Though it was never
the game fans wanted it to be, Double Dragon V offered some decent, albeit
average, one-on-on fighting. There was a combo system in place, the speed was set just
right, and graphics perfectly copied the style of the cartoon it was based on. Something
happened to the Jaguar version however. Something so wrong, no one should ever be exposed
to it. From a critic's stand point, it's a game so despicable, there's nowhere specific to start. The obvious issues with the license and the added "V" in the title (to make it seem like part of the series) are not even important anymore. What this port does is crank up the speed to a nearly unplayable level, rendering it impossible to figure out what's going on most of the time.
Graphics play a role in this games unbelievable awfulness. Combined with the pacing, the lack of animation makes it impossible to discern whether or not a punch has connected. It's hard enough to land a shot when the AI is told to do nothing but sit in a corner and block (and that really is all it does), but here you can barely tell the difference between success and failure.
It's impossible to deny that this is a disgrace graphically, since the sprites have been chopped down to a meager size. The extra color available attempts to smooth out some of the pixelization in the 16-bit versions, and instead makes characters look blurred and washed out. Spectators in the background have been cut almost entirely.
Controls are an
obvious problem for any Jaguar fighter, Double Dragon V of course included.
Providing only three main face buttons, this six-button fighter is not a pleasant
experience. The keypad makes up for the missing moves. Even if that's mastered, the
inaccuracy of the d-pad makes pulling off special attacks entirely based on luck.Voices have also been a member of the chopping party, cutting out most yells when someone is hit, and the announcer barely makes a presence. Music is toned down here, lacking the forcefulness of the other translations. There's no indication a hit has been made.
This is the type of port that simply makes you shake your head in awe. Double Dragon V wasn't that great of a game to begin with, and on the Jaguar, it becomes one of the worst fighting games ever made. It's astonishingly bad, and a prime example of what went wrong for the console.
