 |
 |
|
|
Once upon a time the galaxy was not a happy place to live in. An evil race of cyborgs had conquered most of the inhabited universe, including the planet of the Golden Dragon, the only living thing which can stop the terror of this violent cyborg-race. Unexpectedly from this same race a lone cyborg stands up to put an end to the shameful senseless reign of his evil “relatives”. He sets out to battle the cyborg army and to free the Golden Dragon so the galaxy can be a happy place once more. This is the rather strange story which preludes this horizontal shoot ‘em up.
Saint Dragon is a coin-up conversion and this Amiga version is almost identical to its arcade-counterpart, I kid you not! There are five levels to battle your way through, with every level having its unique enemies. Besides the obvious cannon fodder, there are also some bigger opponents to fight against and of coarse there are also the inevitable big bad end-of-level-baddies, which need considerable amounts of ammo and good tactics to beat. To trash all the cyborgs you have a great variety of weapons at your disposal. You start off with a single bullet and some fireballs which you can throw at your enemies, but as you collect more power ups, you can increase the number of bullets you fire and you can get some new weapons like laser-bolts and bouncing balls which kill everything in their path. And beside these nice toys, Saint Dragon introduces an innovative feature to your dragon: when you curl your armour-plaited tail around yourself it can be used as a shield against enemy firepower.
Graphically, Saint Dragon is very nice. The backdrops are great, the enemy sprites are varied and detailed, and also your own dragon-self is great to look at. This is all accompanied by some very good sound effects, from heavy explosions to nice mechanical squeaks and weapon-rattle. The soundtrack in the background is okay, but because it plays along during the entire game, it becomes a bit repetitive after a while. The game itself plays very good. It all becomes progressively harder, but as you upgrade your weapons the action on screen hots up the further you come. The tail as a shield is an original and very useful feature in the game, which is a plus too. On a negative note, I feel that the game is a bit short with only 5 levels.
If you like shoot ‘em ups and you haven’t tried this, I can certainly recommend Saint Dragon. I found it strikingly similar to the coin-up version and it gives some new twists to the genre.
  |
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
Nice backdrops and sprites. Certainly the bigger enemies and end-of-level-guardians are very neat, as is the main dragon-sprite. The graphics are strikingly similar to the original coin-up.
|
|
|
The explosions, weapon noise and other effects are very good, so turn up the volume! Shame about the soundtrack in the background, which isn’t that bad, but it never changes throughout the different levels.
|
|
|
The game becomes progressively harder and certainly in the later levels the action really becomes intense. The unique defence mechanism of the dragon is a very nice touch and there are plenty of weapon upgrades to collect. Only, 5 levels is a bit too short.
|
|
|
| Saint Dragon is a coin up conversion by the lads at Storm, which is true to its original arcade counterpart. Although it is a bit too short, there's still enough action and originality in this game to make it worthwhile to try it. |
|
|
 |
 |
|
Get Amiga Forever with pre-installed Workbench, games, applications, and much more.
It also contains the original Amiga ROM-files, 100% legally!
|
|
|
|
