Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone is a side-scrolling beat 'em up arcade game produced by Technōs Japan in 1990. It is the third arcade game in the Double Dragon series. Unlike the previous two games in the series Double Dragon 3 was not developed internally at Technōs, but development was instead contracted to the company East Technology, resulting in a game that looks and plays differently from its predecessors.
As in the previous games of the series, players control twin martial artists Billy and Jimmy Lee, as they are approached by a mysterious fortune teller named Hiruko, who sends them on a worldwide journey to retrieve three mystical Rosetta Stones and uncover the mystery surrounding them in Egypt. Similar to The Combatribes, which ran on similar hardware, the game can be set for up to two or three players depending on the cabinet, with the third player controlling a new Lee sibling named Sonny. The U.S. version also features item shops where players could use additional credits to purchase in-game items such as weapons, additional moves and new playable characters in one of the earliest forms of microtransactions in a video game, although this system would end up being removed in the later-released Japanese version of the game in favor of a conventional character select feature similar to Golden Axe or Final Fight.
The game's arcade release was followed by home versions for the Sega Genesis, Game Boy and various personal computers. In 2013, emulated versions of the arcade original for various platforms were officially released by DotEmu along with the previous two arcade games in a bundle called Double Dragon Trilogy.
Double Dragon 3 can be played by up to two or three players simultaneously, similarly to The Combatribes. The first two players control returning heroes Billy and Jimmy Lee respectively, while the third player controls a new character named Sonny (a yellow-clad palette swap of the Lee brothers). The controls consist of an eight way joystick and three buttons again, but the combat system has been greatly altered from previous games. The game discards the directional attack buttons from Double Dragon II: The Revenge, returning to the punch and kick format of the original Double Dragon. However, moves such as the elbow strike and the hair grab had been removed and new abilities replaced them. The player can now run by pushing the joystick left or right twice and perform moves with a second player such as a back-to-back hurricane kick when standing near each other and a triangle jump kick when one player jumps towards the other. Other new moves include a running head-butt, a belly-to-back throw and a jumping knee drop.
At the start of certain stages, players will have access to an item shop where they can purchase in-game power-ups by inserting more coins into the cabinet, with each item costing one credit. The item selections varies slightly between stages, but usually includes "Energy" (which restores the player's health up to 150% from the starting value), "Power Up" (which increases the player's attack speed), "Tricks" (which unlocks two additional moves, a solo hurricane kick and a jumping throw) and "Weapons" (which arms the player character with a nunchaku in Mission 2 or a sword in Mission 3 and 5).
One item, "Extra Guys", allows the player to control one of three new character types in addition to the Lee brothers (リー兄弟). These characters form other teams of fighting siblings as well, allowing each player to control a different member of the group. When the player's current fighter is killed, the new one will replace him, essentially substituting the extra lives system from previous games. These new fighters consists of the Urquidez brothers (ユキーデ兄弟) (mixed martial arts champions), the Chin brothers (陳兄弟) (tai chi experts) and the Ōyama brothers (大山兄弟) (karate masters). Each player can hold up to three extra fighters in reserve and can temporarily cycle between any of them for a second before the next character is automatically chosen. The availability of a fighter type varies depends on the stage (the Urquidez brothers are available in Mission 1 and 5, the Chin brothers in Mission 2 and the Ōyama brothers in Mission 3). The new character will inherit any purchased special techniques that the previous character had, but the increased attack speed must be repurchased. Additionally, unlike the Lee brothers, the other character types cannot purchase nor retrieve weapons.
The Japanese version of Double Dragon 3 was finished a bit later than the English version and features drastic changes as a result. Most notably, the item shops were removed from the game and players can instead choose which character to control at the start of the game, allowing the ability to start the game as any of three new fighter types (Urquidez, Chin and Ōyama) in addition to the Lee brothers. Players have access to their character's entire repertoire of moves, although the command input for the Hu
