Kudos to them for trying something new I guess, but I don't even know what to say about that ship design and controls. If nothing else, it serves to detract from how average everything else is about the game.
This kind of sucks and is dumb actually. Replayed multiple times over in an attempt to get the most out of the procedurally generated shtick. It's not good.
Don't really care that this is not properly playable without OG hardware (or the Taito Egret Mini and a dumb $120 peripheral). Don't really care that it's shallow, and procedurally-generated, and insanely quarter-hungry.
Just open it up in MAME for two fuckin minutes and listen to that music, and bask in that late-eighties visual majesty. You're an awesome-looking dragon slithering around a technomaze, shooting fire at spaceships.
It's objectively rad. I don't make the rules.
Just open it up in MAME for two fuckin minutes and listen to that music, and bask in that late-eighties visual majesty. You're an awesome-looking dragon slithering around a technomaze, shooting fire at spaceships.
It's objectively rad. I don't make the rules.
Dragons are pretty cool and I'm sure most of us can agree, maybe. Surprised this has a Super Famicom port since I've never seen this port until today when someone sent me a Youtube video about the game today. I decided it looked cool enough so let's give it a try.
You control this long dragon going through somewhat narrow level design to reach the end to face a boss. You can move around at a decent speed and shoot fire at your enemies though ones with glows usually can't be damaged. Killing enemies can give you points or more life. You do have a good amount of health indicated by the bright spots of your dragon and you'll get a warning when you're down to three hits left.
This may sound like a very simple game well that's because it is. Though it can be very hard especially on your first minutes trying the game out. The fire you have loses range the more you use so try to remember moving around recharges it fast. Your hitbox is huge and honestly at times kind of inaccurate. Enemies love to come in when you take things slow or stop. The longer you wait, then invincible big enemies will come in to stop you. If that wasn't enough you're also on a timer though it'll only just kill you normally if it hits 0.
Bosses are at the end of levels and honestly they can be a bit annoying with the controls but once you learn them they aren't the worst ever. One tip I have is if you want to refill your fire gauge just ram into the wall as it'll still detect you moving when doing it. Some of the early ones also knockback from your fire but keep in mind this doesn't work on the last few. Also use your fire on projectiles as it pushes them off screen.
The weirdest thing of all though is the controls and lives system. So the original Arcade version used a trackball control scheme but now it's been adjusted to work on a D-pad and IDK how to explain it but it still feels like it was made with a trackball in mind. I do wish sometimes bouncing off walls didn't feel annoying in super narrow spaces. The lives system is weird as it seems to only matter for points? If you die then you start where you die. If you game over then you...start where you die? Yeah and you even have unlimited continues which means you'll no doubt beat this game in under 20 minutes.
The game looks nice graphically and I can appreciate that. I like the sprite for the dragon and maybe it's cause I died a lot but I like the death animation. Though I will say none of the hazards, enemies, or bosses really excite me. The game also has resolution lost due to the console and there's even some slowdown at times but it could be much worse. The music however is certainly questionable, it's the kind of stuff I wouldn't have expected but it's also not bad at least. It is different from the Arcade music so you'll have to judge yourself what you find better.
This was a fun time especially once I got used to it. There are three different modes for you to try out and it's fun if you can take the time to learn the movement and level design. This game would get a PAL release but oddly not a US release. A bunch of SNES games were like that and IDK why. While I'm not sure if this would have been worth the money back then, it can offer some nice replayability especially if you care about high scores. I would say just play the Arcade version but it's probably not as fun to play via emulation due to the lack of a trackball. Still in the end it's not a bad game and it's worth a try if your curiosity gets the best of you.
You control this long dragon going through somewhat narrow level design to reach the end to face a boss. You can move around at a decent speed and shoot fire at your enemies though ones with glows usually can't be damaged. Killing enemies can give you points or more life. You do have a good amount of health indicated by the bright spots of your dragon and you'll get a warning when you're down to three hits left.
This may sound like a very simple game well that's because it is. Though it can be very hard especially on your first minutes trying the game out. The fire you have loses range the more you use so try to remember moving around recharges it fast. Your hitbox is huge and honestly at times kind of inaccurate. Enemies love to come in when you take things slow or stop. The longer you wait, then invincible big enemies will come in to stop you. If that wasn't enough you're also on a timer though it'll only just kill you normally if it hits 0.
Bosses are at the end of levels and honestly they can be a bit annoying with the controls but once you learn them they aren't the worst ever. One tip I have is if you want to refill your fire gauge just ram into the wall as it'll still detect you moving when doing it. Some of the early ones also knockback from your fire but keep in mind this doesn't work on the last few. Also use your fire on projectiles as it pushes them off screen.
The weirdest thing of all though is the controls and lives system. So the original Arcade version used a trackball control scheme but now it's been adjusted to work on a D-pad and IDK how to explain it but it still feels like it was made with a trackball in mind. I do wish sometimes bouncing off walls didn't feel annoying in super narrow spaces. The lives system is weird as it seems to only matter for points? If you die then you start where you die. If you game over then you...start where you die? Yeah and you even have unlimited continues which means you'll no doubt beat this game in under 20 minutes.
The game looks nice graphically and I can appreciate that. I like the sprite for the dragon and maybe it's cause I died a lot but I like the death animation. Though I will say none of the hazards, enemies, or bosses really excite me. The game also has resolution lost due to the console and there's even some slowdown at times but it could be much worse. The music however is certainly questionable, it's the kind of stuff I wouldn't have expected but it's also not bad at least. It is different from the Arcade music so you'll have to judge yourself what you find better.
This was a fun time especially once I got used to it. There are three different modes for you to try out and it's fun if you can take the time to learn the movement and level design. This game would get a PAL release but oddly not a US release. A bunch of SNES games were like that and IDK why. While I'm not sure if this would have been worth the money back then, it can offer some nice replayability especially if you care about high scores. I would say just play the Arcade version but it's probably not as fun to play via emulation due to the lack of a trackball. Still in the end it's not a bad game and it's worth a try if your curiosity gets the best of you.
If you don't like the game much, I highly suggest trying to play it with a trackball. The game is designed around trackball controls, and is pretty much unplayable on nearly anything else. It becomes a LOT more fun with that in mind, and you'll appreciate it's ideas more. Before I played it again on my Egret II Mini with the trackball expansion pack, I didn't like this much either, and looking back, that was rather silly of me, for not knowing how it's supposed to be played.
Anyways, this is a cool as hell game where you're controlling a robot dragon, burning everything in its path. Designed by Fukio Mitsuji of Bubble Bobble fame, the game has his signature truckload of randomized, but deep gameplay elements, and I honestly feel it works in this game's favor better than Bubble Bobble. Quite literally, no two playthroughs are alike. You play through five randomly generated levels, and you get a randomly generated story and ending with that as well. It's surprisingly deep for it's time, and has had me coming back to it quite a lot to see what the game has in store for me, in that time. It's that diverse in how much randomization it has, almost always feeling fresh every time.
The sound design, with music by ZUNTATA, is also excellent, too. My favorite track in particular, the main theme, is extremely headbanging and chaotic at the same time, very fitting of the games break-neck and chaotic atmosphere.
I wish some aspects of it weren't so quarter-munchery, but having unlimited credits does fix the issue somewhat. It's also incredibly satisfying to just burn everything mercilessly, and zoom across the stages with the trackball. I wish more arcade games did stuff with trackballs like this instead of the umpteenth bowling or golf game. Those aren't bad, either, but y'know...
Anyways, if you come across a cab of this game, can emulate arcade games with a trackball controller, or have the Taito Egret II Mini with the trackball/paddle expansion, I highly recommend giving this a go. People really haven't given this one a fair chance due to the fact that it takes some effort to get a proper control setup for the game, and that's sad.
Anyways, this is a cool as hell game where you're controlling a robot dragon, burning everything in its path. Designed by Fukio Mitsuji of Bubble Bobble fame, the game has his signature truckload of randomized, but deep gameplay elements, and I honestly feel it works in this game's favor better than Bubble Bobble. Quite literally, no two playthroughs are alike. You play through five randomly generated levels, and you get a randomly generated story and ending with that as well. It's surprisingly deep for it's time, and has had me coming back to it quite a lot to see what the game has in store for me, in that time. It's that diverse in how much randomization it has, almost always feeling fresh every time.
The sound design, with music by ZUNTATA, is also excellent, too. My favorite track in particular, the main theme, is extremely headbanging and chaotic at the same time, very fitting of the games break-neck and chaotic atmosphere.
I wish some aspects of it weren't so quarter-munchery, but having unlimited credits does fix the issue somewhat. It's also incredibly satisfying to just burn everything mercilessly, and zoom across the stages with the trackball. I wish more arcade games did stuff with trackballs like this instead of the umpteenth bowling or golf game. Those aren't bad, either, but y'know...
Anyways, if you come across a cab of this game, can emulate arcade games with a trackball controller, or have the Taito Egret II Mini with the trackball/paddle expansion, I highly recommend giving this a go. People really haven't given this one a fair chance due to the fact that it takes some effort to get a proper control setup for the game, and that's sad.
Pilot a fire-breathing dragon mecha to fight aliens. Good soundtrack.
yeah I always wanted to know how it would be like to play a shoot em up with an 18 wheeler truck
I thought I completed it but I was playing on easy mode and didn't know since I was using an untranslated ROM and didn't really feel like continuing lol
There's some pretty cool ideas going on here but it just isn't very fun to play. Reminds me a lot of Somer Assault both in that regard and its general structure. Their design philosophies make me think back to this old mobile game developer I really enjoyed stuff from as a kid. "Donut Games" or something. There's probably no real correlation but my autism brain is really trying to tie them together
There's some pretty cool ideas going on here but it just isn't very fun to play. Reminds me a lot of Somer Assault both in that regard and its general structure. Their design philosophies make me think back to this old mobile game developer I really enjoyed stuff from as a kid. "Donut Games" or something. There's probably no real correlation but my autism brain is really trying to tie them together
Dang this game is cool.
Uma ideia bem massavéi: você controla um dragão robô gigante cuspidor de fogo. Mas a execução nunca transpassa o nível de meramente interessante.