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Index › 1980s › Dragon Spirit: The New Legend
Dragon Spirit: The New Legend cover art

Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

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Dragon Spirit: The New Legend

Dragon Spirit: The New Legend is a fantasy-themed overhead shoot-'em-up. It is a remixed port of the 1987 arcade game Dragon Spirit.

Year
1989
Developer
Now Production
Publisher
Namco
Orientation
Vertical

SCREENSHOTS

PHYSICAL

HISTORY

Dragon Spirit: The New Legend is a shoot 'em-up video game developed by Now Production and published by Namco in Japan and Bandai worldwide for the Nintendo Entertainment System in 1989. It is a remixed port of the 1987 arcade game Dragon Spirit.

Gameplay

In Dragon Spirit: The New Legend, players controls a dragon that must use fireballs to destroy various enemies in a vertical shooter similar to 1942, 1943, and Tiger-Heli.

There are two different kinds of games: the golden dragon game (easy difficulty level) or the blue dragon game (normal difficulty level). A story is told between levels as the player progresses.

The "easy mode" that becomes available if the player dies during the opening level offers a very different gameplay experience from the standard mode.

Major differences in gameplay aside from the color of the dragon include differentiation in powers. The gold dragon is much faster by default, both in movement and attack speed. Additionally, power-up transformations are far more destructive and effective, often wiping out most enemies in a single strike, and sweeping across the entire screen, in some cases leaving no enemy alive.

In addition to enhanced powers and speed, many of the more difficult levels are removed from this mode, shortening the total game and story. The golden dragon also takes more damage and will face slightly different enemies and bosses. The story for Prince Lace is very different from that of King Amru's tale should the player successfully activate the standard difficulty game.

Players have 360° control within the screen, with most enemies appearing at the top. Players can attack enemies on-screen damages (and ultimately kills) the main character. Players have two kinds of attacks; shoot directly in the air with fire or bomb the ground with bombs. There are nine worlds in the game, ranging from the Paleozoic Era to a parallel universe known only as the Evil Palace, where the final boss awaits the player in his lair.

Plot

Peace has reigned over the kingdom of Olympis for years, thanks to King Amul's (Amru in the English translation) heroic battle against the demon Zawel. After Amul married Aricia, they had two children, Princess Iris and Prince Lace. The evil Galda was building an army of evil and used his black magic to resurrect Zawel from the dead. Galda has decided to attack the Earth. Amru's son Prince Lace wakes suddenly from a nightmare, wherein his father Amru is killed when fighting Zawel, which is not how that event transpired (i.e., the player's failure to complete the first level). He is then confronted by the sorcerer Galda who declares that he is taking Lace's sister, Princess Iris, to be his prisoner. Lace takes up his father's sword to rescue his kidnapped sister from the demon Galda. Instead of transforming into a blue dragon-like his father, Lace becomes a gold dragon.

1CC RUNS

One-credit clears we point to as the benchmark for this game.

SCORES

Source
Audience
Score
Reviews
Users
61 / 100
8

ACHIEVEMENTS 1 set

Tracked by RetroAchievements and earned in an emulator that reports to it. A game tracked on more than one machine gets a set for each, because they are different lists earned on different hardware.

NES/Famicom 51 achievements, 650 pts
  1. Land Before Time 5
    Clear Area 1 - The Paleozoic Era.
  2. Melty 5
    Clear Area 2 - The Volcano.
  3. Jungle Fever 5
    Clear Area 3 - The Jungle.
  4. Bone Collector 5
    Clear Area 4 - The Graveyard.
  5. Dangerous Cave 5
    Clear Area 5 - Cave Road.
  6. Under the Ice 10
    Clear Area 6 - The Glacier.
  7. The Ocean Depths 10
    Clear Area 7 - The Deep Sea.
  8. Into the Darkest Fray 10
    Clear Area 8 - The Dark Quarters.
  9. The Scariest Nightmare 25
    Defeat Galda and clear the game as the Gold Dragon.
  10. The Legend of Dragon 25
    Defeat Galda and clear the game as the Blue Dragon.
  11. Mega Flame 1
    Collect the Flame Enhancer power-up and clear any level with it.
  12. Burn the Land 1
    Collect the Sweeping Fire power-up and clear any level with it.
  13. Cloning Procedure 2
    Collect the Dual Dragon power-up and clear any level with it.
  14. Size Regression 2
    Collect the Shrinker power-up and clear any level with it.
  15. Nuke 'Em 1
    Collect the Power Bomb power-up.
  16. World Shaker 1
    Collect the Earthquake power-up.
  17. Power of Pink 1
    Collect the Fire Dragon power-up.
  18. Hit Me Now 1
    Collect the Power Wing power-up.
  19. Arisha's Blessings 5
    Achieve maximum firepower and speed, then clear any level.
  20. Hidden Potential 25
    Collect the secret power-up.
  21. Escaping the Dinosaurs 10
    Clear Area 1 without taking damage.
  22. Not Hot Enough 10
    Clear Area 2 without taking damage.
  23. Soaring the Trees 10
    Clear Area 3 without taking damage.
  24. Desert Sweeper 10
    Clear Area 4 without taking damage.
  25. Swift Manuevers 10
    Clear Area 5 without taking damage.
  26. Ice Shaving 10
    Clear Area 6 without taking damage.
  27. Drowning the Competition 10
    Clear Area 7 without taking damage.
  28. No Need For Lights 10
    Clear Area 8 without taking damage.
  29. Castle Conqueror 25
    Clear the entirety of Area 9 without taking damage.
  30. Making Them Extinct 5
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Plesiosaurus without taking damage.
  31. Mythical Battle 5
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Round Phoenix without taking damage.
  32. Plant Life 5
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat Griathrious without taking damage.
  33. Gravedigger 5
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat Death Guardian without taking damage.
  34. Mother Arachnid 5
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Parent Spider without taking damage.
  35. Serpent Dismantling 10
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat Gubira without taking damage.
  36. Not Your Average Seafood 10
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Sea Devil without taking damage.
  37. Wall Guardian 10
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Turn Way Guard without taking damage.
  38. Final Trial 10
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Hydra and Galda without taking damage.
  39. Flight of the Dragon 5
    Earn 100,000 points.
  40. Blazing Through the Darkness 10
    Earn 200,000 points.
  41. Soldier of Mitgult 25
    Earn 300,000 points.
  42. Pacifist Wyvern 50
    In Blue Dragon Mode, clear the game under 100,000 points without continuing
  43. Gift From Iris 10
    Earn a total of 6 lives.
  44. Greenhouse Champ 25
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat Griathrious without firing a shot.
  45. Save the Children 25
    In Blue Dragon Mode, defeat the Parent Spider without firing a shot.
  46. My Lovely Ladies 25
    Rescue the maidens of Areas 2, 4 and 6 in one session.
  47. Shadows of the Maidens 10
    Reach the Deep Sea without rescuing the maidens of Areas 2, 4, and 6.
  48. Spirit of the Green Dragon 25
    Clear 4 levels in a row without losing the Flame Enhancer power-up.
  49. Spirit of the White Dragon 25
    Clear 4 levels in a row without losing the Sweeping Fire power-up.
  50. Zawell's Bane 50
    Clear the game as the Gold Dragon without ever getting hit.
  51. Galda's Bane 50
    Clear the game as the Blue Dragon without losing a life.

Achievement names, descriptions and badges are the work of the RetroAchievements community. View this set on RetroAchievements

RELEASES 2 systems

System
Platform
Year
Notes
NES
Nintendo Entertainment System
1989
Original release
FC
Famicom

GAME DATA

Orientation
Vertical

SOURCES

Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
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