Advanced Dungeons & Dragons: DragonStrike

"Average AD&D fantasy shooter"

Dragon Strike for the NES is a fantasy overhead shooter that lets you play the role of a dragon rider in an AD&D inspired aerial assault in several missions you are assigned by your mysterious benefactors.

You can choose from three dragons to ride, Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Bronze Dragon has the best armor, it shoots lightning bolts and some sort of web attack that stuns. The Silver Dragon is the fastest and shoots energy balls and ice that freezes. The Gold Dragon has the strongest attacks, one of which is fire and some other gold colored attack, either way, they both appear to do equal amounts of damage and neither incapacitates the enemy.

Then you are shown a map of the world with all the locations you are to visit and given a mission to complete which usually includes causing dragon induced mayhem upon something or someone. If you can complete the task given then you can leave the area, often to fight a major boss battle.

While you are flying you can use one of your two attacks, change direction or change altitude between two levels, high and low. This adds an interesting variant to combat and plays an important role in later battles when your enemies are hidden in mountainous crevices or in between buildings and you have to dive bomb them without hitting the obstacle and taking damage. Some enemies can only be hit by low attacks (because they are on the ground most likely) and you must learn which altitude to attack from.

Here are my ratings:

Story: 7
I guess you are a hero who rides dragons and helps out when there is trouble or when evil is getting out of control in the realm.

Graphics: 8
Several AD&D monster models made it into this game, but the sprites were kind of smeared looking except for the various dragons and end bosses which were clearer and more defined. The dragon's breath attacks spread out in different patterns depending on how powerful you have become. The bosses are huge and they are all different, however some of the different levels are seen more than once, usually inhabited by different creatures. There is slowdown occasionally when there is too much on the screen at once. There is also a shadow that appears underneath your dragon which is a nice touch.

Audio: 4
I don't usually notice the music in a game unless it is especially good, and I didn't notice the music in this game except for the triumphant ending theme which was pleasant enough. Overall though, I would have had a more enjoyable experience if I had turned the sound off and played in silence.

Control: 8
I didn't have much of a problem with the controls except that the way it is set up, it is easy to change altitude when you don't want to. Other than that, it was very responsive.

Gameplay: 5
Many of the levels are set up so you just have to fly through the stage without dying to get to some end battle. The most difficult levels include having to kill certain enemies in a level before you can move on as you have to spend time to find them. The addition of different altitudes you can fly at adds some extra strategy to the game, namely you have to find out what altitude to fight the enemy with. You usually just have to use common sense to figure this out. You also must dodge obstacles which are so high that they will do damage to you even when you fly high, like high buildings and mountains. Overall though, the game play is tedious and generally boring.

Replay: 5
You can replay the game as one of the other dragons and see their different breath attacks, there are also different difficulty levels you could try out.

Overall: 6
I would only play this game if you want to see all the nice looking end bosses or variation of enemies. Any one interested in AD&D might like to try this out, as many classic AD&D monsters are included, like displacer beasts and beholders.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 12/27/01, Updated 12/27/01