Dragon Buster is the first at a lot of things. It's the "first game to have RPG elements", first game to implement permeating platformer concepts like double jumping, and even the first game to have combos where you lose 80% of your health in one interaction because the Wizards juggle you like Sol Badguy doing Sidewinder loops on you.
It's not a good game. Honestly, I don't know if there's anything good about Dragon Buster. The gameplay is terrible. If the rooms of enemies you have to fight through don't just simply decide you lose and bounce Clovis (yes, that's his name) around like a tennis ball, you still have to contend with some of the clunkiest feeling controls I've ever had the pleasure to play with, and not in a meaningful way either. It is a difficult ordeal to jump forward in this game. If you hate Ice Climber for having "bad jumping physics" you haven't seen anything! Eat your heart out!
Dragon Buster's presentation is an unbelievably bad output from Namco in this era, too. I don't get why the game looks and sounds like it this. This game uses the Pac Land engine! A game that looks nice!
Look at how Clovis's sprite looks!
Listen to how the music sounds!
What the hell happened?!
To apply some sort of thesis to all this, maybe Gamers shouldn't apply so much importance to being a pioneer. These games command a certain deal of a respect-- don't get me wrong! But being the first does not a good game make, y'know? It's more complicated than that. That's what makes the craftmanship of better "firsts" than this game awe inspiring.
Still, I don't hate this game. I think action platformers with RPG elements are just my comfort food. If I was there
in 1984 era Japan I would've ate Dragon Buster up. And truthfully, this game has one good thing:
it is really awesome that you can turn the princess that you save into a bunnygirl if you play it long enough. They really had hot stuff in '84 with her and Ki from Tower of Druaga, huh?
(And by the way, that game clears the shit out of this.)
It's not a good game. Honestly, I don't know if there's anything good about Dragon Buster. The gameplay is terrible. If the rooms of enemies you have to fight through don't just simply decide you lose and bounce Clovis (yes, that's his name) around like a tennis ball, you still have to contend with some of the clunkiest feeling controls I've ever had the pleasure to play with, and not in a meaningful way either. It is a difficult ordeal to jump forward in this game. If you hate Ice Climber for having "bad jumping physics" you haven't seen anything! Eat your heart out!
Dragon Buster's presentation is an unbelievably bad output from Namco in this era, too. I don't get why the game looks and sounds like it this. This game uses the Pac Land engine! A game that looks nice!
Look at how Clovis's sprite looks!
Listen to how the music sounds!
What the hell happened?!
To apply some sort of thesis to all this, maybe Gamers shouldn't apply so much importance to being a pioneer. These games command a certain deal of a respect-- don't get me wrong! But being the first does not a good game make, y'know? It's more complicated than that. That's what makes the craftmanship of better "firsts" than this game awe inspiring.
Still, I don't hate this game. I think action platformers with RPG elements are just my comfort food. If I was there
in 1984 era Japan I would've ate Dragon Buster up. And truthfully, this game has one good thing:
it is really awesome that you can turn the princess that you save into a bunnygirl if you play it long enough. They really had hot stuff in '84 with her and Ki from Tower of Druaga, huh?
(And by the way, that game clears the shit out of this.)
4 Comments
You're right that it's unlikely to be the literal first game to do most of these things. That's also something also worth touching on when discussing "gaming pioneers", I just didn't in this review.
And yeah, it's a weird one. If you showed me it standalone I would never guess that it was a Namco title.
And yeah, it's a weird one. If you showed me it standalone I would never guess that it was a Namco title.
i think it's quite good! the spacing oriented combat is super fun and forward-thinking and i think the presentation helps sell the dark fantasy vibe. it's my favorite namco arcade game
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@steelybel I can respect your take on this game. I think the enemy design (mostly for the bosses) and poor feeling controls sort of ruin anything meaningful about this game's spacing, but it being there in some tangible form is probably what makes this game tolerable for me. Calling what's in this game "forward-thinking" is evidently true! I just don't think it's good enough at what it's actually doing for it to get much out of it.
PasokonDeacon
2 months ago