Dragon Spirit
A dragon rescues a princess in a Paleozoic shooter.
Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released by Atari Games in North America. The player controls the dragon Amur to rescue Princess Alicia from the demon Zawell.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Namco
- Publisher
- Namco (JP); Atari Games (NA)
- Designer
- Tatsuya Ishikawa
- Composer
- Shinji Hosoe
- Platforms
- Arcade
- X68000
- TurboGrafx-16
- Amiga
- Atari ST
- MS-DOS
- Amstrad CPC
- Commodore 64
- ZX Spectrum
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
- Modes
- Single-player, multiplayer
- Arcade system
- Namco System 1
Facts from the source article.
Development and release
Namco first released Dragon Spirit in Japan on May 15, 1987, and later licensed it to Atari Games for the North American market. The soundtrack came from Shinji Hosoe, who was originally a graphic designer at the company. He learned how to add music to the game code by asking Yudate, the composer for Wonder Momo, and then inserted many of his own tracks during his spare time. When the development team discovered this, they automatically assigned him as the game's composer. This opportunity arose because Namco was short on composers during development, as many had moved to work on Genpei Tōma Den. Tatsuya Ishikawa handled the graphics; he had previously created character artwork for Rolling Thunder. After he showed interest in the game's enemy designs, the team made him the lead artist. When Ishikawa was stuck for ideas on enemies or backgrounds, he would listen to Hosoe's music for inspiration. Around the middle of development, Hosoe's music was accidentally erased from the hardware, forcing him to start over. After the first batch of arcade boards shipped, Hosoe remade the music hoping it could be used for a re-issue of the hardware, but Namco scrapped the idea due to high production costs. In North America and Europe, Dragon Spirit was ported to home systems including the Atari ST, Commodore 64, Amiga, ZX Spectrum, and Amstrad CPC. In Japan, Namco ported it to the X68000 and PC Engine, with the latter published in North America by NEC as the TurboGrafx-16 version. The game appears in several Namco compilations: Namco Museum Vol. 5 (1997), Namco Museum 50th Anniversary (2005), Namco Museum Virtual Arcade (2008), and Namco Museum Essentials (2009). The TurboGrafx-16 conversion was re-released digitally on the Wii's Virtual Console in 2007, while the arcade version saw a digital release in Japan only in 2009. A version for Japanese mobile phones came out in 2003. Hamster Corporation released an arcade version under the Arcade Archives label for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2022.
Reception
In Japan, Game Machine reported that Dragon Spirit was the sixth best-performing table arcade unit in July 1987, and by the end of the year it had climbed to become the fourth highest-grossing table arcade game in the country. Critics generally received the game well, highlighting its graphics, music, and Paleozoic setting as reasons it stood out from similar titles of the era. Allgame called out its "gorgeous graphics" and soundtrack, noting its uniqueness within the genre, while Germany's Power Play praised the double-head powerup and the overall captivating gameplay. Computer & Video Games found the game addictive and compared its soundtrack and play favorably to classics like Galaxian and Galaga. The Japanese magazine Gamest hailed it as a "Namco shooting masterpiece," commending its graphics, realism, and music, and awarded it the 5th "Grand Prize," 2nd "Best Ending," and 5th "Player Popularity" awards in 1998. In a later look back, Hardcore Gaming 101 appreciated the graphics, challenging gameplay, and iconic opening cutscene. When reviewing the TurboGrafx-16 port, IGN praised its vibrant visuals, unique setting, and difficulty, recommending it to fans of Xevious and other vertical-scrolling shooters. Eurogamer liked that the conversion avoided a one-hit kill and featured colorful graphics. Nintendo Life was more critical, pointing out a sudden difficulty spike near the end and an inferior quality compared to the arcade original, unfavorably comparing it to Super Star Soldier and recommending it only to hardcore genre fans. Famitsu gave the PC Engine version the "Gold Hall of Fame" award for its gameplay and strategic depth.
Sequels and legacy
A sequel, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend, was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989 and published outside Japan by Bandai. Taking place several years after the events of the original, it adds many of the levels from the arcade version alongside new stages, enemies, boss fights and cinematic cutscenes, as well as a brand-new storyline. A second sequel, Dragon Saber, was released for arcades in 1990, running on the Namco System 2 arcade board. Subtitled After Story of Dragon Spirit, this game adds two-player co-operative play, charging shots and new enemy types. A PC Engine version was released a year later in 1991, while the arcade version was released as part of the Japan-only Namco Museum Encore compilation. The PC Engine conversion was released for the Japanese Wii Virtual Console in 2008, followed by the arcade version in 2009. Amur appears as a playable character in the WonderSwan Color game Namco Super Wars, alongside Princess Alicia. Several players in the Family Stadium series would be named after Amur and the game itself. In 2012, a webcomic adaptation of Dragon Spirit was created for ShiftyLook a subsidiary of Namco Bandai Games that focused on reviving older Namco game franchises for use in comics and animations. Illustrated by artist Steve Cummings, the comic was a tongue-in-cheek parody of the "damsel in distress" storyline used in fiction, with characters and settings taken from the arcade game. Nidia, a character from the webcomic, appeared as someone the player could date in the now-defunct browser game Namco High. An arrangement of the Area 1 music from the game is available as a track in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for use on the Pac-Land stage.
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