Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone

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Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone
System(s): Sega Mega Drive
Publisher: Flying Edge
Developer: Software Creations
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Developer(s) of original games: East Technology
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1-2
Release Date RRP Code US 1993-02 $49.9549.95 T-81166 EU 1993 T-81166-50 BR 199x

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Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone is a 1990 arcade beat-'em-up from Technos, part of their Double Dragon series, and was developed by East Technology; it was ported by Software Creations to the Sega Mega Drive and published in 1993 by Flying Edge. The boxart refers to the game as Double Dragon 3: The Arcade Game, distinguish it from the earlier Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones, an NES adaptation of the game produced by Technos and published in the west by Acclaim (Flying Edge's parent company), which differed significantly from its arcade counterpart.

Gameplay

The purpose of the game is to collect three "Rosetta Stones" in order to face off with an adversary in Egypt. The Lee brothers and other characters must travel the world to reach this objective. punches, jumps, kicks. Besides the ability to run by double tapping in a direction additional moves can be bought in a in-game store. The in-game store, which can be entered through a door in certain parts of a level, offers extra moves, extra characters, agility, energy, and weapons for purchase with coins. The extra characters only appear when the main character presently being used is killed. Extra characters include the Urquidez brothers, the Chin brothers, and the Oyama brothers.

There are five levels available. This includes America, China, Japan, Italy, and Egypt.

Versions

• The arcade version of Double Dragon 3 featured item shops where players could gain additional moves, weapons and other playable characters by inserting more credits into the cabinet. This system was retained in the Mega Drive (despite the existence of a Japanese version that removed it), but since the console naturally lacks a coin shutter, the player instead starts off with a certain amount of credits (15 by default in 1-player mode, which is raised to 19 in 2-players mode), which are used as both, currency in item shops and for continues. Additional credits are gained after clearing a stage
• The arcade version can be set for up to three players simultaneously, while the Mega Drive version only allows up to two.
• The Mega Drive version features an options screen that allows the player to adjust the number of credits the player start with, change the starting character for both players and turn the background music on or off before the game begins. The Japanese version of the arcade game had a character select feature, but it allowed each player to choose their individual character instead of choosing the same type for everyone.
• The purchasable items work differently in the Mega Drive version.
  • In the arcade version, "energy" restores the player's health to 150%, while "power up" increases the player's movement speed. In the Mega Drive version, the "energy" item was removed, but "power up" serves the same purpose. However, instead of restoring the player's health to 150%, it restores the player's health to 100% and adds 50 HP more.
  • Both versions allow the player to purchase a stock of up to three extra fighters. However, the arcade version allows the player to have different character types in reserve, while the Mega Drive version only allows one character type at a time. This means that if the player is controlling a Lee brother and the first extra fighter purchased is a Chin brother, every additional extra fighter will be a Chin until the player runs out of extra fighters and returns as a Lee brother.
• The name of the second Oyama brother was changed from Kunio to Nunio.
• The starting HP for each character type are distributed differently. In the arcade version, the Lee and Oyama brothers started with 230 HP, the Urquidez brothers started with 270 and the Chin Brothers with 290 HP. In the Mega Drive version, the Lee brothers start with 250 HP, the Urquidez brothers start with 225, the Chin brothers with 300 and the Oyama brothers 375. The damage data for both, player and enemy attacks, are also different.
• The animation frames for consecutive attacks and running are missing in the Mega Drive version. The belly-to-back throw was removed as well. The enemies also lack their "stun" poses, leading to a much harder difficulty than the arcade version.
• In the arcade version, the hurricane kick is performed by doing a neutral jump and pressing the kick, while the jumping throw is performed by pressing the punch button while jumping over an enemy. In the Mega Drive version, both of these moves are performed by holding down the d-pad up or down and pressing the C button near an enemy.
• The two co-operative moves (the back-to-back hurricane kick and the triangle jump kick) were removed in the Mega Drive version.
• The arcade version have multiple music tracks for each mission for different areas and situations (including boss battles). In the Mega Drive version, there's only one track for each mission.

Magazine articles

Main article: Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in VideoGames & Computer Entertainment (US) #50: "March 1993" (1993-0x-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #44: "March 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #45: "April 1993" (1993-xx-xx)
• S.W.A.T. Pro (US) #11: "May 1993" (1993-0x-xx)
• GamePro (US) #46: "May 1993" (1993-xx-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source GamePro (US) 68 №43, p48 Joypad (FR) 25 №24, p163 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) 10 №9, p38/39 Player One (FR) 20 №35, p153 Sega Power (UK) 31 №40, p28/29 Sega Pro (UK) 35 №16, p42/43 Sega Pro (UK) 35 №18, p65 Sega Zone (UK) 39 №3, p64 Sega Force (UK) 70 №14, p14-16

	37
Based on 9 reviews

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 30 Aktueller Software Markt (DE) 50 Cool Gamer (RU) 40 Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 72 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 68 Joypad (FR) 25 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) PAL 10 Mega Force (FR) 69 Mega Fun (DE) NTSC-U 27 Player One (FR) PAL 35 Play Time (DE) PAL 49 Sega Power (UK) 31 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 35 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 35 Sega Zone (UK) PAL 39 Sega Force (UK) PAL 70 Supergame (BR) NTSC-U 77 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 38

	44
Based on 18 reviews

Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart

Mega Drive, BR
Cover
Cart

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 b36ab75c MD5 783a70fd1a6339d947a2ba8556bd7bba SHA-1 663dfeebd21409942bcc446633b9b9f0dd238aa8	1MB	1992-12	Cartridge (US/EU)