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Double Dragon III - The Sacred Stones (NES) -- A Frustrated Game Review

By transient0 in Technology
Sat Jul 24, 2004 at 11:07:56 PM EST
Tags: Software (all tags)

Following in the proud tradition of Double Dragon and Double Dragon II, the third offering in the classic side scrolling beat-em-up series from Technos Japan hit the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1990, the year that Iraq invaded Kuwait, Nelson Mandela was released from prison, the first ever WWW page was published and Cannibal Corpse released their seminal album Eaten Back to Life.

For those familiar with the first two games, Double Dragon III will initially hold few surprises. The Supreme Black Shadow Sensei may be dead, but Billy and Jimmy Lee are back and their classic moves such as the whirlwind kick and the old "grabbing the bad guy by the hair and kneeing him repeatedly in the face" trick are ready and waiting. And yes, even the awkward "hit both buttons at the same time to jump" system has been carefully preserved.

Double Dragon II veterans may be surprised by the removal of a perfectly functional "(A) attacks forward (B) attacks backward" system, but adaptation is quick and they should soon find themself back in the groove of taking crowbars and broken bottles from fallen foes and using said makeshift weapons to beat a sense of what is right and proper into any sprite with the bad sense to be animated.
Or at least so it might seem. Until you notice that the enemies seem to actually inflict damage when they hit you. This is a shocking upheaval of the Double Dragon II status quo where the Lee brothers would regularly take several dozen katana blows to the head and a handful of point blank dynamite explosions without breaking a sweat.
After dispatching a mere ten or twelve thugs you will find that your health bar is flirting dangerously with non-existence. Instinctively you will glance for the extra lives indicator. But where is it? In your confusion you will be kicked in the stomach by a female ninja dressed in purple with bad 80s hair and learn the horrible truth. There are no extra lives. The Lee brothers are distressingly mortal. You will also discover that this game has no concept of Save or Continue.
Some small consolation can be taken in the fact that the "You're Dead" riff is surprisingly upbeat¹ and the "GAME OVER" font quite tasteful. You'll be seeing a lot of it.
So what it comes down to is that this game is an educational treatise on what would actually happen if two unarmed brothers in track suits decided to take on a legion of hundreds of armed thugs unaided. They would get their eggs scrambled and their fibulas fibulated before ever seeing the second level.
Really, I'm going to give this game the benefit of the doubt and say that it probably has just equally as compelling and masterful a story as Double Dragon II, but all I've ever been able to learn is that some bastards have broken into my dojo, kidnapped Marion (AGAIN!) and killed my beloved (I assume) student Brett. The rest of the story so far as I can tell is that Billy and Jimmy Lee walk out into an alleyway, get mugged and killed.
I'm not sure where the Sacred Stones come in. Maybe that's why they mugged me.
----
_{1. In fact the whole soundtrack has a pretty satisfying 8-bit psychedelic dance party feel to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't continue to play if you pause the game so (due to constant death) you will never get to hear more than about three minutes worth of it.}

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Also by transient0

Double Dragon III - The Sacred Stones (NES) -- A Frustrated Game Review | 62 comments (59 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden)

Double Dragon had a story? (2.00 / 4) (#2)
by Run4YourLives on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 02:42:05 PM EST

See, yo can learn something on K5.

It's slightly Japanese, but without all of that fanatical devotion to the workplace. - CheeseburgerBrown

Hah (3.00 / 6) (#3)
by CaptainSuperBoy on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 03:03:11 PM EST

The old "grabbing the bad guy by the hair and kneeing him repeatedly in the face" trick.

Brilliant.

I love how that works in side scrolling fighters. Not only can you fight hundreds of thugs who appear on screen in groups of three or four (but not due to technical limitations), you can also pick one of them out, grab them by the hair, knee them in the face twice (but not three times), then hurl them over your shoulder. Double Dragon isn't unique in this regard. You can do this in Final Fight too. If you use Haggar you can even headbutt the guy twice, then jump about 20 feet in the air and give him a flying piledriver (similar to a tombstone piledriver, but with flying).

--
jimmysquid.com - I take pictures.

Not unrealistic move... by jmzero, 07/23/2004 05:20:10 PM EST (3.00 / 10)

The others... by sholden, 07/23/2004 07:48:54 PM EST (none / 3)

Well by jmzero, 07/25/2004 05:55:11 PM EST (none / 0)

I know it's belated by CaptainSuperBoy, 07/26/2004 09:38:40 AM EST (none / 0)

what about... by Wah, 07/24/2004 08:39:27 PM EST (none / 0)

i totally remember by transient0, 07/24/2004 09:01:48 PM EST (none / 1)
it was definitely... by Insoc, 07/25/2004 12:57:43 AM EST (none / 1)
Ahhhhhh... by dstillz, 07/25/2004 02:42:26 AM EST (none / 0)

Overrated (none / 2) (#6)
by onealone on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 05:44:02 PM EST

Have you ever played Renegade or Target Renegade on the Spectrum? They were the best sideways scrolling beat-em-ups ever. Far better than DD.

old school meets new school by zenofchai, 07/23/2004 06:23:56 PM EST (none / 1)
CPC64 by Purple Meteor, 07/24/2004 08:12:26 AM EST (none / 0)

i'm going to embarrass myself here... (2.75 / 4) (#9)
by hardcorejon on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 06:43:30 PM EST

...and admit that, LONG AGO, I actually wasted hundreds of hours and beat Double Dragon III.

But it was so damn long ago I can't remember what the hell happens at the end. But I do remember it being by far the most difficult Double Dragon to beat. I recollect that playability was good once you got the hang of it, but man, it was a tough game.

All things considered I think DD2 is the best of the original NES trilogy.

- jonathan,

Shame here too by Perpetual Newbie, 07/23/2004 07:58:27 PM EST (3.00 / 4)

ninja gaiden by eudas, 07/24/2004 12:03:02 AM EST (none / 0)

TMNT by Intelligentsia, 07/24/2004 12:36:04 AM EST (none / 2)
Ninja Spirit by ant0n, 07/24/2004 07:25:19 AM EST (3.00 / 2)

There was a place that rented NS around here by parliboy, 08/08/2004 11:03:31 AM EST (none / 0)

Gotta disagree... by rahga, 07/31/2004 03:40:57 AM EST (none / 0)

This was like MST3K for nintendo... (none / 3) (#11)
by waxmop on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 07:50:05 PM EST

and it rawked. Next do Pitfall. That game was non-Euclidean before non-Euclidean was cool.
--
_{The threat of losing all of your shiny possessions is what keeps us slaves to the machine. --}

why? (1.66 / 6) (#13)
by benny lama on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 10:33:08 PM EST

Not to bring down the story (since it made me chuckle a little)...but what is the point of posting a review of a game that was released almost 15 years ago? Are you playing this on one of the NES emulators or something? I guess what I'm getting at is...what would motivate a person to write a review such as this?

i have an NES by transient0, 07/23/2004 10:34:38 PM EST (3.00 / 7)

OK by benny lama, 07/23/2004 10:38:22 PM EST (none / 1)

well.... by transient0, 07/23/2004 11:26:32 PM EST (none / 1)
Of course, by Intelligentsia, 07/24/2004 12:31:04 AM EST (none / 0)

The NES was indestructible by cburke, 07/24/2004 11:37:24 PM EST (none / 0)

see if you can get a game genie by transient0, 07/24/2004 11:45:04 PM EST (none / 1)

Hey, that's a good idea. by cburke, 07/24/2004 11:58:42 PM EST (none / 0)

Yeah, the connector sucked by Intelligentsia, 07/25/2004 12:17:05 AM EST (none / 1)
replace the connector by piper45, 07/26/2004 05:58:04 PM EST (none / 0)
You can also buy a Second Gen NES by grayhat, 07/29/2004 11:10:16 AM EST (none / 0)

thanks by adimovk5, 07/24/2004 09:08:21 AM EST (none / 0)
it still works? by modmans2ndcoming, 07/25/2004 02:40:13 AM EST (none / 0)

it is original form factor by transient0, 07/25/2004 03:01:15 AM EST (none / 0)

Wow by CaptainSuperBoy, 07/25/2004 11:14:14 PM EST (none / 0)

And here I am thinking... by D Jade, 07/26/2004 02:31:37 AM EST (none / 0)

Don't Listen to Their Lies. by reidbold, 07/26/2004 08:27:53 AM EST (none / 0)

Here's the real trick by flink, 07/26/2004 04:19:37 PM EST (none / 2)

About 10 years too late... by GhostfacedFiddlah, 07/27/2004 02:49:45 PM EST (none / 1)

Please. Stop the pain! Fix it right! by rahga, 07/31/2004 03:29:57 AM EST (none / 0)

Emulator? by Purple Meteor, 07/24/2004 08:04:54 AM EST (none / 1)
Not everyone is a theif, jerk. by Hide Teh Hamster, 07/24/2004 04:05:05 PM EST (none / 2)

You missed the kung-fu master and ninja (none / 2) (#16)
by cburke on Fri Jul 23, 2004 at 11:25:11 PM EST

You get to play as more than just the brothers in DD3! You get them later in the game. That was one of the coolest features of the game, after its ability to kick your ass. The story? I don't remember exactly, something about stones you have to get to stop some ancient evil -- oh shit, two Abobos!

The story! by Purple Meteor, 07/24/2004 08:19:32 AM EST (none / 0)

woah (none / 1) (#34)
by modmans2ndcoming on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 02:38:24 AM EST

that is probably the most untimely Game review I have ever read.

Good think I did not play DD3 because I was to damn busy kicking butt on my SNES to care.

this game encourages unhealthy gender roles. (2.22 / 9) (#38)
by rmg on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 05:00:24 AM EST

the woman is helpless and lost in a world full of hulking thugs and lesbian trailer trash. she is the quintessential suburban princess -- a beautiful little fool.

meanwhile, her boyfriend and hetro life partner are the able bodied young knights who come to the rescue, braving streets full of knife fights and explosives, all to win the prize of the young maiden's chastity at the end (which any reasonably proficient toddler should be able to reach within approximately six hours of play).

this is a rehash of the medieval chivalric romance made all the more seedy by replacing prince charming and his faithful sancho with two roughneck hoodlums and turning maid marion into a lipstick smeared tramp right outta compton. in short, it has all of the demeaning gender politics of the medieval age stripped of all that might have given it any redeeming value -- trading valor for gang warfare and castiglione for ron jeremy.

double dragon III is an affront to every piece progress in sexual politics in the past seventy years. if the author had any decency, he would have left it in the era of cock rock and reaganomics that gave it birth.

_____

if i do not respond, it is because you wrote nothing worthy of response.

dave dean

straight outta compton? [n/t] by flaw, 07/27/2004 12:21:11 AM EST (none / 0)
Yeah. So? [n/t] by CAIMLAS, 07/27/2004 03:03:35 PM EST (none / 0)

Reenactment of actual realistic combat (2.87 / 33) (#39)
by K5 ASCII reenactment players on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 11:07:52 AM EST

---------------------------- |Aroused mantis! | | | | /\O/\ O O | | | <|Z <|>| | \ | | | | / | |\ / \| |--------------------------- | | |Petulant crab! | | _ _ O O | | \O/ <|Z <|>| | _|_ | | | | \ / |\ / \| |--------------------------- |Crazy Croco! | | | | O/ O O | | |\ <|Z <|>| | \| | | | | | |\ / \| |--------------------------- | Sitting duck. | | | | .', BLAMMO O O | | ' __ . . *7-|Z <|>| | \/\ \ | | | | O / |\ / \| |--------------------------- | | |Jesus, fuck, my leg. | |There's bone | |sticking out. O O| | /|\ /|| | .`', \ \| | \O_/\_ . / \ /|| |--------------------------- | | |Mommy, it hurts. O | | <|\| | , \ | | O_/\_ . / \| |--------------------------- | | |Mommy. | | | | O_____ | |--------------------------| | x bzzz | | x | | x | | | | O_____ | ----------------------------

Gods! by DoorFrame, 07/27/2004 02:59:32 PM EST (none / 0)

If you liked DD (2.87 / 8) (#40)
by chizzadwick on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 11:22:20 AM EST

check out River City Ransom for the NES. Those who played it can atest to its superiority over all other games in the genre.

Amen brother. by crwood, 07/25/2004 01:35:21 PM EST (none / 1)

I'd just like to point out.. (none / 1) (#43)
by dilinger on Sun Jul 25, 2004 at 08:22:21 PM EST

..the coolest purchase I've made all year: a few USB NES gamepads. These, combined w/ an emulator (fceu), a mirror of a ROM site, and a BigAss TV, makes for an awesome gaming system.

Someone should review Zanac. That game kicks ass.

Adaptors and emulators by Nursie, 07/26/2004 12:08:25 PM EST (none / 0)

Double Dragon 3 = fond memories (none / 0) (#54)
by CAIMLAS on Tue Jul 27, 2004 at 03:01:17 PM EST

My brother and I beat this game, together, as it's damned near impossible by yourself. It is indeed really, really hard. However, it's significantly more difficult in Double Dragon II to throw yourself over a cliff - thus why you're given extra lives, I'd imagine.

Further into the game (3rd level, I think?) there are two (three? it's been a long time) bosses which, if you beat them, will join your ranks. There's a squat (short and fat) Chinese man that has a pair of metal claws which he can use to attack (I can't recall if they're unlimited or not) that are roughly as powerful as Bimmy and Jimmy's dragon kick (anyone catch that joke? :P) .

Then in the next level or two, you're potentially aided by a ninja that can jump quite high, has ninja stars (not unlimited, but they might replentish themselves? I don't recall) which are more powerful still, iirc. He's also got a 'flying knee to the junk' kick, iirc.

I seem to recall being able to get continues in DD3 by beating a level, too, though this could just be my memory failing on me. Some of those levels are really, really hard (I seem to recall the ninja level being the most difficult - imagine the two helicopter ninjas in DD2, and you'vegot a pretty good approximation of what the DD3 ninjas are like).

I seem to recall the violent sound effects being fairly lacking compared to the second DD game, however. There was just an incredibly satisfying "pow" sound when you hit someone with an uppercut or dragon kick, and throwing knives made a nice wet-sounding smack. Not to mention the lovely "I've been kicked in the balls" face that the sprites made. I don't recall the sprites in DD3 being quite as well thought out.

Alas, I don't recall if I ever played DD1.
--

Socialism and communism better explained by a psychologist than a political theorist.

Chin the Chinese Guy by jrew, 07/30/2004 12:18:53 PM EST (none / 0)
I remember the mispelling in the opening vividly by gmol, 07/31/2004 03:42:43 PM EST (none / 0)
Yes, I remember that... by Pxtl, 10/07/2004 01:54:48 PM EST (none / 0)

Double Dragon III - The Sacred Stones (NES) -- A Frustrated Game Review | 62 comments (59 topical, 3 editorial, 0 hidden)

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