Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls

"I knew this was going to be bad once I saw the cover..."

When I looked at the cover of this game, I saw that the characters were based on that awful cartoon series. I knew right then and there that this game wouldn't be any better than the series. A friend of mine had brought this over so I decided to give it a shot anyway. You can't judge a book by it's cover.

Graphics: 4

The animation on this game is pretty choppy. The backgrounds were just so plain. All of the characters looked like they did in the cartoon series, but that's not really a good thing. After playing games like Street Fighter II: CE, Eternal Champions, and ever Mortal Kombat, I expected it to be a little better than this! As for the actual graphics, they look worse than most games that were out before this.

Sound: 3

The hits didn't sound like they hurt at all and all of the characters sound like they have Laryngitis. Out of all the music tracks, there is only one that I could stand and that was Jawbreaker's stage. Normally I would just turn down the volume unless his I was going to fight on his stage.

Gameplay: 3

It's another one-on-one fighting game, but with crappier controls than most other fighters. None of the moves impressed me at all and most of didn't didn't come out right when I needed, which left me frustrated and wanting to smash the game to pieces. The moves didn't have any obscure motions or anything, it's just that the controls were sloppy.

Even with the bad the controls, I decided to go ahead and beat the game just to see one of the endings. I remember the AI whipping my ass quite a few times before I used some silly technique that the AI, including the Shadow Boss, fell for everytime.

Replay Value: 2

I tried out all of the characters and like the cartoon, I didn't like any of them. Maybe if the controls weren't so crappy, I would have like the game a little more.

Well, at least you can play against a friend so you can both be bored.

Overall: 3

It's not the worst fighting game I've played, but I can't think of one thing that I really like about this game. It's just a Street Fighter rip-off, but it's not even a good one. I just wish this game was a beat-em-up sidescroller like the other ones. We don't see enough of those. Stay away from this game.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 12/16/01, Updated 12/16/01