Dragon Fighter (1990)

Beat and I didn't lower the speed until the 2nd last boss. There was some Mega Man feel to the gameplay and music despite using a sword. The sword hit an impressive range in front of and above the character, which was far more forgiving than most games like this. There were no directional attacks though, which was annoying for enemies at lower elevation. The stages had fixed enemies except for 1 type that continuously spawned; mostly flying things, and skeletons raising out of the ground for the death stage. Killing enemies filled up a mana bar which was spent to sustain the dragon form. I accidentally turned into the dragon during the 1st stage and it took me a while to figure out the control; hold up while jumping. Being a dragon allowed full flight and powerful shooting but made the screen auto scroll and the dragons could not face left. I found it best to only go into dragon for very short periods to help with difficult platforming or enemy configurations while saving as much as possible for bosses. Later I read about the charge up shot in human form and that kills using it did not give mana. The default green shot was only medium range while the dragon shot was an excellent 3 way speed. The blue had homing shots for both but the 1 time I tried it the shots usually went left after the flying enemies coming from behind rather than at the enemies ahead where I wanted. I stuck with red for the rest of the game because the charge shot was like a mortar with some bounce, which was really good for range and angles. The dragon shot was a down fire bomb that could travel along the ground. It was more difficult to use than the other colors. I liked how enemies sometimes dropped healing and the boss mechanics were creative. The last stage was entirely a horizontal shoot em up as a white dragon with a straight shot. The enemies took a lot of shots to kill so there was some tactics around which ones to kill vs skip. The final boss was a fairly typical shoot em up boss but the 2nd phase made it move towards the player and it was tough to cause damage with so little room to dodge. Flying around back to lure the boss towards the right was only a little effective.

Was a pretty good fun game despite being very short. I liked the variety in colors and the tactical risk vs reward choices around when to use melee, shots or dragon.

7.5/10

Late era side-scroller. Killing enemies builds a meter that lets you transform into a dragon which changes the controls/scrolling to be like a shmup. Your dragon form hits harder and with range but only lasts as long as the meter. The human form is stuck with a sword which isn't as good but killing stuff with it gives meter. He can charge up his attacks to get serious damage and big range but charge attacks don't gain meter.

There's a lot of descion making about when to spend the meter, when to use the riskier sword attacks or go for the less rewarding charge attacks. Even picking your power ups is pretty strategic, as they change the charge up/dragon form. The soundtrack is also comparable to the best of NES games.

The game is also pretty tough giving 1 life and only 3 continues while also throwing infinite spawning enemies from all directions and ranged shots at you right out of the first level! Your max HP also grows every time you beat a level, which helps you feel stronger and on the last stage you get the ultimate dragon form which never expires.

So why only 3 stars? Some off-controls and weak moments in level design. There's too many screens where the best tactic is to inch forward the screen or even stand on the edge throwing out charged shots, which would be less of a problem if it didn't take practically 2 full seconds to charge up. The indicator of when your shot is fully charged is also off, making it's sound effect a moment before the charge is actually reader which can cause you to waste the charge. The hitbox for your sword is also about 50% longer than looks stupid swinging at the air and it counting as a hit.