Games of the 2D shooter genre usually entail a quick story about some aliens plotting to invade/destroy the Earth and/or galaxy. You, the person spending 25 cents per continue, usually play the roll of an ace pilot, flying an advanced space craft, and you’re the last hope for human kind. That’s all fine and dandy, but sometimes it’s fun to play a game that puts a slight spin on the tried and true formula of blast-the-aliens. Now, step into the year 1987. Arcades are booming with all sorts of shooting games to hold a gamer’s attention. It was then that Namco released Dragon Spirit- a game that featured a human that transforms into a dragon to defeat the evil forces that posed a threat to all living things in ancient times on Earth. A few years later, it was released on the NES (among other consoles) under the slightly new name of Dragon Spirit: The New Legend.

To be honest, “The New Legend” really isn’t all that new. In fact all of the levels are almost exactly the same, with the exception a few different bosses in some areas. The biggest difference from the arcade version is the thin story that progresses as you play through the game. Also, you can play as either the Blue or Gold Dragon, depending on how well you do in the pre-game level. If you make it past that level, you’ll play as the Blue Dragon; if you die, you’ll then play the rest of the game as the Gold Dragon.
As either dragon, you’ll be flying over vertically scrolling landscapes, with your primary weapon of choice being the ability to spit fire at the creatures flying around you. Your second weapon is your fireball-bomb which is used for hitting ground targets that can’t be reached with your primary weapon, much in the same vein as Xevious. When you destroy creatures that blink a white color, they’ll leave behind various power-ups that will enhance your dragon character. The power-ups are quite plentiful and they range from such things as increasing your fire power, to becoming a three-headed dragon wrecking havoc on pre-historic foes.

The game’s difficulty depends on which dragon you end up using. Playing as the Blue Dragon will have you playing the game in the normal difficulty setting. You’ll start off with a normal rate of fire, only one health bar per life and play through all 9 levels of the game. The Gold Dragon is the “easy” mode of Dragon Spirit, you might say. You’ll always start with two health bars instead of the one, you’ll also automatically have the rapid fire ability, and you play through only about half of the levels in the game. Each dragon has a different ending after completing the various levels and bosses within them. However, if you want the best ending, you’ll want to play through as the Blue Dragon. This actually works out pretty well because it gives both novices and seasoned players a reason to finish the game in either mode. In all, the game takes about a good hour to beat, playing through the game as both dragon characters.

Dragon Spirit looks great, for an arcade game being ported to an 8-bit system. Then again, Namco usually does very well at bringing their games to home consoles while keeping them as visually consistent as possible. For the most part, the colors are bright and vibrant in most areas, while one level in particular is constantly changing from bright to pitch black, making it tricky to keep track of and dodge certain enemies. Of course, that was done intentionally to keep things interesting as you fly to victory.
The backgrounds fit the prehistoric theme of the game quite well, with green mountains below you, meteors falling from the sky and leaving behind craters in the stricken ground, chasms and seaweed in the ocean areas, and many more things such as these. I mean, if the world were full of flying dragons and other odd creatures, I imagine that it’d look something like that. While a few enemy hazards are missing from the original game, it probably had to be done in order to keep the frame rate from dipping too badly and flickering all over the place. Thankfully, the NES port is virtually free from any major slowdown or glitchy graphics. Overall, the visuals are very solid and hold up well even today, for an old shooter.

Play or Stay? Dragon Spirit is a nice change from the usual old school shooter formula, in terms of the main character and surroundings. It’s worth playing, even if perhaps you are not really into the shooter genre. Namco deserves much recognition for doing something a little different, and making a decent 8-bit conversion of it too. For those of you Wii owners out there, you can download the TG-16 version on the virtual console. It’s a good way to spend your Wii points if you’re look for an experience a little closer to the arcade version.