Customer Reviews

Double Dragon III

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

That's right, folks! This is another beat-up-the-bad-guys-and-save-the-girl video game from the makers of. . . actually Technos made this game. I know next to nothing about Technos. Double Dragon is a game of three distinct trigger actions: jumping, punching, and kicking; and seeing as how the standard NES controller has only two trigger buttons, Tehcnos decided in part 3 (as with the previous games) to make jumping accessible by through pressing the both the punch and kick buttons simultaneously (there is lenience so both buttons do not need to be pressed at the exact same time). From a jump, you can perform one of three attacks as Billy or Jimmy: cyclone spin-kick (A or B), arial kick (left or right and B), or monkey-flip your opponent (left or right and A). When monkey-flipping your opponent, you somersaut over your opponent, grab his/her head or hair, and toss him/her through the air. This is especially fun when fighting on ledges -- just make sure you don't get too close and fall off, yourself.
On the downside, there are no playable females (which seems to bother only myself). You can still fight against a few female thugs though.
Another hex is the high level of difficulty that stems from the questionable play-control. For example, the first boss (who somehwat resembles the Jack of Hearts) has a long reach which makes him hard to hit and he often ducks when you try to whack him with your cyclone spin-kick, leaving you open for attack, thanks to a lagging recovery. You also cannot monkey-flip some enemies.
As for Chin and Ranzou, these two have slightly different attack methods from the Double Dragons:
Chin has a diving Kamikaze head-butt which is activated through jumping towards your an enemy and then pressing A. When your press A or B after jumping, he does some weird air dance that only attacks from one side. His weapon is the iron claw, similar to Vega from Street Fighter.
Yagu Ranzou is (in my opinion) the best character. He uses a katana instead of his bare fists and he can use his other weapon 20 times (as opposed to Chin and the Lee brothers who can only use their's five). Ranzou's weapon is the shuriken (or flying ninja star).
You can play as Chin and Ranzou only after you have beaten them.
Billy and Jimmy's weapons are the nunchukues.

Note: in case you buy this game used and without an instruction manual, you need to hold the Select button for two or three seconds during gameplay to activate the options menu for using your weapon and/or changing characters. Have fun.

Join Billy and Jimmy in a similtaneous brawling on the streets game. This is the same game as ever, just with less graphics. They tried to incorporate a new idea to this game by having Billy and Jimmy on a quest around the world to find Billy's girlfriend Maria. The game gets very old quickly because of how long it is and the lack of enemy variety.

Out of the 3 NES Double Dragon games, I think those of us who played all 3 and weren't just stuck with owning one of the 3 back in the day would probably overall agree Double Dragon II is the best of the series. Double Dragon 1 was tough, but fine, Double Dragon II was just about perfect, and when we heard DDIII was about to come out, anticipation was at a high to play it.

However what most of us found was a game not equal to DDI or II. I think like many at first who played this after the first 2, wondered why the heck the game was so hard and lacked options to make it easier. Both the original games started off on the street, this one starts in a Dojo... okay, maybe they wanted to try something new, but it seemed to be wrong from the start. Straight away you start off against 1 opponent, once you beat them you have to go talk to a friend dieing on the side of the screen who tells you he tried to stop the new bad guys, but he couldn't, and the main person to beat is... that's what it says, "is..." leaving it like a mystery as he dies. I guess that would be fine, but it's the way its shown... DD1 has a cut scene of Marian being kidnapped before you play, DDII explains it in the intro that you can skip, but in DDIII you have to wait a few seconds for this on screen dialog/talk to hurry up and finish before you can resume, and that is just an annoying step backwards.

Next up you find your moves you got used to from DDI or DDII are again something different. I used to think the only way to improve DDII would be to have included the ground punches and head-butt moves back into the game. Now DDIII has a few familiar moves, but lacks in them. In Double Dragon II you relied a lot on your jumping 360 kick that you could preform from the jumping up or down, or jumping to the left and right, in Double Dragon III you can only perform it by jumping up and down, you can not execute the move jumping in either direction, which is a shame. Also needed was the return of the jumping-power-knee and super-uppercuts from DDII, but they are sorely missed in DDIII... even the reverse elbow smash from DDI would have been a nice addition.

So what has been added to the 3rd one, move wise? Apart from regular kicks and punches, the only returning move is the jumping 360 kick, which you can not do jumping left or right now. A run feature has been included and a move where you can jump and flip over your opponent, grab their hair and throw them across the screen... you can also now do a move where if you run at a wall, you can bounce off the wall with a super flying kick, which is a decent move if you can do it.. and there is also a couple of double-team moves for 2 players; one is a flying kick your partner helps throw you in, and the other is a joined hand dancing spin kick fest that is probably the best move in the game, but can only be done in 2 player mode... Double Dragon 3 really had lacked in quality from the other Double Dragon games as being a great game on 2 player, or single play.

It almost seems like this game was being designed, and new ideas where just not working; so instead of scrapping the game or improving what flaws it had to be a great game, they released a demo and forgot to tell people to send in their thoughts to help improve the game. Even in the 2 player intro screens, the game says the two heroes are Billy & Bimmy Lee... Bimmy? A spelling error like that in a NES game? Or maybe it is correct, maybe Jimmy Lee refused to be in this sarky game, so ACCLAME asked their retarded cousin Bimmy to be in it instead? The other thing that bugs me is your enemies are not supposed to be Shadow Warriors from the previous Double Dragons... then why does Linda, Williams and whatever other enemies make a return?

What makes this game harder from the previous DD games is the lack of options, there simply isn't any. You can make the game even harder by selecting 2 player B and beating up player two so you can solo play against twice as many enemies... but if you wanna make the game easier, you will need a pro-action-replay or something to help you cheat.

The biggest issue with this version is extra lives... there isn't any! You get 1 life... you die, you're out! Do not pass go, do not collect 2up hundred dollars... nope, you're screwed. If you can manage to beat two other character in the game, some slow and fat ninja guy and a samurai, these guys will become your extra life. You can choose to select these guys by pressing select and choosing them to take over, or if you die as who you are in the game, one of these guys will take over as your main character... what I do not get is why the heck couldn't Jimmy be selectable in a 1 player game as your back up life? There is a little trick you can do to make that so, what you do is start the game on 2 player B and beat up Jimmy, or should I say, the retarded cousin of the Lee brothers, Bimmy, who accidentally misspells his own name on the game-play screen as Jimmy. Anyway, beat the first baddie, then beat up JimmBimm until your next hit will be the one that kills him. Then position him sort of in the middle of the room in a way that when you perform your jumping spinning 360 kick, he lands on the guy you have to talk to. If done right, Jimmy will activate him talking to you guys, instead of dieing. Then, make sure BillyBobJim doesn't die during the battle with the next few bad guys. Once the Dojo enemies are gone, have Jimmy exit the room first, then Billy. When you emerge from the room on the street, Jimmy will be gone, but if you press select, Jimmy is there as your 2nd option of character and your backup life.... however, don't use Jimmy till you have reached level two, as he will still have the ready to die energy he had from your beating until it regenerates in level two.

Now, as I was saying about the extra guys you can choose. They are useless, what moron thought it would be a good idea to allow you to use two extra characters that are just about useless? As boss enemies, they are decent, but to play as them is pretty weak, especially if you lose Billy/BimpDaddyJimbo and are stuck playing the rest of the game as one of these losers... as I did, getting stuck with the Samurai guy to finish the game off and yet somehow the dead Jimmy still gets the glory in the end.

So, I haven't said many positive things about the game yet... one option I do like is your option to swap characters during game play and have a special weapon you can choose to use at any time... however, unless you know how to rom hack like I did and add Jimmy as your second character by default play, and also have unlimited use of the special weapons... not to mention invincibility... then they are more something you have to plan and use strategies for when you are going to use them and how. Using cheats like that was the only way I could beat this game. Maybe you are good enough to do it without using any methods of cheats... but being someone who can beat Double Dragon II with my eyes closed and then coming into DDIII like someone who dies on the first goomba of Mario Bros, it really pi..cheesed... me off.

Once game play was over and done with, I was not impressed one little bit with the ending of the game. At least the first II Double Dragons showed something that made you feel like you had passed the game.. but this ones text "where are they now" screens really do show the lack of thought and imagination put into this game .."Billy & BJimmy rode off into the sunset to teach Kung Fu, while FuMan Chu and Tom Cruise become emperors of Kmart discounts" what kind of ending is that? No scenes, no decent ending, just a "what happened to them, bye" screen. I hate these games that are so hard to beat, and reward you with nothing once it's over. I suppose it's not quite nothing, nothing would be a single screen with no pictures saying, "thanks for playing, sorry you wasted so much time to see this text, bye". But this game here may as well have said just that.

So I guess that's why I don't particularly like DDIII. Not on the NES anyway... least the Arcade version was pretty decent and even allowed a 3rd player... but most importantly, had extra lives for as long as you could drop coins into it. And you know what the worse thing about it is? It's one of those rare times when you can truly say, even the Sega had a better version the NES. Sure the nes version isnt as bad as the GameGear version, but it's sad when even the GameBoy has a better version then the NES.

I think with the lack of effort put into the game, and it's terrible reward for beating the game, that is why it is so hard. The game makers don't want you to be able to beat it, so you can see just how unrewarding it is. At last moment before they decided to release it, like I was saying before about it being a demo... I really think game testers where thinking that the game is so bad, give people 1 life so they can't advance to the end and see just how sh/badly we have made this version, but because DDI & II sold so well, this one is guaranteed to make us a few bucks anyway, so just release it as it is now, no one will see the end of it anyway.

Dispite what people are saying about the graphics and how long the game is, I personally think it is a good and fun game to play! Compared to how video games are now, I enjoy playing video games from back in the day when things actually made since! If you're a Double Dragon fan, I think you won't get tired of this game in my opinion. Don't hate just because the game is good.

fun dd game but man is this game hard. you have no lives just a health bar, 2 player game doesn't help. the enemies are very difficult, its usually 2 at a time but don't let them surround you or they'll beat the crap out of you. along the way you fight different bosses in some countries, once defeated they join you but they are very weak and their moves suck. i didn't really get the storyline but that's me. Overall its a fun game but extremely difficult.

not as good as earlier DD games, but still has that retro charm....

try it today!!!

graphics could be better but you get to be different characters after you beat the 2 bosses out of the 5 different levels and then you can be them and the boss comes included with his own weapon that u can use for limited time .... u get to be a ninja and a kung fu guy and if you're playig with a friend on two player you can decide which one of u which get which well after billy and the other dude with red hair are dead ...as far as the fighting goes i see some reviews that say the fighting from the other two is better but its hard to say this game has its own unique style of fighting double dragon 2 has better graphics this game is just more damn fun to play if you are playing it by urself unlike double dragon 1 and 2

When people think of the Double Dragon series, they know the series history of hit or miss games. When you ask somebody what the low point of the series was, they may tell you Double Dragon V or the Double Dragon Neo Geo game, but I think the series hit rock bottom with this Game Boy conversion of the third arcade game. The weak graphics and sound can be excused but the gameplay is the absolute pits and ruins the entire game.
The graphics are below average even for the black and white Gameboy. The characters are very small and undistinguishable. There are some nice cinema like scenes here and there to spice things up and some of the backgrounds are decent but otherwise a disappointment. Whether or not you want to admit it, there are some classic Double Dragon tunes, for instance the Gameboy, NES and arcade adaptations of the first game anyway (no bias here, I just have never played the Sega or Atari ports, so sue me). This game has none of them, the music is very drab and the same sort of tinny beat seems to be recycled throughout all of the levels. The feel of the music also doesn't go with the game, it doesn't sound like it matches the action or levels. The sound effects are not much better. The gameplay is where this cart really suffers. The enemies are frustratingly hard and move very fast. Even the weakest foes can move, punch and kick much faster than your character. It is difficult to actually hit an enemy and if you do, they can strike back so fast that they inevitably nail you a few times before you can hit them again. For every hit you administer on any enemy, they often get at least one hit on you, if not more, in return. As expected, at any given point SEVERAL enemies are working your fighter at once and won't let up. The bosses and stronger enemies leave your character even more over matched. One particularly tough boss crushes your hopes and dreams in an instant as he splits into two fighters just when you think you have put him down for the count. Your jump kick and new 'wall kick' are even less successful and hit the enemy only about one third of the time you attempt it. This game has a coin system in which you can purchase extra lives, an energy restoration, special moves (the same spin kick that you could do for free in earlier games) and weapons (which you also got for free in earlier games). The special moves and weapons don't make your fight any easier, the enemies are still too hard. Don't waste your coins on them. You're better off just buying extra lives whenever possible (you are only allowed to buy so many), you're going to need them. It is almost impossible to make it out of any level, even the first one, without losing at least one life. It is even toughter to knock the motorcycle riders in this game off of their bikes than it is in the two NES Renegade games, if that is possible. You start with a select number of coins and can spend them as you see fit throughout the game. This game can be beaten, I have done it once (without the Game Genie no less). If you do want to see the end, there are some Game Genie codes that will enable this, it's the only sure way to make it all the way through. Here you go. Since many of you may choose not to answer the challenge, I'll throw you a bone as to what happens later on in the game. Your "travel guide" later turns on you and attacks you out of the blue near the end of one of the later levels. On the bright side, the story line is a fresh change of pace from the usual affair of rescuing Marian. In this game, you must locate magical Rosetta stones before the "bad guys" do. I did not notice any of the enemies from the earlier games but I did hear that the blurry, unrecognizable boss from level 2 or 3 just MIGHT be Chintai from the original Double Dragon game. If the enemies weren't so cheap and utterly impossible, this game would have gotten a better score, despite the poor sounds and graphics. A game doesn't need super graphics and sounds to be exceptional, but it certainly needs fair game play. I wanted to like this game and am a big fan of the DD series. I can not recommend it, though. If you're desperate for a side-scrolling fighter for Gameboy, take a chance but beware! Personally, I would tell you to try one of the other Double Dragon games (the first one was a good translation, comparable to the NES version) on the console or get a Gameboy Advance and check out Final Fight One. For those of you who frown upon the use of the Game Genie but are still stuck, I offer some tips as this game is very hard/unfair. In levels where you find a store close to some enemies (start of level 1, for instance), fight as many as you can until you run low on energy or defeat them all and then head into the store and buy an energy booster. When you have the chance, always buy extra lives. If you can't do that, go for the energy restoration. If you can't have either of those two, you can get a weapon (it's your best attack, only because it is presumably the strongest) or consider saving your coins for a later level as there may be another store with extra lives/energy. Don't bother with the special moves, save your money.