is a 1990 vertical-scrolling shooter

arcade game An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...

developed and published by

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

. It is a sequel to ''

Dragon Spirit is a 1987 vertical-scrolling shooter arcade game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was distributed by Atari Games. Controlling the dragon Amul, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Al ...

'', released in 1987.

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 is a 1989 vertical scrolling shooter video game released for the Namco System 2 arcade platform in Japan by Namco. A Sega Mega Drive port was released in 1990. The game features a plot loosely based on Greek mythology. Gameplay The player takes ...

'', 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.

Development

''Dragon Saber'' was the creation of Namco artist Yoshihiro Sugiyama, being his first time as a planner for a game. Sugiyama wanted the game to feel like a true continuation of its predecessor ''Dragon Spirit'' in terms of its storyline and world, as he felt the NES sequel '' Dragon Spirit: The New Legend'' was mostly just a rehash of the original and had a rather generic premise. He also wanted the game to appeal to anyone instead of mostly hardcore shooter enthusiasts, and one that many could find a degree of satisfaction in. Once the story was completed, Sugiyama began work on the game's lore and fictional world, wanting it to be one that players hadn't seen before in similar games beforehand.

Ports

There were three ports of this arcade game in Japan; the first was for the

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

in 1991, which was exclusive to Japan. The second was a part of the '' Namco Museum Encore''

compilation Compilation may refer to: *In computer programming, the translation of source code into object code by a compiler **Compilation error **Compilation unit *Product bundling, a marketing strategy used to sell multiple products *Compilation thesis M ...

for the

Sony PlayStation is a video gaming brand that consists of five home video game consoles, two handhelds, a media center, and a smartphone, as well as an online service and multiple magazines. The brand is produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment, a divi ...

that was released in 1997 (however, unlike the previous ''Namco Museum'' titles, this one never got released outside Japan), and the third was the

Virtual Console Arcade A virtual console (VC) – also known as a virtual terminal (VT) – is a conceptual combination of the keyboard and display for a computer user interface. It is a feature of some Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, BSD, illumos, Uni ...

release in 2008 (of the PC Engine version) and 2009 (of the original arcade version), which was also exclusive to Japan. Dragon Saber would also be released on the

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

and

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

via the

Arcade Archives is a series of emulated arcade games from the late 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Microsoft Windows, and Nintendo Switch, published by Hamster Corporation. A sub-series called is focused on rereleasing Neo Geo ...

series on July 14th, 2022, marking its first official release in the west.

Reception

''Game Machine'' listed ''Dragon Saber'' as being the most popular arcade game of December 1990 in Japan.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Dragon Spirit 1990 video games Arcade video games TurboGrafx-16 games Virtual Console games PlayStation 4 games Namco games Namco arcade games Nintendo Switch games Video games about dragons Vertically scrolling shooters Video games about shapeshifting Video games developed in Japan Video games scored by Shinji Hosoe Cooperative video games Vertically-oriented video games Hamster Corporation games