Developer: East Technology Publisher: Flying Edge Released: 1992 Genre: Beat em up
Hm. Double Dragon 3. Let’s get this out of the way right now; Double Dragon 3 is one of the worst beat ‘em ups of all time. Both the arcade and NES game are terrible, terrible games with next to no redeeming qualities. In the arcade the game was especially notable for being egregiously greedy about trying to take your quarters with its micro transactions decades before the term was coined. Somehow the Genesis version is even worse from a gameplay perspective and utterly dreadful.
For the most part the story is largely the same as the NES version. After traveling around the world training for two years the Lee brothers are meet the fortune teller Hiruko. She tells them that to face the world’s strongest adversary they must collect the three Rosetta Stones scattered around the world. But not everything is as it seems. Rarely have I ever seen a game disappear from an arcade as fast as Double Dragon 3. It was there on Tuesday and replaced by Friday. If only we could do the same to our memories of the game.
Double Dragon 3 was outsourced to a different developer and apparently Technos had little oversight. The gameplay is a massive regression from the second game. All of the basic grappling attacks and throws have been removed, leaving you with basic punches and kicks. You can dash and perform a running attack and knee downed enemies in the face. The game plays as though they studied Technos earliest brawlers like Renegade rather than the recent Double Dragon titles. While it was frustrating to execute some of the more advanced attacks like the Hyper Knee the variety they added was worth it. To have some semblance of a move set, including weapons you must purchase them from the game’s shop.
The most controversial aspect of Double Dragon 3 in the arcade was its greedy cash shop. Health, weapons, new moves, credits, and extra characters, all of these basic elements of the brawler genre required you to plunk more quarters in the machine. For the home port you have fifteen coins to start and can earn more as you progress. These count as continues and while it may sound like you have to make tough choices the game practically showers you in coins. The new moves are not worth it; while they look cool executing them is near impossible. New characters function like extra lives and while they are interesting they are just as limited as the Lee brothers. The only worthwhile purchase is weapons as they make the game a lot easier.
All of the above flaws could at least be tolerated if the general gameplay was at least functional. But the game fails even in that basic regard. The controls are sluggish as if the game is running at a sub-optimal framerate. Beyond the lethargic pace and controls the hit detection is absolutely awful. Hits frequently miss even though you are squarely punching an enemy in the face. What makes the combat feel even worse than these issues is the removal of the stun animation from enemies. Because of this every exchange results in trading damage, making the game significantly harder. And it is not as if the game needed any more help in that regard.
I wouldn’t even say Double Dragon 3 is difficult; it is incredibly cheap. All characters start out with different amounts of health, from the Lee Brothers 250 to the Oyama brothers at 375. The amount of damage they take per hit also varies. But you will barely notice the difference. By the second level the cheap hits pile up with every punch removing 50 meter chunks. Add in the hit detection issues and the aggressive AI and more than likely you will die every minute or so. The game is generous with coins so death does not matter much. But if you are not having fun playing the game why bother? I had to force myself to finish the game for review to give it a fair shake. I probably should not have bothered.
In Closing
Double Dragon 3 is bad in all of its forms, arcade, NES, UK computers and especially the Sega Genesis. There is absolutely no reason to even entertain the idea of playing Double Dragon 3. You will hate yourself for doing so. It was a chore to play the game to write this review. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it. Replay Streets of Rage 2 instead.
