Dragon Saber (ARC, 1990)
Graphics-8 Sound-9 Control-7 Challenge-8.5* Story-5.5
Level Design-7 Frustration-9* Fun-7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1p
+
2-player co-op
Air to ground and air to air attacks
Some good bosses (several have two different patterns)
Some large and detailed sprites
Impressive music (YM2151+C140)
Pretty good variation
Hit points (4)
Some cool background hazards
Charge shot
Decent cutscenes
Difficulty options (up to 9 credits per coin, 4 difficulty (rank) modes, up to 4 lives per credit and 4 HP per life)
+/-
No smart bombs
Checkpoints (fairly frequent)
Somewhat large player ship/dragon (gets annoyingly big if you fully upgrade your default shot)
Negative power ups (lose one weapon level)
Can make bosses die from a timer if you don't hit them
Very rare shield power up, engrish text
-
Too hard to recover after death later on
No air to ground bomb or speed upgrades? (and the bomb rate of fire is kinda slow without additional autofire)
Hard to grab power ups overall
Inconsistent hit detection (less forgiving around other enemies than their bullets)
Some tedious parts (level 4 boss)
Huge difficulty spike at the beginning of level 5
Only three different weapon types
If you fly into a wall you tend to get stuck horizontally and lose several hit points
Cheap seventh boss (counter attack) and occasional spawning points (somewhat random)
Some shots blend into the background in level 5
Level Design-7 Frustration-9* Fun-7* Originality-6
Overall Score-7
*1p
+
2-player co-op
Air to ground and air to air attacks
Some good bosses (several have two different patterns)
Some large and detailed sprites
Impressive music (YM2151+C140)
Pretty good variation
Hit points (4)
Some cool background hazards
Charge shot
Decent cutscenes
Difficulty options (up to 9 credits per coin, 4 difficulty (rank) modes, up to 4 lives per credit and 4 HP per life)
+/-
No smart bombs
Checkpoints (fairly frequent)
Somewhat large player ship/dragon (gets annoyingly big if you fully upgrade your default shot)
Negative power ups (lose one weapon level)
Can make bosses die from a timer if you don't hit them
Very rare shield power up, engrish text
-
Too hard to recover after death later on
No air to ground bomb or speed upgrades? (and the bomb rate of fire is kinda slow without additional autofire)
Hard to grab power ups overall
Inconsistent hit detection (less forgiving around other enemies than their bullets)
Some tedious parts (level 4 boss)
Huge difficulty spike at the beginning of level 5
Only three different weapon types
If you fly into a wall you tend to get stuck horizontally and lose several hit points
Cheap seventh boss (counter attack) and occasional spawning points (somewhat random)
Some shots blend into the background in level 5