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Dragon Spirit: The New Legend [NES]

T-Pac

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Played Dragon Spirit: The New Legend [NES]

It took a turbo-controller and save-states at the final boss, but I finally finished one of my favorite NES games for the first time. Dragon Spirit is a fantasy themed shoot-em-up where you play as - surprise - a DRAGON! The game uses Xevious attack mechanics, employing both a standard shot for airborne enemies and short-range bombs for ground enemies. Naturally, powerups increase your fire, but they also allow you to evolve into different dragon iterations - shrinking you for a smaller hitbox, summoning satellite dragons for auxiliary firepower, or adding multiple heads for a wider shooting-range.

Each stage offers a unique locale - from arctic tundras, to underwater reefs, to castle-grounds - with appropriately themed enemies and hazards. The environments are a standout feature in Dragon Spirit, with bold color choices and artful attention to detail (stark-white plains, well-rendered marine biomes, erupting volcanic landmasses, etc.) not often seen in standard NES pixel-graphics. And these environments are put to significant practical use for a vertically-scrolling shooter - as jagged cliffs close-in on you from every side, cocoon-like forest pods ensnare you with growing appendages, and glaciers carve-out a treacherous path through the speed-tunnel section.

Dragon Spirit's boss fights are equally memorable and unique, each fitting with the aesthetic of their respective levels and offering different attack-patterns to memorize and counter. You get to face-off against the likes of skeletal ghost-dragons, fire-breathing turtles, giant spiders, and two evolutions of the final-boss wizard. I’m admittedly regretful at having save-spammed the final boss fight, since I may have been able to clear the game legit with more practice, but I was over-eager to check this title off my backlog after just sampling it casually for so many years.

I'm interested to see how the TurboGrafx-16 port of Dragon Spirit compares to the NES title, as I have it pre-loaded on my TG-16 mini-console. If it’s a similar adaptation, then I’m in for a treat.

[T-Pac]

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Dr. Morbis

The NES version is also one of my favourite shooters.  I actually like it better than the TG version, although the Turbo's rendition is still a solid game...

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docile tapeworm

Dragon spirit is one of the best shooters on the nes. The soundtrack is amazing! I can’t say enough about the music in this game it is so good.
 

The gameplay is spot on. No gimmicky bull shit like time limited power ups (1943) or fuel replenishing (sqoon) juggling power ups (stinger). Straight up lay down some fire and bombs. It’s not a difficult game to 1LC. It’s so fun to play! I think it’s the three headed white dragon that is the most powerful (the green is fun too). just being a dragon is cool as fuck. And the levels look great. Nice graphics.

the only issue one might have is the game is a bit on the easy side. But it’s so fucking fun to play! From the epic opening scene, to playing as a dragon, the gameplay, music and graphics! It’s the whole package and I would put it up against any other games in the genre on the nes.

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docile tapeworm
12 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The NES version is also one of my favourite shooters.  I actually like it better than the TG version, although the Turbo's rendition is still a solid game...

If heard others that have played both versions prefer the nes game over the tg game.

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T-Pac
13 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

The NES version is also one of my favourite shooters.  I actually like it better than the TG version, although the Turbo's rendition is still a solid game...

That's encouraging to hear! Dragon Spirit is the gift that keeps-on giving (I also picked-up a copy of Dragon Saber for the PC Engine in hopes that it stacks-up well, too.)

[T-Pac]

53 minutes ago, docile tapeworm said:

Dragon spirit is one of the best shooters on the nes. The soundtrack is amazing! I can’t say enough about the music in this game it is so good.

the only issue one might have is the game is a bit on the easy side. But it’s so fucking fun to play! From the epic opening scene, to playing as a dragon, the gameplay, music and graphics! It’s the whole package and I would put it up against any other games in the genre on the nes.

Too easy!? I had to resort to save-states at the end just to finish haha! 
Teach me how to get your shoot-em-up skills, @docile tapeworm!

[T-Pac]

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docile tapeworm
50 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

 

Too easy!? I had to resort to save-states at the end just to finish haha! 
Teach me how to get your shoot-em-up skills, @docile tapeworm!

[T-Pac]

Lol. Nah. im fisher price compared to some of the big guns around. I’d like to say I always have a punchers chance against any of them and I do believe that is true.

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Dr. Morbis

@T-Pac: There's an easier mode if you die intentionally on the first level of the NES game.  You get the bad ending once you've beat it, but you get to play as the gold dragon for the whole game...

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T-Pac
21 hours ago, docile tapeworm said:

Lol. Nah. im fisher price compared to some of the big guns around. I’d like to say I always have a punchers chance against any of them and I do believe that is true.

"I'm Fisher Price" might be one of my new favorite phrases haha. I'm gonna use that all the time now.

[T-Pac]

16 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

@T-Pac: There's an easier mode if you die intentionally on the first level of the NES game.  You get the bad ending once you've beat it, but you get to play as the gold dragon for the whole game...

That's a great suggestion! I played the Gold Dragon "easy" mode first to get my bearings, but I wanted to finish the Blue Dragon mode as well so I could play through all the stages (since easy mode omits a lot of them).

[T-Pac]

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AirVillain

 

I feel heard.

Haha, jokes. This game is awesome. Great review. 

You can beat it without the save states, I have faith!!! Now that you know what it takes you can get it done. 

What controller are you using? Personally, I use the NES Advantage for most/all NES shooters, so that's my go to for this game. It's great because you can toggle back and forth to the ground "bombs" or hold it if necessary (I believe?)

I'm not ashamed to admit I likely couldn't beat this game without the NES Advantage. My skills are also Fisher Price compared to the big guns around here. 😅

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T-Pac
On 7/15/2023 at 9:38 AM, AirVillain said:

 

I feel heard.

Haha, jokes. This game is awesome. Great review. 

You can beat it without the save states, I have faith!!! Now that you know what it takes you can get it done. 

What controller are you using? Personally, I use the NES Advantage for most/all NES shooters, so that's my go to for this game. It's great because you can toggle back and forth to the ground "bombs" or hold it if necessary (I believe?)

I'm not ashamed to admit I likely couldn't beat this game without the NES Advantage. My skills are also Fisher Price compared to the big guns around here. 😅

Yeah dude - your "hidden gem" comments about Dragon Spirit were exactly why I decided to revisit it!

And while I also love the NES Advantage, these days I play nearly everything with the control panel on my multicade. (And I fear that, since I'm spoiled with microswitch arcade controls now, I'll never enjoy the mushy Advantage the way I used to haha.)

[T-Pac]

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AirVillain
On 7/16/2023 at 7:36 PM, T-Pac said:

Yeah dude - your "hidden gem" comments about Dragon Spirit were exactly why I decided to revisit it!

And while I also love the NES Advantage, these days I play nearly everything with the control panel on my multicade. (And I fear that, since I'm spoiled with microswitch arcade controls now, I'll never enjoy the mushy Advantage the way I used to haha.)

[T-Pac]

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Haha, well great!! Glad I could help out. 😆

Yowza. I barely know what any of that means. 😳

I think it means is that you are enjoying yourself with your arcade type machine so that's great!

Let's try to be respectful, though, and not call the NES Advantage "mushy". No need to be rude. 

Haha, jokes. I did immediately think about it, though, haha. I think mine's pretty tight. 🤔 

At least that's what I'm telling myself. 😅
 

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T-Pac
41 minutes ago, AirVillain said:

Let's try to be respectful, though, and not call the NES Advantage "mushy". No need to be rude. 

Haha, jokes. I did immediately think about it, though, haha. I think mine's pretty tight. 🤔 

At least that's what I'm telling myself. 😅
 

For sure - microswitch joysticks "click" when you move them, whereas the Advantage and other early console joysticks don't have that sort of feedback (which is what I meant by mushy). That's not necessarily a bad thing though - I actually like playing Atari 2600 with the stock "mushy"-style joysticks.

[T-Pac]

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AirVillain
29 minutes ago, T-Pac said:

For sure - microswitch joysticks "click" when you move them, whereas the Advantage and other early console joysticks don't have that sort of feedback (which is what I meant by mushy). That's not necessarily a bad thing though - I actually like playing Atari 2600 with the stock "mushy"-style joysticks.

[T-Pac]

Aaaaahhhhh yes, gotcha. 😆

The feedback is whether you get out of the way or die. 😅

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