DRAGON SPIRIT ARATANARU DENSETSU
( Dragon Spirit The New Legend )
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ドラゴンスピリット 新たなる伝説
©1987 1989 Namco Ltd.
Release: 1989-04-14 (¥5200)
Cartdridge (n/a)
Shooter/vertical
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Released in America as
DRAGON SPIRIT
THE NEW LEGEND
( NES-P4-USA )
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Dragon Spirit is a fantasy-themed vertical shooter by Namco
and the conversion of their own arcade game originally released in 1987. This
port is however not completely faithful to the original game, hence its subtitle
"Aratanaru Densetsu" ("The New Legend"). The original Dragon Spirit
tells the story of the legendary Amul who has the incredible ability to transform
into a powerful fire breathing dragon.
After rescuing his wife-to-be Alicia (princess of the kingdom of Mitgult)
from the clutches of the serpent demon Zawell, Amul settles down to raises
a family. From his marriage he has two children, Lace and his sister Iris.
Years later, a threat erupts again within the kingdom and a new cruel demon named Galda
aspires to conquer the world. The fearless beast has kidnapped Iris and Lace,
taking his father's footsteps, sets off to defeat the beast. Like Amul, prince
Lace has the ability to change into a fierce dragon and in this form he uses extremely
powerful combat abilities. Unlike other games in the series, the player is first dropped
into an introductionary stage - however, this short level has an important function and it
directly influences in the game's difficulty. The player is given to control the powerful
Gold Dragon if he doesn't complete this short stage, and can only play half of the game,
whereas the Blue Dragon, awarded by beating the stage, gets the player to play the
normal game. Each dragon comes with two types of weapons - it can hit enemies in the air
but also bomb lurking foes on the ground. The life of the dragon is shown by a life meter
and the beast can sustain several hits before dying. Lace can be upgraded in all
kinds of ways - speed ups, shots enhancer, more heads, invincibility,
power bombs, small satellite dragons, Earthquakes... He can also
change shape and turn into different dragons such as the powerful Green Dragon,
the three-ways white dragon and so forth.
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Like many games released by Namco for the Famicom System, Dragon Spirit
comes in a hard and more durable plastic case (picture on the left).
Finally, the game doesn't seem to have any serial number...
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Teaser text from the American version:
For years now the kingdom of Olympia had enjoyed
a wonderful period of peace. Even the fearful tale of king
Amru's heroic battle with the demon Zawel had been long
forgotten by his happy subjects. And when Amru's marriage
to Alicia was blessed with the birth of the royal twins, Lace
and Iris, the kingdom took it as a sign that the Fates were
looking favorable upon them. But little did they know that
far to the east the wicked Galda had been amassing an army
of evil the likes of which could not be imagined in the blackest
thoughts of mankind. Even the fearsome Zawel had been
resurrected from the dead to join the murderous cause.
Suddenly, without a warning Galda had struck, kidnapping
the Princess Iris and her attending maids for a sacrificial
offering in the Ceremony of the Dark. As Amru lay helplessly
on his death bed he knew there was but one hope for rescuing
his beloved daughter and saving the kingdom from
total destruction. He must finally reveal the secret of the
magical sword of Arlia to his son, Prince Lace. The mighty
spirit of the Blue Dragon must rise again!
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Game Staff (Copied from the American version end credits) :
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Produce
Mr. Negi
Game Design
Haro 7000
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Character Design
Bacchus Haru
Sound Design
Rich Kiyosi
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Program
Yappy
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Thank you
very much
for being
with us.
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G
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O
D
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Japanese Guidebook
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Japanese Guidebook
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O
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
O
V
s
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I wasn't expecting anything special from Dragon Spirit - I mean,
I really dig the arcade game but didn't think the Famicom hardware
would cut it. Why does it not surprise me that, on top of proving me wrong,
Namco also managed to pull a five-stars game out of their sleeves ?
Rather than going for a straight port, the developers saw the opportunity to
provide their own plot twists on the original. As a result you get to fight
the arcade's final boss in the introductionary stage! How cool is that ? Rather
than "bringing the arcade experience home", Namco (like many Japaneses
companies at the time) decided to "bring fans of the arcade game a new home
experience". Dragon Spirit is an awesome game - the gameplay is fast
and brutal with tons of power-ups, the graphics surprisingly detailed and the
soundtrack is fairly solid (only the sound effects are not as effective as
they could have been). I'd totally advice you to play the game with a controller
with an auto-fire feature though. All in all this port is fantastic and fans of
the arcade game shouldn't pass on this one.
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