Jeff (ジェフ Jefu) is a recurrent enemy character in the Double Dragon series. He is a palette swap of the Lee brothers (usually bearing a green color scheme and some sprite modifications), and likewise, he can employ their same fighting techniques.
He was introduced as the second boss of the arcade version of the original Double Dragon and since then he has made a few reappearances in some of the rest of the games that comprise the franchise. Noteworthy is that he was removed from some console versions of the first two games and replaced with other original enemies.
His main comeback took place in Super Double Dragon. In Wander of the Dragons (a remake of the NES/PC Engine version of Double Dragon II), he was given a backstory and a more relevant role in the plot, setting him as a former-friend-turned-rival of the Lee brothers.
Appearances[]
Double Dragon[]
Jeff appears in the arcade version of Double Dragon as the end boss of Mission 2. Prior to this, he's first seen in the opening sequence among other members of the Black Warriors when Marian is knocked unconscious and carried away.
Jeff is a head-swap of the Lee brothers who employs most of the same techniques as the player, lacking only the ability to use weapons. Despite this, he's still tougher than the regular grunts and can escape from hair grabs when he still has enough health left, making him a very difficult opponent to contend with when engaged among groups of enemies or even by himself. In addition to the initial boss version, grunt versions of Jeff also appear during the latter half of Mission 3 guarding the entrance to the gang's hideout, and at the end of Mission 4 to assist Willy during the final battle. These grunt versions of Jeff are colored differently from the boss version of the character.
The name "Jeff" was first used for the character in the Master System version published by Sega, which was released a few months after the NES version. However, due to a localization mishap, Jeff and Willy had their names swapped in the English version of the manual and many gaming publications incorrectly identified him as "Willy" as a result. Jeff's design in the Master System version is a bit different form his arcade counterpart, having a pompadour hairstyle similar to Billy and Jimmy's (instead of his characteristic widow's peak), but with different eyebrows. In contrast to the green outfit he wears by default in the arcade version, Jeff wears a gray outfit and has a red shirt.
In the NES version, Jeff and Jick (the other head-swapped enemy in the arcade version) were cut from the enemy roster, making them the only enemy characters who were not officially named by Technōs. Jeff in particular was replaced by a new enemy character named Chin Taimei. Since licensed conversions of the first Double Dragon (namely the home computer versions) used the backstory and character names from the NES version, their manuals listed Chin instead of Jeff as an enemy character, regardless of who was actually featured in the game.
In the Genesis port of Double Dragon, Jeff loses his unique face and appears simply as a recolored Lee brother. However, he's easier to defeat in this version since he cannot escape from the player's hair grab. In the game's manual, his artwork from the Master System manual is used for Roper. Jeff himself appears to be mislabeled "Willy" and given Roper's artwork in the manual.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge[]
Jeff is one of the few returning enemies in the arcade version of Double Dragon II who retains his original design, the other being Willy himself. He appears less sporadically in this game, only appearing three times in Mission 3, during the latter half of the stage in a red outfit, and once in Mission 4, during the final brawl. His fighting style is almost unchanged from the first game, with the only change being the fact that he throws grenades in Mission 3. He was cut from the Mega Drive port of the game and only appears in some of the home computer versions as a recolored Lee brother.
Likewise, Jeff was also cut from the NES version of Double Dragon II and a new enemy named Right Arm is often considered to be Jeff's replacement in that game.
Super Double Dragon[]
| “ | Practices his own rough style of Karate. Has a cowardly personality and prefers to use underhanded techniques. He serves as a supervisor among the lower-class members of the Shadow Warriors. | „ |
| ~ Translated description from the Return of Double Dragon manual |
Super Double Dragon is notably the only time Jeff has appeared in the console versions of the game produced by Technōs. In this game, he's a complete palette-swap of Billy Lee with a bronze skin tone and a green outfit. He's a recurring sub-boss throughout the game, appearing at least once per stage until Mission 5, his final appearance in the game. As a palette-swap of Billy, he has a similar repertoire of moves and can perform the hurricane kick at any time. Occasionally, he wields a throwing knife, a konbo stick or a nunchaku. He cannot be arm-grabbed like the other minor enemies, but the hair grab does work on him. There's no Jimmy based variant of Jeff in the game.
Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons[]
He was a senior Nunchaku martial artist. He used to train this art with brothers Billy and Jimmy, but he left and joined the Black Warriors, revealing them their weak points.
During Marian's kidnapping, he was treated as a boss, but he was demoted after being defeated by the brothers, as well as after the appearance of new member, Chin Taimei. However, he pledges revenge against them once again.[1]
Jeff is given a much more prominent role in Wander of the Dragons, now being some sort of a former-friend-turned-rival to the Lee brothers and fashioning an all-new, more rebellious look, now prominently wearing black garments instead of his usual green ones, which makes him resemble Right Arm instead, an enemy introduced in the NES version of Double Dragon II and who is considered to replace Jeff in that version of the game.
He's fought as a boss in one of the later missions, in front of an old tree bearing a heart carving made long ago where apparently Billy and Marian promised love to each other (with Jimmy's name scrapped on the side).
Jeff has all the moves of the Lee brothers and can perform them in very lengthy combos by chaining them all together in a quick barrage of attacks that are capable of beating down a full-health character in a single move.
He is also one of the four available characters in versus mode (the others being Billy, Jimmy and Marian).
- Profile
- Body type: Man A
- Gender: Male
- Age: Late 20s
- Personality: Vileness
- Features: Sōsetsuken
Gallery[]
Artworks and portraits[]
Sprites[]
_-_01.png "Jeff - Double Dragon (arcade) - 01.png (4 KB)")
Trivia[]
- In both the arcade versions of the first and second games, Jeff's appearance bares a resemblance to Bubba Zanetti from Mad Max (1979), mainly because of his hairstyle and being a mirror opposite to the main hero. In the Master System version, Jeff looks like an exact copy of Jimmy Lee, such as having the same blue duck-tail hairdo; while in Return of Double Dragon, his looks were changed into being more in the lines of an evil Billy Lee doppelgänger.
- Jeff's mugshot can be seen on the wanted posters in Missions 1 and 3 in Double Dragon.
- Jeff is the only character from the original Double Dragon to be entirely absent in Double Dragon Advance.
- In Double Dragon II: Wander of the Dragons, a 2013 remake of the NES version of Double Dragon II, Jeff was completely redesigned, now having an overall resemblance to Right Arm instead. Unlike his usual blond hair, green (or red) vest and pants, and tank top, Jeff now has pitch black hair, wears a white shirt with its sleeves folded up to his forearms, dark colored pants, and black fingerless gloves, resembling more Right Arm's attire.
- It's worth mentioning that Right Arm is often considered to be a replacement for Jeff in Double Dragon II, which could possibly hint to this redesign.
- In combat, unlike the Lee brothers, Jeff can interrupt an enemy's combo by performing an uppercut or elbow smash, and he can use the uppercut freely (while the heroes can only perform the uppercut in a stunned opponent). However, he can only hit the enemy once in a grab by the hair (while the Lee brothers can hit several times). And after being grabbed by a player's full-nelson, he can escape as the player does, immediately.
- ↑ An Introduction to Characters | Black Warriors at The Legend of Fighting Action Game: Double Dragon II.