Mega Drive Longplay [077] Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone

Sat, 27 Dec 2025 10:54:38 +0000

Played By: BimmyLee83

I'll start by saying I've always liked the NES version of Double Dragon III. The realism and difficulty are exactly what appealed to me about that game and what alienated so many others. Like the previous DD's, I loved the music and also being able to play as the defeated bosses. I'll admit there are some legit gripes about it (the watered-down moveset being my main gripe) and it certainly isn't as good as the first two NES games, but that isn't to say it's TERRIBLE. I never understood why people hate it so adamantly, other than its difficulty, reduced moveset, and the fact that AVGN bashed it (bandwagoners). Anyhoo, stepping off my soapbox, to each his own. :)

This was probably the most accurate port of the arcade version (that I'VE played, leastways). Sadly, it's a port of the absolute worst Double Dragon arcade game so it succeeds for all the wrong reasons. All the problems that plagued the notoriously horrible quarter-muncher were carried over to the Mega Drive. Like the arcade, everything operates on a coin system. Buy weapons with coins, buy special moves with coins, extra players and power-ups with coins, and so on. Even continuing costs a coin so being frugal is necessary if you want to see past the second stage.

If you thought the NES version was hard, play 5 minutes of this and then compare. The game's difficulty is relentless, thanks to cheap and unforgiving A.I. and poor collision detection. You have to be perfectly aligned with your enemies to connect a blow and there also seems to be an abitrary nature to the fighting at certain times. After you knock an enemy down, it seems that they're unassailable for a certain amount of time or until they have hit you back...which means that you're literally trading blows in some fights, which is a problem considering how fast your health diminishes when you get hit. Bosses can kill you in only 4 or 5 hits so you're forced to adopt a hit-and-run style strategy. Be on the move constantly and always try to be the first to land an attack since one hit from them does critical damage. On a higher note, there isn't any noticeable slowdown to speak of so the game runs rather fluidly the whole way through.

The music is a pretty good rendition of the arcade's soundtrack and the punch & kick sound effects actually sound somewhat realistic this time around. You'll be hearing the same enemy death groans over and over, but at least they're a little more coherent in this, rather than sounding like they were run through a blender, as in the first two games.

And, as twice before, there's a 2-player mode should your buddy be as masochistic as you. -