Luigi Mario

Double Dragon V: The Shadow Falls

Developer: Leland Interactive Media Publisher: TradeWest

System: Super Nintendo Entertainment System

Introduction:

Every once in a great while, you find that 1 game out of thousands and thousands that you think will be an absolute relic of a game and you just can't wait to get home and play. The anticipation builds and builds and builds, your heart races as you rush to your machine to pop it in and plat. You rush into pushing the start button and get into playing the game..............

Only to find out that the game sucks more balls than a kid obsessed with Jaw Breakers.

That is the case with THIS game. As Tradewest launched it's....*Ugh*.....supposed sequel of a game DD V, which is based off of the Cartoon Television show(Which sucked ALMOST as bad as this game), a lot of hopeful gamers were greatly dissapointed in the sequel that not only put Double Dragon to shame, but also put the name of all Street Fighter Clones to shame.

So....here's is the supposed plot.

The "Shadow Master" has made a new type of virus and has sent his "Shadow Warriors" to disperse the "Shadow Virus" to different areas of the city. The dragons must stop this "Menace". So they go out to the different areas of the city to duke it out;Street Fighter style.

Sound Ok? Well, lemme tell you how much of a mistake Tradewest made. Also, buy the time you're done with this, you will learn what is NOT Double Dragon worthy.

Reviewed by: MattDDR

Graphics: D       

The graphics look like something of the calibur of a slide show most of the time. Extremely choppy, horribly detailed, and complete unfamiliarity with the characters. I couldn't tell who was Billy and who was Jimmy most of the time, even though the colors should obviously give it away. Another thing to Loathe about it are the wideness of the characters. They look like they need CG Slimfast most of the time. I Just couldn't for the life of me, figure out if I was playing Double Dragon, or an episode of Barney........ON SPEED!!!!! Yeah. that's another thing. The game was WAY TOO fast paced for a Double Dragon WORTHY game. You get the point. Horrible ALL AROUND!!!!!

Sound: C            

This was probably one of the most horrible sounding Double Dragon Games I've ever Played. The music sucked, the sound effects are horrid, and the speaking characters are laughable. I don't belive that they could produce music and sound like this and call it a Double Dragon worthy Game, which, trust me, it is NOT.....by FAR!

Control: C+        

At the very least, the control was half-way tolerable. You could pull off moves, but not half the time. Further more, you ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO KNOW WHAT THE MOVES ARE OR YOU WILL GET NOWHERE. If you don't know what you're doing, chances are you'll fall flat on your tail by the time the second round begins. But decent control, and probably the ONLY tolerable thing of this game.....No joke.

Gameplay: D-       

Bad. Bad. Bad!.....Bad Tradewest. Shame on you.*pulls out paddle and gives a brutal spanking* The gameplay is NO WHERE NEAR Double Dragon Worthy. The Computer AI is EXTREMELY CHEAP, even in the first round. Now, you CAN win, but it's gonna take a HELL of a lot of effort to do so. It took me a hell of a lot just to get past Icepick. Like I said, the gameplay is WAY too fast paced to get used to the game, and with the lack of training mode(Which was a major flaw for most Fighters in the early-to-mid 90's), there is little to NO time to get the moves down...A hugh mistake for an already hugh mistake of a game.

Overall:F+           

I have seen my share of hugh dissapointments in my day, but this is one that I will always remember, no matter how much I try to forget. Tradewest certainly destroyed the Double Dragon franchise with this game, and thankfully, we will never, EVER, have to worry about them making this mistake again. If you're out and about, and you just HAPPEN to see this on the shelves of that old school game store, buy it, just so you can throw it in the air, and blast it with a B.B.Gun. The less of this game is out there, the more of a favor you'll be doing the wolrd. Because, trust me, I'd rather be dragged by a bus, going 100 MPH on an oped jagged road than suffer through this game again. And you will feel the same way if you play it long enough.

In short: NOT Double Dragon Worthy.