GOTD 5/18/2016: Dragon Spirit (Turbografx)

[celerystalker]

Dragon Spirit for the Turbografx is a home port of Namco's arcade vertical shooter of the same name. You play as a powerful, fire-breathing dragon transformed from a man who must save a princess. It is designed much in the mold of Xevious, where you have a button to fire forward and another to drop down attacks from above onto ground-based problems. In the arcade, it was a vertical monitor game, but it is condensed to fill the whole horizontal screen on the Turbografx. There is a sort-of vertical mode to be accessed by soft resetting 57 times, which I like, but is annoying to do. I say sort-of because it doesn't stretch the verticality of the display, but instead just letter boxes the screen to better preserve to arcade porportions.

While the Turbo version does a great job of bringing the arcade look and feel home, there is one big negative I want to get out of the way. In the arcade, you have a much smaller hit box, as enemy projectiles would pass harmlessly under the ends of your wings. Here, even grazing the outermost tip of your wings will register a hit, making you one giant, easy target. That said, it plays rather well, with smooth, intuitive controls, and a simple but effective powerup system. There are two different colors of dragon eggs on the ground, blur and red/orange. The blue are dragon powerups, and will add up to two additional heads to your beast with which to incinerate your opponents. The red ones offer up fire powerups that increase the power and fire rate of your flame. Getting hit will not only lower your life bar by one, but will remove a head and lessen your fire level by one. Flashing enemies, however, will drop magical items that last until you take another hit, like rapid shot, wide shot, invincibility, max fire, and more. It all comes together as a smooth if simplistic, classic shooter.

Graphically, Dragon Spirit is bright and colorful, and really preserves the look of the arcade game. The sound is on point as well, even though the music does seem a bit quiet to me in this version. The last few levels are completely different from the arcade, though, and I'm really not sure which I prefer. Overall, though, for its time it really brought the arcade experience home with a bang, and I dig iy for that reason. There are better shooters on the system, but it's one of the best in its 2016 price range, as a complete copy can be had for about $30 without the outer cardboard.

There is also an arcade/PC Engine sequel, Dragon Saber, and an NES version called Dragon Spirit: The New Legend, in which so much has changed that it feels like a spinoff, but is honestly probably a superior game in design.

Played this one?

[bb_hood]

Dragon Spirit is awesome, the Turbo Grafx one is great. Such great music, the Turbo version is harder than the nes one and the NES one is pretty easy in my opinion. The sequel is alright, but its not as awesome as the original.
This was always a 'bargan bin' game but it was always awesome. I remember my brother got it for like 15$ new at KayBee (nes version).

[Aussie2B]

I'm a huge fan of Dragon Spirit, easily one of my very favorite shmups, but I've never really cared for the arcade original or the TG-16 version. They just feel too slow, cumbersome, and unfair to me. I've always been all about the NES version. I even kind of prefer the music in that version, despite that the NES has limited channels and all. I know some people complain that the NES version is too easy, but as someone who has never been that great at shmups, the standard NES difficulty fits me just fine (of course the gold dragon easy mode is a pushover).

[Emperor Megas]

Dragon Spirit is one of my all time favorite games. I've probably played hundreds of hours of the arcade game in the arcade, and on MAME. I own the the NES and TurboGrafx16 port, but I've never played either of them. I'm interested though now since I didn't realize that there were alternate/altered stages than the arcade version.

[celerystalker]

Dragon Spirit is one of my all time favorite games. I've probably played hundreds of hours of the arcade game in the arcade, and on MAME. I own the the NES and TurboGrafx16 port, but I've never played either of them. I'm interested though now since I didn't realize that there were alternate/altered stages than the arcade version.

Yeah, the last three or so stages on Turbografx are changed up, whereas the NES game might as well be a spinoff or sequel, it's so different. I find the Turbo version to be the toughest and the NES to be easiest, with the arcade in the middle. The big-ass hit box on the Turbo definitely makes is harder. The NES version is really fun and plays quite a bit faster, and has loads of different stages. They're all worth a good play I think.

Oh, and bb_hood, I miss the shit out of those Kaybee bargain bins. So many good things, and while I bought a bunch, it was never as many as I'd have liked.

[Emperor Megas]

The KayBee Toys I used to frequent didn't have a bargain bin that was accessible to the public. The bargain games were behind the counter in a weird, plexiglass mausoleum of sorts that no one paid attention to. To give you an idea how below the radar it was, I purchased a few Master System games that were in it when Resident Evil (or was it Resident Evil 2?) on the Game.com was for sale.

[celerystalker]

There were a couple of Kaybees near me. One did a big bargain bin right at the entrance, and it was usually loaded with NES and SNES games. The other one had a case behind the counter, and it had all kinds of stuff stacked up to the ceiling on top of it. That was where I bought my Jaguar, brand new, for $30 in 1997. I also cleaned up really well at Toys R Us clearance in the mid-late '90s. So much Saturn stuff...

[bb_hood]

There were a couple of Kaybees near me. One did a big bargain bin right at the entrance, and it was usually loaded with NES and SNES games. The other one had a case behind the counter, and it had all kinds of stuff stacked up to the ceiling on top of it. That was where I bought my Jaguar, brand new, for $30 in 1997. I also cleaned up really well at Toys R Us clearance in the mid-late '90s. So much Saturn stuff...

In my area there always was a KayBee in every mall. They were awesome, they were always small with like 70% of the stores comprised of 3 rows. The shelfs were always a total mess; it always looked like a bomb exploded. They always had video games behind the counter and often they would have cheaper titles in a bin in the front of the store. I remember one summer I was at the mall with my parents shopping for something boring and after I went to Kaybee and bought Monster Party for 15$, and I was really shocked that I had enough pocket money on me to buy a nintendo game. It was a game I really enjoyed.

[Emperor Megas]

There were a couple of Kaybees near me. One did a big bargain bin right at the entrance, and it was usually loaded with NES and SNES games. The other one had a case behind the counter, and it had all kinds of stuff stacked up to the ceiling on top of it. That was where I bought my Jaguar, brand new, for $30 in 1997. I also cleaned up really well at Toys 'R' Us clearance in the mid-late '90s. So much Saturn stuff...

I remember passing on the $30 Jaguar at KayBee. I would have bought it, but I was working on a river boat at the time and we had absolutely NO room for any extra shit, and I didn't feel like packaging it up to send home at the time either. I ended up getting one for about 20 bucks the same year at a massive swap meet in the Superdome that was held every year.

I purchased the console but didn't purchase any games until about a month or so later. That said, I made the mistake that I'm sure a lot of people who owned a Jaguar with no carts did and assumed it was defective because the LED didn't light up when there was no cart in the system. Like, whose fucking idea WAS that? I wonder if they needed to hire a tech support person JUST to explain that to all of the people who made service calls. I actually sent the system back to the venture and got another unit, but by them I had games, and when I powered it on I'd figured out it didn't power on without a cart in the system.

[jperryss]

Yeah, the last three or so stages on Turbografx are changed up, whereas the NES game might as well be a spinoff or sequel, it's so different.

If I remember correctly, the NES version picks up exactly where the Turbo (and arcade) versions end. So I guess it could be considered a sequel.

[Edmond Dantes]

Yeah, the last three or so stages on Turbografx are changed up, whereas the NES game might as well be a spinoff or sequel, it's so different. I find the Turbo version to be the toughest and the NES to be easiest, with the arcade in the middle. The big-ass hit box on the Turbo definitely makes is harder. The NES version is really fun and plays quite a bit faster, and has loads of different stages. They're all worth a good play I think.

One thing bout this is there were actually two arcade versions--an "Old" version and a "New" version (that's Namco's designation). Both of them are on Namco Museum Vol 5 for PS1 and can be toggled with a dipswitch. I think its also on the PS2, but in that case its New version only.

The most noticable difference is that the "Old" version has the dragon move slower and I think has a bigger hitbox, but the levels are also slightly longer. Hardcore Gaming 101 has more info.

And yeah the NES version (Whcih I've beaten, and I even went through and recorded all the different messages you can get from the fairies) is explicitly a sequel... despite having similar levels.

If the TG16 version is actually harder than both modes of the arcade, then I'm terrified to play it.

I'd love to own Namco Museum Encore, due to that one having Dragon Saber.

Oh, and bb_hood, I miss the shit out of those Kaybee bargain bins. So many good things, and while I bought a bunch, it was never as many as I'd have liked.

Same here. That's one definite way gaming has gotten worse over the years--it seems like there's never anything interesting and if there is, its not in the bargain bins.

I remember once walking into Wal-Mart and they had STACKS OF FINAL FANTASY III COPIES, complete in the box, marked down. Also Secret of Mana. ITs one of those "if I ever learn time travelling I am SOOO heading there" moments.

[Aussie2B]

I even went through and recorded all the different messages you can get from the fairies

Do you know what exactly triggers the different messages? I've always been curious about that since it seems so random.

[Alianger]

I prefer the arcade OST, it's one of my favourites actually, but it's better here than on NES. I think the NES game plays better than any other version though. The sprite is so big and slow on TG16 that I thought it was near unplayable.

Dragon Saber also seems good, but very hard.

[bb_hood]

The sprite is so big and slow on TG16 that I thought it was near unplayable.

I think the secret is that when you have 3 heads your dragon gets too big, way to easy to get hit. I like to keep 2 heads max.
Also there is a hidden continue code for the TG16 version which helps.

[Edmond Dantes]

Do you know what exactly triggers the different messages? I've always been curious about that since it seems so random.

I used to know, but I've since forgotten. I'm sure if I played it again I'd probably remember.

[MetalFRO]

I would love to own the Turbo version someday, though with the price of TG16 games steadily climbing, I'm not sure that will happen. I own & have 1CC'd the NES version, however. Great game.

[celerystalker]

I would love to own the Turbo version someday, though with the price of TG16 games steadily climbing, I'm not sure that will happen. I own & have 1CC'd the NES version, however. Great game.

The Turbo version of Dragon Spirit is actually pretty affordable still. A copy with case and manual is usually only about $30, for what it's worth.

[Gentlegamer]

The sequel, Dragon Sabre, for PC Engine, is much better.

[MetalFRO]

The Turbo version of Dragon Spirit is actually pretty affordable still. A copy with case and manual is usually only about $30, for what it's worth.

Really? I figured it would have gone for a lot more than that. I'll have to seek out a copy, then!

[celerystalker]

Really? I figured it would have gone for a lot more than that. I'll have to seek out a copy, then!

Yeah, by Turbo standards it's pretty cheap!