Mark III version of Double Dragon
Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 1:11 am
Found box and manual scans of the Sega Mark III (Japanese counterpart of the Master System) version of Double Dragon on SMS Power.
http://www.smspower.org/Scans/DoubleDragon-SMS
The actual Mark III game itself is identical to the overseas Master System releases (to the point that all versions are compatible with the FM Sound module, an add-on which was only released in Japan). However, the cover artwork is different and the Japanese manual have a few more illustrations not used in the English version. A few observations.
1) The text in the "Story" and "Main characters" pages are taken almost verbatim from the Famicom version's promotional brochure (with only a few changes). It even ends with "In order to save Marian, Billy sets off alone to face the Black Warriors without his brother's knowledge", which is odd since this is a 2-Player version.
2) The name of Billy and Jimmy's style is spelled in the furigana as "Sō-Sai-Ken" instead of the more traditional "Sō-Setsu-Ken". This is likely due to the ambiguity in kanji pronunciations (a kanji character can have more than one pronunciation). The manual for the NES version also used "Sosaiken".
3) Willy and Jeff have their "correct" names in the Japanese manual. For some reason, their names were switched in the English manual (I'm guessing someone thought that "Willy" was a more suitable name for the Lee brother clone than "Jeff"). The manual also gives out Jeff's height and weight (along with those of the other enemies).
http://www.smspower.org/Scans/DoubleDragon-SMS
The actual Mark III game itself is identical to the overseas Master System releases (to the point that all versions are compatible with the FM Sound module, an add-on which was only released in Japan). However, the cover artwork is different and the Japanese manual have a few more illustrations not used in the English version. A few observations.
1) The text in the "Story" and "Main characters" pages are taken almost verbatim from the Famicom version's promotional brochure (with only a few changes). It even ends with "In order to save Marian, Billy sets off alone to face the Black Warriors without his brother's knowledge", which is odd since this is a 2-Player version.
2) The name of Billy and Jimmy's style is spelled in the furigana as "Sō-Sai-Ken" instead of the more traditional "Sō-Setsu-Ken". This is likely due to the ambiguity in kanji pronunciations (a kanji character can have more than one pronunciation). The manual for the NES version also used "Sosaiken".
3) Willy and Jeff have their "correct" names in the Japanese manual. For some reason, their names were switched in the English manual (I'm guessing someone thought that "Willy" was a more suitable name for the Lee brother clone than "Jeff"). The manual also gives out Jeff's height and weight (along with those of the other enemies).