Dragon Saber - After Story of Dragon Spirit [Model NC91005]

Dragon Saber - After Story of Dragon Spirit © 1991 Namco, Limited.

Dragon Saber is a vertical shooter by Namco and conversion of the arcade game of the same name originally released in 1990, itself sequel of "Dragon Spirit". The game takes place far into the future, at a time when humanity's growing egoism and lack of respect for life and nature causes chaos on the Earth, slowly leading to its inevitable destruction. Monsters and evil creatures now roam the planet and in a desperate plea for help, the Sun goddess Aria asks two courageous knights, Huey and Siria, to go on the most perilous mission ever undertaken by mortals. Armed with a magical saber and the power to transform into fire breathing dragons, the warriors embark on a heroic journey to save the world. Dragon Saber follows the precedent established by its predecessor - players are able to hit enemies in the air as well as on the ground, and colored eggs scattered around each level gives them the opportunity to increase their dragon's firepower (blue egg) or base damage (red egg). However, the game offers some new features over its prequel - each player can now charge up powerful blasts of energy (by releasing the fire button for a few seconds) and different kinds of dragon power-ups have made their appearances, such as lightning bolts or Energy Wings, each one with their own super attack! Dragon Saber consists of eight levels and features a two-player simultaneous option.

Game ID: NC91005

Dragon Saber for PC Engine was released on December 27, 1991 in Japan for 6800 Yen.

The arcade game Dragon Saber was originally released in 1990. This PC-Engine port is overall really faithful to the arcade game. Although the screen aspect ratio is (obviously) different, the gameplay remains almost unaffected by it. Unsurprisingly, some of the visual effects have also been omitted - for instance, in the second stage, the ground doesn't split open anymore and just slides sideways, the huge bursts of lava were removed and the impressive canyon dive from stage five is, of course, nowhere to be seen and was replaced by a fast vertical scrolling.

Reviews:
[FR] March 1992 - Joypad N.6: 80/100

* Arcade Mode:
Hold Select and press Run to reset the game. Do this operation thirty times (you can just hold select and keep pressing Run) to start the game in arcade mode.

Produce: Max, haro 7000
Program: Mimi
Graphic: Bob, Mark 2, Rairu, Daiya
Sound: Nobi
Special thanks: M. T, Poritan, Sakusaku Koya, Bacchus hal, Psychic

CONSOLES:
Nintendo Wii [Virtual Console] [JP] (aug.5, 2008) "Dragon Saber - After Story of Dragon Spirit [Model PC5J]"