DRAGON SPIRIT ARATANARU DENSETSU
( Dragon Spirit The New Legend )
Game Cover
Game
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

American Version
country
Released in America as
DRAGON SPIRIT
THE NEW LEGEND
( NES-P4-USA )
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.
Related
Dragon Spirit (Pce-Hu) Dragon Saber (Pce-Hu)
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See Dragon Spirit (Pce-Hu) for more information about the Dragon Spirit game series.

Game's packaging 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...

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!

Game Staff (Copied from the American version end credits) :

Produce
Mr. Negi

Game Design
Haro 7000
Character Design
Bacchus Haru

Sound Design
Rich Kiyosi
Program
Yappy
Thank you
very much
for being
with us.


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Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook
Japanese Guidebook


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Dragon Spirit manual Registration Card Dragon Spirit commercial
Click on picture to enlarge

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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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