- Dragon Spirit
-
Dragon Spirit 
Developer(s) Namco Publisher(s) Designer(s) Ojisan Trio Plus 1 Platform(s) Nintendo Entertainment System, Arcade, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, Atari ST, PSP, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx-16, ZX Spectrum, Virtual Console, Xbox 360 Release date(s) Arcade - INT 1987
- JP 1988
- NA 1988
1990 Atari ST, NES
1991 DOS
Virtual Console
TurboGrafx-16
Arcade
- JP September 8, 2009
November 4, 2008 Namco Museum Virtual ArcadeGenre(s) Vertical scrolling shooter Mode(s) Up to two players, alternating turns Rating(s) - ESRB: E
Cabinet Upright, cabaret, and cocktail Arcade system Namco System 1 Display Vertical orientation, Raster, 224 x 288 resolution Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical scrolling shooter arcade game released by Namco and Atari Games (in the US). It runs on Namco System 1 hardware, and was later ported to the Nintendo Entertainment System, Amstrad CPC, Commodore Amiga, Commodore 64, DOS, Atari ST, Sharp X68000, TurboGrafx-16 and ZX Spectrum platforms.
Contents
Story
After a millennium of captivity, an ugly serpent demon named Zawell escapes imprisonment and kidnaps Alicia, princess to the kingdom of Mitgult. A young, crafty soldier Amul is selected to rescue the princess and destroy Zawell. In praying to the gods for strength and courage, he points his sword high toward the heavens. Suddenly he is transformed into an all-powerful blue dragon, bestowed with special powers. Though gifted with a lethal air and ground attack, this is not enough. He must locate and obtain extra powers along the way. The demon has instructed nine of the mightiest beasts to stop Amul before reaching his goal.
Gameplay
In-game screenshot.
Being the biggest sprite on the screen makes Amul an easy target, and he dies after three hits (or two, depending on the machine settings). The powerups that give the player extra heads may give double or triple the firepower, but they also give double or triple the exposure to enemy fire which, especially at later levels, becomes intensely difficult to avoid.
The English arcade cabinet has several mistakes. The correct levels and bosses are as follows:
- Level 1: Valley of the Spirits, Sea Dragon
- Level 2: Volcanic Region, Firebird
- Level 3: Jungle, Mammoth Flower
- Level 4: Desert, Bone Dragon
- Level 5: Cave, Giant Spider
- Level 6: Glacier, Blue Dragon
- Level 7: Ocean Floor, Deep Sea Angler
- Level 8: Deep Sea Trench, Monsterous Gateway
- Level 9: (Part 1) Temple of Evil, Stone Guardians
- Level 9: (Part 2) Temple of Evil, Pit Hydra
- Final Boss: Temple of Evil, Zawell
Upon completion of the game, the credits appear followed by a list of Namco games up to this point along with their release dates (some of which are incorrect). For example, it says 10 (October) /1984 for Grobda, contradicting Grobda's own ending screen, which says "This game is presented by Namco, 1st Nov. 1984."
Other releases
An altered version of this game appeared on the Nintendo Entertainment System under the title Dragon Spirit: The New Legend. A sequel named Dragon Saber was released in 1990, which allowed two players to play simultaneously.
Additionally, Dragon Spirit was released for TurboGrafx-16. This version retained most of the original arcade graphics and sound quality.
An emulated arcade version of Dragon Spirit appears in Namco Museum 50th Anniversary and Namco Museum Vol. 5 . However, the Nintendo GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation 2 versions of 50th Anniversary are missing the continue feature (which is found on the PC version and Pac-Man's Arcade Party).
Dragon Spirit is also on the Japanese version of Namco Museum for PSP.
On July 2, 2007, the TurboGrafx-16 version of game was added to the Nintendo Virtual Console, and on September 8, 2009, the arcade version was released as part of the Virtual Console Arcade in Japan.
On November 4, 2008, it was released on Xbox 360 as part of Namco Museum Virtual Arcade.
Dragon Spirit was released on the PlayStation Network in the downloadable game for the Playstation 3 called Namco Museum Essentials.
In 2010, as part of Pac-Man's 30th anniversary, Dragon Spirit was released as part of the Pac-Man's Arcade Party 30th Anniversary arcade machine, along with twelve, (or thirteen, if it was the home version which has Ms. Pac-Man), classic Namco games.
External links
Categories:- 1987 video games
- Amiga games
- Amstrad CPC games
- Arcade games
- Atari arcade games
- Commodore 64 games
- Namco games
- Scrolling shooters
- Shapeshifting in fiction
- Sharp X68000 games
- TurboGrafx-16 games
- Virtual Console games
- ZX Spectrum games
- Dragons in video games
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
