#198 - Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

                                                   The game's good, I swear!

                     Namco went for a more "blue raspberry" dragon in this game.

Dragon Spirit begins simply, brilliantly. In three lines or so, you're informed that a warrior named Amru, who can turn into a blue dragon, is off to beat the evil warlord Zawel. You're then thrust into a vertically scrolling shooter, with you controlling the blue dragon. After some brief skirmishes, you fight Zawel and destroy him. More cinematics inform you that Amru settles down and has a wife and twins. Amru dies suddenly, while one of the twins – the female, of course – is captured by the new evil entity of the land. It's up to Amru's son, Lace, to take up his father's sword – thus transforming into the dragon - save his sister and destroy the new evil that has arisen. Then the title screen appears, informing you that, yes, what you just played/watched wasn't the game: it was a prologue. Why is this important? It may be the first and only appearance of a prologue in the entire library of NES games. I was shocked to learn that the character Amru, who I assumed I'd be playing with through the entire game, died mere moments after destroying an albeit easy boss. We expect high-quality stories from the majority of games we play today, but all we expected from an NES game was good fundamentals, with a fragment of a story to keep us moving. Dragon Spirit, along with Ninja Gaiden, began to herald a new wave of storytelling in console games, whether the developers (Namco and Tecmo, respectively) knew it or not.

As a shooter, Dragon Spirit stands the test of time. "A" controls your main shooter, while "B" controls your ground-level bombs. Enemies will come at you from both the air and the ground equally, so it's essential to get the hang of both attacks. Power-ups are plentiful and unique. My personal favorite was the White Dragon, where your character sprouts two other heads that spit out two shots instead of one. Each level takes place around a nature setting, whether it be atop a volcano, amidst an iceberg, or just among the green plains. It's a nice change of pace from shooting aliens in space. The dragon controls are smooth, thankfully, and he moves as quickly as you think he should. Fans of vertical shooters should definitely look into this forgotten gem, and if you're not a fan but are looking to get into the shooter genre, Dragon Spiritis a good entry point. It has the challenge to keep you going, but not enough to overwhelm you.

B+

#196 - Dragon Fighter

Somebody made this cover and thought, "Yes, this will draw in all the 10-14-year-old males."

                                 The bosses are pretty awesome in this game.

No game wants to be saddled with the name Dragon Fighter. It sounds like a cheap Street Fighter II knock-off or an early 90s television show a la "Beast Master." Either way, it's a terribly bland name. Thankfully, Dragon Fighter surprises with its solid combat, fantastic graphics, and derivative, yet enjoyable music. There's nothing in Dragon Fighter that hasn't been done better in other games, but it's still worthy of a playthrough. The gameplay is vaguely Ninja Gaiden-esque with a hint of Mega Man sans blaster. You play as a shapeshifter, a dragon/man hybrid. In your human form, you slash at any and all things with your trusty rapier, but jump up and tap 'A' twice and you become a dragon. Your dragon form is powered up by killing lots of enemies. Don't worry: enemies are plentiful and will fling themselves at you. It can get a bit overwhelming at times, but many of the enemies can be avoided if need be. Once you're in your dragon form, the game becomes a horizontal shooter, albeit a slow one. Personally, I avoided turning into a dragon until the boss battles. The game functions perfectly well as a side-scroller, and shapeshifting while trying to fend off several enemies at a time often hampered the experience. Dragon Fighter is a one-life-and-that's-it type of game, but there are codes to boost your health and I highly recommend them. Dragon Fighter doesn't surprise in any way and sometimes feels like an amalgam of your favorite NES side-scrollers, but when a game gets all the fundamentals right, it feels petty to complain.

B

#120 - Castle of Dragon

The appropriate response to this cover is to pick it apart. Why does the princess look like a man? Why is the castle drawn so poorly? Why does the dragon look terrified to be alive?

Killer Croc guest stars.

Spoiler alert: this game's getting an “F.” What's with my negative attitude towards games as of late, you ask? The real question is, what's with games that suck getting in the way of good games? If I could, I would prance down the road, stopping to smell and caress the chrysanthemums, before continuing to prance along my merry way. Every game would get an “A” because life is so wonderful, how could anything be bad? Unfortunately, we live in trying times, and in trying times, it gets harder and harder to put smiles on our faces. Perhaps at a different time, in a different place, Castle of Dragon would have gotten a “D.” Perhaps, on a good day, I could overlook the game's raging flaws and say, “Well, Castle of Dragon, God bless it, is trying its best.” After playing through crap after crap after crap, I'm ready for a break. Castle of Dragon spits on my break. I spit on Castle of Dragon.

If Altered Beast and Castlevania had a mutated lovechild, I'd like to think Castle of Dragon would be its name. The backgrounds, the characters, the enemies all remind me of Castlevania, but the overblown sprites (which, admittedly, look pretty good for an NES game) and the clunky swordplay seem stolen directly from that arcade/Genesis “classic.” As with ninety-five percent of all NES games, it's a side-scroller and you play a big sword-swinging beefcake whose trying to rescue the princess. Wield your sword against bats, skeletons, zombies, and any number of Universal monsters that don't seem to respond to the cold edge of a blade. It's simple gameplay, in theory, but things get difficult when you try to use your shield. Your shield bounces the enemies back, but this means you can't swing at them right away. You then have a choice: take an obscene amount of damage while trying to hack your enemy to bits, or block their attacks and watch them bounce around all day. There are power-ups you can get for both your weapon and your armor. If you acquire the blue suit of armor, you have twice as much life, but since the enemies get more difficult as you progress, you can't really survive without it. You can get flame projectiles, among others, for your sword, but after you use them a few times, they're completely depleted. Oh, and you only have one life and no continues.

In Japan, this game is called Dragon Unit. While it's still a stupid name, why would Seta retitle it Castle of Dragon for the United States? For once, Japan was able to put two English words together better than native English speakers. At this point, I'm just complaining to complain, but there really is no reason this game couldn't have been titled Dragon Castle. The title would have looked nicer, probably resulting in more sales and I wouldn't have had to play it until I got to the “D”s. Everybody wins!

F