Dragon Spirit - Aratanaru Densetsu [Model NAM-DS-5200]

ドラゴンスピリット 新たなる伝説 © 1989 NAMCOT.
(Dragon Spirit - Aratanaru Densetsu)

Dragon Spirit is a fantasy-themed vertical shooter, conversion of their own arcade game originally released in 1987. This port is however not completely faithful to the original game, hence its subtitle Aratanaru Densetsu. The original Dragon Spirit tells the story of the legendary Amul who has the incredible ability to transform into a powerful fire breathing dragon. After rescuing his wife-to-be Alicia (princess of the kingdom of Mitgult) from the clutches of the serpent demon Zawell, Amul settles down to raises a family. From his marriage he has two children, Lace and his sister Iris. Years later, a threat erupts again within the kingdom and a new cruel demon named Galda aspires to conquer the world. The fearless beast has kidnapped Iris and Lace, taking his father's footsteps, sets off to defeat the beast. Like Amul, prince Lace has the ability to change into a fierce dragon and in this form he uses extremely powerful combat abilities. Unlike other games in the series, the player is first dropped into an introductionary stage - however, this short level has an important function and it directly influences in the game's difficulty. The player is given to control the powerful Gold Dragon if he doesn't complete this short stage, and can only play half of the game, whereas the Blue Dragon, awarded by beating the stage, gets the player to play the normal game. Each dragon comes with two types of weapons - it can hit enemies in the air but also bomb lurking foes on the ground. The life of the dragon is shown by a life meter and the beast can sustain several hits before dying. Lace can be upgraded in all kinds of ways - speed ups, shots enhancer, more heads, invincibility, power bombs, small satellite dragons, Earthquakes... He can also change shape and turn into different dragons such as the powerful Green Dragon, the three-ways white dragon and so forth.