Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones, released in Japan as Double Dragon III: The Rosetta Stone (ダブルドラゴンIII ザ・ロゼッタストーン), is a side-scrolling beat-'em-up produced for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1991. It was the third Double Dragon game for the NES, developed by Technos Japan Corp. and published in North America and Europe by Acclaim Entertainment. Although loosely based on the similarly titled arcade game Double Dragon 3: The Rosetta Stone, it is not a port, but a parallel project that was developed at the same time.
Double Dragon III can be played by one or two players simultaneously, with an "A mode" where both players can not harm each other and a "B mode" that allows friendly fire. Like its arcade counterpart, the NES version of Double Dragon III reverts to having punch and kick buttons as the standard control scheme and the ability to dash by pressing the d-pad left or right twice has been added. The rest of the combat system is a bit closer to the previous NES games, retaining the hair grab move that was removed in the arcade version (although the shoulder throw is gone, as well as the flying knee kick and hyper uppercut from the NES version of Double Dragon II: The Revenge). New moves in this version include a running jump kick (which can become a triangle jump kick when performed on a wall) and a midair somersault that allows the player to throw enemies by jumping on them. During 2-player mode, when both players are controlling each Lee brother, they can perform a twin cyclone spin kick and a triangle jump kick.
The game discards the traditional lives system from the previous NES installments, as well as the item shops from the arcade version. Instead, the player gains the ability to control two new fighters in addition to the Lee brothers as they progress through the game. These extra fighters join the player's party once they've been defeated as enemy bosses. Chin Seimei (陳 清明), a Chinese martial arts master, joins at the end of Mission 2, while Yagyu Ranzou (柳生 乱蔵, Yagyū Ranzō), the head of a ninja clan, appears at the end of Mission 3. By pressing the Select button at any point (provided the player character is not in the middle of an attack animation or receiving damage), the player can access a character selection screen and switch between any of the available fighters. Each fighter has his own fighting techniques, health points and speed, making them suitable for different situations. When the player loses a fighter, he will automatically change to the next available character until the entire party has been defeated. Normally the game ends when the player's entire party has been defeated, but a continue option is available for the final two stages if the player loses all their characters the first time.
In addition to fighting unarmed (or with a sword in Ranzou's case), each fighter has a backup weapon that they can draw at any time from the character selection screen, but can only be used for a limited time. This feature allows the Lee brothers to use nunchakus, Chin to wield an iron claw and Ranzou to throw shurikens. Weapons can also be obtained by disarming certain enemies, although only the Lee brothers and Chin can arm themselves with enemy weapons (which include a throwing knife, a sai and a beer bottle). An enemy's weapons can be used as long as the original wielder is alive.
