Dragon Saber
Dragon Saber is a vertical scrolling shooter arcade game, released by Namco in 1990; it runs on Namco System 2 hardware, and as its complete title suggests, it is the sequel to Dragon Spirit which had been released three years earlier. The sequel to Dragon Spirit follows much in the same vein, with your flying dragon defeating prehistoric monsters over various landscapes. This time round there is a two player mode thrown in for extra appeal.
SCREENSHOTS
PHYSICAL
HISTORY
Dragon Saber is a 1990 vertically scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Namco for arcades. It was released in Japan in December 1990 and Europe in 1991. It is a sequel to Dragon Spirit.
Gameplay
Players control Huey and Siria, who transforms into a dragon and navigates various landscapes by air. Two players can play together in cooperative gameplay. Like the previous game, the player can either hold the attack button to spit flames, but with the added feature of a more powerful shot charged by letting go of the button. Bosses must be beaten to finish levels, with the final boss having a time limit that causes a game over if passed.
Development
Dragon Saber was the creation of Namco artist Yoshihiro Sugiyama, being his first time as a planner for a game. Sugiyama wanted the game to feel like a true continuation of its predecessor Dragon Spirit in terms of its storyline and world, as he felt the NES sequel Dragon Spirit: The New Legend was mostly just a rehash of the original and had a rather generic premise. He also wanted the game to appeal to anyone instead of mostly hardcore shooter enthusiasts, and one that many could find a degree of satisfaction in. Once the story was completed, Sugiyama began work on the game's lore and fictional world, wanting it to be one that players hadn't seen before in similar games beforehand.
Ports
The game was ported to the PC Engine in 1991. The arcade version was included in the Namco Museum Encore compilation for the PlayStation in 1997, as well as for the Wii's Virtual Console in 2008 (of the PC Engine version) and 2009 (of the original arcade version) in Japan. Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4 in July 2022.
Reception
Game Machine listed Dragon Saber as being the most popular arcade game of December 1990 in Japan.
1CC RUNS
One-credit clears we point to as the benchmark for this game.
