Download Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone

Ask any longtime action gamer, and most will tell you that Technos’ classic arcade classic Double Dragon series took a nosedive with the final game in the trilogy, Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone.

The arcade version met with only lukewarm response, so naturally the NES version (which is always the best port), is still a lot less fun than the first two games. That said, you shouldn’t expect this PC port to be somehow better than the rest. And that’s true, although it’s ironic because this is arguably the most faithful PC conversion of all three games.

The faults lie squarely with Technos for making poor design decisions, such as: you no longer can pick up cool weapons or power-ups to use at will, but must buy most of them in stores. So while there are interesting new power-ups including an item that makes Billy/Jimmy twice their size, you’ll have to first collect enough money (by beating enemies of course) and THEN find the weapon shop, and hope that the one you enter have what you want. It’s unnecessarily tedious, and unlike Legend of the Mystical Ninja, weapon shops are few and far between.

Ironically, that turns out to be negligible, since the enemies have an IQ level of a rock. You can beat them very easily with jumping kicks and punches – like the first game, keeping the attack keys pressed is all you need to do. The plot is also a dramatic departure from the gangster setting: now Billy and Jimmy Lee must find the Rosetta Stone to fight an evil in Egypt. The graphics and animations are much improved over the original, but that can’t make up for repetitive gameplay.

In short: a faithful PC port of a mediocre arcade game that ends a blockbuster series with a fizzle instead of a bang.

Review By HOTUD