentions three of the four heroes from the NES version (Billy, Chin and Yagyu).
• In a prototype version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge for arcade, Jimmy (Player 2) wore a yellow outfit much like the one Sonny wears. This was due to Jimmy originally sharing his palette data with Marian, who wears a yellow dress in the game.
• East Technology, the developers of Double Dragon 3, would reuse the name "Sonny" for another playable character in their beat 'em up game, Silent Dragon.
• Sonny bears some resemblance to Mr. K from Target; Renegade (from the Renegade series, the English localized spin-off of the Kunio-kun series), having the same colors he wears in the PC version. However, it is unknown if there is any relation between both characters or if this is merely a coincidence.

References