The Woods, also known by the generic name of Mission 3, is the third stage in Double Dragon.
Overview[]
Arcade[]
After their battle in the factory area, the Lee brothers ride down the lift which Jeff used previously and with it they reach the city's suburbs. They soon exit the city and find themselves in the middle of a forest, where enemies are already waiting for them perched on the treetops and hiding inside holes on the ground ready to ambush them.
After taking care of these goons, the brothers reach a broken wooden bridge they must cross and face off a group of powerful enemies on the other side. Not long after this, they exit the forest and arrive to the countryside, where they must reach the edge of a cliff in their search of Marian and the Black Warriors' hideout.
The Lee brothers exit the countryside area and must cross a bridge that connects to the base of a hill atop from which lies the entrance to the Black Warriors' headquarters. Gaining access to the enemy's base won't be easy, though, as guarding the entrance is the abominable Mibobo, a green skin-colored musclebound giant, akin to Jick, but faster and stronger.
NES[]
As with the rest of the levels on this port, this one also features many changes from the arcade version and expands upon it quite a bit.
The level starts already in the middle of the woods and it more or less retains the same layout as the arcade version, including the broken wooden bridge. Enemies consist of Williamses (some wielding knives), Chin Taimeis and Ropers.
Similar to the arcade version, after exiting the forest, Billy reaches the base of a cliff; however, here is where the level changes a lot. A pair of Abobos will break out from the cliff's wall at this point and to proceed further into the level, the player needs to enter one of the openings left behind by them. This, however, may not be very evident to first-time players; if the player continues onward, the entire level will loop infinitely, bringing the player back to this point over and over.
Once Billy has entered one of the openings, he'll himself inside of a (quite surreal-looking) cave, with reddish floor and ceiling and a pink back wall made of bubble-looking rocks. Unlike the rest of the game so far, this and the following sections are played solely in a 2D layout. In the first section, stalactites will be incessantly dropping from the ceiling. The player must traverse this section carefully and without rushing, or else, they could be hit by these rock formations one after another, and possibly even lose a few lives.
Next is a long chasm the player must make it across by riding three moving platforms. Not too hard but any miscalculation while jumping most likely mean falling into the hole and losing a life.
On the other side there's a door from where a couple of Chin Taimeis will come out to challenge the player. Like in the initial woods section of this level, the player has to enter this door instead of heading forward, or else, this area will loop too and it will have to be entirely traversed once again.
On the other side of the door, there's a second cave which constantly changes color from blue to red. The player will first have to fend off a batch of Williamses, some of which come armed with sticks of dynamite. Once they've been taken care of, the player will have to jump down a large cliff while avoiding rolling boulders that come from rear end of the screen. In addition to all this ordeal, there are a few gaps on the path that must be jumped over, and if the player miscalculates or hastily performs their jumps, they could fall down into one of them.
A couple of green Abobos (originally called Abobo, but renamed "Mibobo" in later games) guard the exit to the cave (in the arcade version, one of these guarded the entrance to the enemies' hideout).
Once entering the opening on the wall left by one of the green Abobos, the player will arrive to an outer wall conformed by several platforms with openings on the walls from which hordes of Lindas come out. Rock formations serve as impromptu ladders that connect these platforms. At the bottom of this area lies the entrance to the enemy's base.
Enemies[]
- Arcade
- NES