"Ha-ha! Soda!"

Flying Dragon is a 3-D fighting game that was quietly released back in 1998. At the time of its release, it wasn't advertised and not many people had heard of it, let alone played it. Let's take a look, shall we?

One of the more unique features of Flying Dragon is that it is actually two games in one. The two modes are called SD Hiryu and Virtual Hiryu (Ver 1.5 according to the game). Within each game type, there are several options available, such as 2-D or 3-D fighting planes and Mind's Eye. Mind's Eye is a special fighting system where you can see small brief flashes on your character as well as your opponents. These flashes indicate an incoming punch or kick. This helps the player prepare proper defense, but you've got to be quick. Occasionally, in Mind's Eye mode, various colored flashes will appear. Hitting these flashes at the right time will cause various effects depending on the color of the flash. Your special meter could increase, you can launch an unblockable attack, and in one case even instant K.O. (death) will occur. Mind's Eye is definitely a cool feature unique to this fighting game.

Graphics: 7/10

The graphics are actually pretty good. Characters are somewhat blocky, but that's to be expected with the Nintendo 64. The special move effects are done very well, with flashes and sparkles all over the place. The animation is particularly smooth, too. The fluidness of the animation really makes it seem like the fights are taken straight out of an old kung fu movie. Backgrounds are somewhat detailed and really give a sense of the "seriousness" of the fight: One battle stage even takes place on top of a snow covered mountain, with dragon statues in the background. The shadow effects leave something to be desired but it's really not that big of a deal. The fights are so fast paced that you won't even notice until the victory screen.

Sound: 9/10

Sound effects and music in this game are great. The music fits the stages and characters' personalities perfectly. From the smooth, mellow theme of Hayato to the fast paced aggressive theme of Ryuhi (Hayato's eternal rival and polar opposite), the music in this game rocks. There's really not a bad tune in the entire game, except Bokuchin's stage. Then again they were able to add him to the game by removing one of the sparkles from Ryuhi's special move, so that should tell you the amount of effort they put into him. The sound effects in this game are also great. It really sounds like two people are beating each other to a pulp. Yells (hiryu no ken!) and grunts are done very well.

Gameplay (SD): 5/10

The super-cute SD mode features a very basic fighting engine, where "special" moves can be executed by simply holding a direction while pressing one button. In this mode, the characters look like something you'd find in an anime: large oversized heads with huge eyes, with shiny sparkly special moves. In this mode, characters are able to equip various items and weapons before the battle. After battling, experience points are gained and the items level up. There is a huge amount of items to collect in this game. The only problem is that some of the items are very rare, and you must complete many tournaments to get them. Tournaments occasionally end with a special boss, which is a character made completely out of "pratium" (darn those l's and r's). Each pratium character has a special ability which can be nullified if you have a special item. Typically, these items are more tedious to obtain than actually killing the boss without it, so it's rarely worth actually obtaining. Eventually, you get to fight the biggest baddest boss of them all, after being invited to a special tournament in which you fight all pratium characters.

Gameplay (Virtual): 7/10

Virtual Hiryu is this game's best mode. In this mode, the characters are actually shaped like real people, and fight (for the most part) like real people too. Granted, this is kung fu movie people, but still people. Virtual mode is fast paced. The fighting engine is actually somewhat deep. The combos and counters are somewhat easy to perform, but this game is all about timing. You can even counter the enemy's attack with a Super Defense, but these are hard to pull off. In a Super Defense, you must time your block perfectly with the enemy's attack. On top of that, you must also predict which attack they are doing (middle kick, middle punch, high kick, etc). Successfully performing one of these gives a huge boost to your special meter, which is used for performing Secret Busters (special moves). There are other ways to charge the meter, such as blocking and attacking, but typically these are only small increases. Secret Busters are very powerful (and in most cases, very cheap) moves that are definitely worth building your special meter. After winning a tournament, you're awarded a ranking, from 10 Kyu (worst) to 10 Dan (best). These rankings don't really mean anything, they're just kind of cool to know.

Overall: 7/10

Translation problems aside ("you can not cause any damage to him", even though you can), Flying Dragon holds it's own against the other N64 fighters. Then again, besides Super Smash Brothers, how many good fighters were there on the N64?

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/15/07