Game:

Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones (1990)

Duration: 9:49

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This is the Genesis port of the pretty infamous Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone, which was originally released by Technos Japan Corp. and East Technology in 1990 released on a variety of platforms such as NES (loosely related to the original Arcade game, especially the heavily altered U.S. release), Game Boy, and a variety of home computer platforms. It is largely considered the series' first downward spiral into mediocrity, with only the NES adaptation getting lukewarm reception due to it actually being less like the original game. The game goes under various names such as "Double Dragon III", "Double Dragon 3", "Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone(s)", and "Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game", even in spite of what it actually says in-game.

The Genesis game is one of the closest adaptations to the original Western arcade version, which differed in several ways from its Japanese counterpart. In the game, Billy and Jimmy Lee are heading back home from a training trip when they cross paths with a fortuneteller named Hiruko, who cryptically tells the brothers to gather the three "Rosetta Stones" scattered across the world to face a new adversary waiting for them in Egypt. The story makes little sense and when you see how generic the game is in action, it somehow manages to make even less sense, but it is nonetheless an excuse to go on another adventure.

The Genesis game features a numerical health system and many graphics and traits from the (Western) Arcade game including the original five levels, but limits the number of playable characters from three to two. Like the (Western) version, players cannot (exactly) select the other playable characters from the start. Instead, the Western version features shops not found in the Japanese version where you can purchase upgrades, moves, and characters that were available from the start in the Japanese release. Purchasing these things costs credits, of which you have a minimum of fifteen to start with. You can play with the other characters, but they only appear when Billy or Jimmy dies in-game and you can't select which ones you want, which is really stupid (you can select different teams in the options though). They also don't fight as well as Billy or Jimmy for the most part, but if you manage to have them survive until they reach a shop, you can upgrade them and teach them new moves as well. Generally-speaking however, they are very poorly implemented and a waste of credits (barring one of them). The graphics are pretty respectable and the music in this conversion is actually pretty good.

What really brings this game down however is the unbelievable cheapness of the A.I., poor collision detection, and the backwards approach to the gameplay, which has made many people consider the game vastly inferior to DD2, curse the game, and deem it nearly impossible to finish within fifteen credits. While the A.I. is very cheap (mirroring nearly all your actions and beating you down in waves, taking tons of health with each blow later on), you "can" overcome them with various tactics which you'll see in these videos, where I finish by myself with plenty of credits to spare.

However, just because I made it look pretty easy doesn't mean this is a good game and that people are wrong for criticizing it; quite frankly, I think it sucks. It's not "horrible", but when a lot of my strategy consists of constantly jumping to minimize damage due to invincibility upon standing (which is absent from the Arcade game, making it harder) and "hoping" my hits connect while incorporating the occasional "trick" attack, that's just wrong... no self-respecting beat-em-up brawler should be like that and this game is just poorly designed and not much fun to play. Not only that, but the final boss is ridiculously easy compared to anyone else in this game and takes off virtually no health... even regular punks can get a hit off of you. Talk about anti-climatic.