Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

mechapop · Post by **mechapop** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:00 pm

It still puzzles me how in 1990 Technos outsourced their prized franchise to a third party developer to create the awkwardly weak Double Dragon 3 arcade.
The graphics/layout/health alone, a total ripoff of Konami's 1989 arcade game Crime Fighters, make little sense...when one takes into
consideration the fact that the Double Dragon style of sprites and gameplay continued with 1989's WWF Superstars, 1990's Combatribes and
1991's Wrestlefest. Of course by 1992 Technos would go the Final Fight clone route with Silent Dragon.

But has there been any information on why the abrupt change in graphics? No other technos game before or since looked like DD3. And due to the
insane difficulty/1 life bar, I never even liked the NES counterpart.

In a way, Technos return to the DD series two years later with SDD kind of maintained the DD3 arcade look, at least the scale. SDD feels so slow, compared
to Streets of Rage(which I'm guessing it was patterned after)

Play2win · Post by **Play2win** » Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:19 pm

There are many reasons debated, but interestingly the history entries in the Double Dragon IOS game offer a reasonable explanation for the change.

Apparently, Yoshihisa Kishimoto didn't follow instructions when developing DD2. He developed the game over budget and behind schedule on a more advanced hardware system than that which was allotted by Technos.

The success of DD2 sealed the rights a lucrative movie deal. The timetable of the movie accelerated the development schedule for DD3. Technos believed the finishing deadline was critical and, apparently believing Yoshihisa Kishimoto would be unreliable, assigned Mr. Kishimoto and his staff to the Combatribes project, which was developed on similar hardware to DD3.

East Technology won the rights to develop Double Dragon 3, apparently due to their low cost projections and guaranteed completion deadline.

So, in modern corporate terms, the arcade version of DD3 was outsourced. This is why it does not have the same look and feel as the other Double Dragon games. That's not to say it's bad per se, but many people consider the Combatribes to be the unofficial Double Dragon 3.

Eddie MountainGoat · Post by **Eddie MountainGoat** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 9:57 am

Play2win wrote:many people consider the Combatribes to be the unofficial Double Dragon 3.

I'm one of them.

I said it years ago, in this older thread.

Eddie MountainGoat wrote:As far as I was concerned, Combatribes always felt more like the rightful successor to DD II, to me, than DD 3. This was even before I learned that it was also a Technos project; and possibly the reason that they themselves weren't developing DD 3 for the arcade.

(DD 1 sprites and Background taken from the Dojo - thanks Mitsuhashi)

mechapop · Post by **mechapop** » Thu Apr 03, 2014 5:06 am

Awwwwww! This explains so much! Seriously thanks.

DD2 threw me for a loop when it hit arcades around the holidays in 1988. I was at once taken by the futuristic colorful take on the characters, but immediately I realized it was
literally just a graphical upgrade/remake of DD1. I guess that'd be my second question: Why did DDII end up being a scene for scene cosmetic facelift remake of DDI?
While I thought the NES DDI was a step backwards from the original, in retrospect DDII NES kind of feels like the real DDII. Also one of the few NES games that to me had
a really beautiful color palette(next to sunsoft's almost 16-bit looking Batman II for the NES)

But man, makes you wonder what DD3 would have been like had the proper Technos team made it.

Regarding Combatribes, for me I associated it more with Renegade since it has a very similar layout.
To this day I sometimes wonder what future DD games would have been like had they continued the DD1/2 look. (Though, as small as the characters are
and as sluggish as the game plays, I do love the color scheme of SDD; and still really like DD Neo Geo)

Billy Lee · Post by **Billy Lee** » Sat Apr 12, 2014 12:33 pm

Play2win wrote:There are many reasons debated, but interestingly the history entries in the Double Dragon IOS game offer a reasonable explanation for the change.

Apparently, Yoshihisa Kishimoto didn't follow instructions when developing DD2. He developed the game over budget and behind schedule on a more advanced hardware system than that which was allotted by Technos.

The success of DD2 sealed the rights a lucrative movie deal. The timetable of the movie accelerated the development schedule for DD3. Technos believed the finishing deadline was critical and, apparently believing Yoshihisa Kishimoto would be unreliable, assigned Mr. Kishimoto and his staff to the Combatribes project, which was developed on similar hardware to DD3.

East Technology won the rights to develop Double Dragon 3, apparently due to their low cost projections and guaranteed completion deadline.

So, in modern corporate terms, the arcade version of DD3 was outsourced. This is why it does not have the same look and feel as the other Double Dragon games. That's not to say it's bad per se, but many people consider the Combatribes to be the unofficial Double Dragon 3.

You pretty much hit the hail on the head when it comes to Double Dragon 3. The two biggest killers of video game franchises are time lines and budgets. Take Mortal Kombat for instance. After Mortal Kombat 4, the franchise took a huge step backwards when it came out with its next set of games. Midway rushed the MK series because of budget and deadlines. As a result, you had a bunch of lack luster games that didn't feel anywhere near as great as the classic Mortal Kombats. It wasn't until Warner Brothers bought out Mortal Kombat from Midway that the game returned to it's former glory.

Double Dragon's problem especially as of late has been that it was outsourced a little too much which is why we have a lot of inconsistencies in the overall series. That has happened since Double Dragon 3. I can't blame Technos for jumping on a golden opportunity to get more money and publicity with Double Dragon, but sadly they messed up with the DD3 arcade. It does make me wonder if things would have been better had they let Yoshihisa Kishimoto properly finish DD3.

wildebeast · Post by **wildebeast** » Thu Mar 24, 2022 2:54 am

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wildebeast · Post by **wildebeast** » Fri Apr 01, 2022 7:02 am

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wildebeast · Post by **wildebeast** » Mon Aug 01, 2022 1:04 am

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Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

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Re: Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

Re: Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

Re: Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

Re: Biggest Question: Why the graphic change for DD3 Arcade?

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