Billy and Jimmy make a return in Double Dragon III but they really should have stopped at two.
As long as they kept many of the same things correct, Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones, should have been a success. Instead, it changes some of the formula, but none of it for the better.
The game starts you off as Billy and Jimmy, (Assuming you play two player mode) looking for Billy's girl Marian, AGAIN. Anyways, you go through levels of hectic everything! You'll fight normal street thugs to ninjas. Now, I'm no expert on Ninjas, but they got shurikans and things and... Anyways...
Playing a beat'em up game for story is going to a Math Fair for cotton candy. Yah, you might get some but you shouldn't. Graphically, the game looks well and is line with the games of that time. The colours are bright and Billy and Jimmy look as intimidating as ever. Unfortunately, the game suffers from constant lag down. Whenever there is four sprites on the screen, things start flashing and it's hard to tell what is going on sometimes and in conjunction with slowdown, it makes the two player experience must less fun.
Another aspect of the game that is really punishing, is simply the difficulty level. In the previous Double Dragon games, you had a health bar and multiple lives. You even had continues! But in this game, they got rid of all that and said you have to do it hardcore. You get one life bar, and that's it. There are no extra lives, nor continues or anything. Once you die, it's all over and you have to start all over again. There are no health powerups so once you lose health to an enemy, it's lost unless you can beat the stage. Beating the stage, the game gives you a full life bar to start the next but it's still a steep climb for my liking. New to this game, you can get other characters to join you so if you do die as Billy or Jimmy, you can use the other characters but they are not nearly as useful nor fun.
Also on the game play front, you can select one, two player mode a, or two player mode b. Now, one player is really tough because you're all by yourself. The game does not give you a reduced enemy count playing by yourself so you'd be nuts not to have a partner play with you but with two players, the graphics will start flashing and the slowdown will occur as I mentioned above. Also, if you pick mode B, you can actually hit each other making the game even more difficult than it already is. Now, the game is an unbelievably tough game in it's own regard. Why anyone would want to add another element of challenge is simply beyond me and I don't recommend it.
Playing some of the other Double Dragons, I expected a lot from this game but it fell far too short simply because of the difficulty. The game wasn't fun and became a chore and it is really hard for me to recommend to anyone except those that are most hardcore fans or those looking for a challenge.