Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls

"A disgrace to the Double Dragon name."

The original Double Dragon. Released by Technos in the mid 80s, the game was a major contributor to the birth of the 2D action/beat ‘em up genre. It also pushed the limits of graphics and gameplay for its time period. Soon after that, Double Dragon became an entire series with the Lee brothers in plenty of sequels. A total of four Double Dragon games not including that crap one with the Battle Toads were made. Each one was very different from the other yet similar enough so that fans of the series were able to sit down and enjoy mostly all of them to at least some degree. That was all until this cartridge of rubbish was created.

Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls released by Trade West is a 2D one on one type fighting game. That’s right. Fighting. It totally jumped genres. All of the others before it that fans had grown to love were action/beat ‘em ups. Trade West apparently decided to take the name, removed the beat ‘em up aspect, made a laughable attempt at a Street Fighter: CE and Mortal Kombat impression, and worst of all based it on the Double Dragon animated show! If you’ve never seen the cartoon, consider yourself lucky. The game has your average fighting game modes like Arcade, Versus, and an odd story mode. As previously stated, the game really tries to be like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat whereas each fighter has their own little set of special moves with chants and strange “fatality” or finishing type moves. For example in the MK series, the fatality being executed depends on the person doing the move. Makes sense. However, in this game it depends on the person you’re doing it on and instead inputting a sequence of commands into the d-pad to execute the move, most of the finishers seem to be executed merely by striking them in certain areas at certain times. Makes no sense. The game isn’t particularly hard it’s just that the enemy AI seems to enjoy pulling the same cheap moves on you over and over again. It’s kind of like fighting against a broken record: highly annoying.

The controls just make the gameplay even more annoying. Double Dragon V’s controls are rather slow and unresponsive and the command sequences to input for the moves are just plain odd for a fighting game. You’ll probably wind up cussing at the game because the cheap enemy AI keeps beating down your ass while you’re trying to pull off even the most basic of special moves.

Graphically, the game isn’t too bad…it’s just not good. The characters are distorted and misshapen while the backgrounds are dull and uninteresting. There are much, much worse out there for the Sega Genesis though when it comes to graphics. Of course the vice versa is also true.

Sound and music is probably Double Dragon V’s worst aspect. It’s simply horrible. The sound effects are choppy and bland while the characters’ voices are all distorted with everyone sounding like 60 year old smokers. Not only that, but you have to deal with an annoying announcer who sounds like he has a motorboat stuck in his throat. The music is real tinny sounding and the tunes inspire you to turn the volume down rather than fighting your opponent or getting into the game.

Buy or rent? Neither. Don’t even get this illegally. It’s just not worth it. This game is a true disgrace to the Double Dragon name. There are almost no redeeming qualities about it. If you’re looking for a fighter on the Genesis, please look elsewhere as this was one of the worst fighting games I have ever played.

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 11/06/03