Designer(s) T. Negi, O. Sugi Initial release date 10 December 1990 | ||
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Release date(s) ArcadeJP: December 10, 1990PC EngineJP: December 27, 1991Wii Virtual ConsolePC EngineJP: August 5, 2008ArcadeJP: September 15, 2009 Genre(s) Vertical scrolling shooter Mode(s) 2 players can play simultaneously Cabinet Upright, cabaret, and cocktail Similar Dragon Spirit, Cosmo Gang the Video, Ordyne, Märchen Maze, Galaga '88 | ||
Dragon Saber (ドラゴンセイバー, Doragon Seibā), complete name: Dragon Saber: After Story of Dragon Spirit 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.
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Dragon saber arcade pcb gameplay
Gameplay
As in the original Dragon Spirit, players must take control of a prince transformed into a dragon by a flash of lightning: the first controls "Huey" (blue) and the second player controls "Siria" (red), which means that two players can now play simultaneously; Huey also looks like an 8192-colour version of Prince Amul from the original game, and both players can now press and hold their Firing Buttons to make their dragons spit flames continuously (and, if they wait for a few seconds without pressing them, charge their shots). Several new enemies and powerups have also been introduced - and, much like in Phelios, Huey and Siria can take up to four hits before dying (depending on what the arcade operators set the "LIFE" option to), which means that if they have set it to "1" they will die immediately when they get hit. Also (for the US version), if the arcade operators have set the "LEFT" option to "S", the amount of lives the players start out with depends on how many coins they insert into the cabinet (one coin for one life, and two coins for three); the game's title screen will also display this information below its name (instead of the game's full title) as a result of this setting being in effect.
Ports
There were three ports of this arcade game in Japan; the first was for the PC Engine in 1991, the second was a part of the Namco Museum Encore compilation for the Sony PlayStation that was released in 1997 (however, this Namco Museum title's never got released outside Japan), and the third was the Virtual Console Arcade release in 2008 (of the PC Engine version) and 2009 (of the original arcade version).
