Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

"What...? Acclaim made a DECENT game? No way!!!!"

What's the first thing you do when you pick up a video game box in an electronics store? Well, unless you're in a hurry and just wanna pay for the game and rush home, you usually, if not always, look at the back of the box to check out the screen shots of the game and/or read a little about the story of the game...

"Martial arts action is defined by one man: Bruce Lee! Now enter the world of Dragon for the ultimate martial arts showdown... authentic, fierce, brutal. It's a jeet kune fight to the finish with multiple combat moves, deadly weapons and chain-wielding villains. In the end, you must face The Phantom... in a mystical battle for your very soul!"

Now if the description on the back of the box isn't a good enough reason to get you to buy this game, then I don't know what is. Acclaim, you've done it again. Once you turn the game on, wait about sixty seconds while this thing loads (all of the credits) and start the game, you're treated to another advancement in the already complex and extremely "well-written" storyline...

"Bruce Learns from his father that he was born in America. With some money in his pocket, Bruce travels to the United States to see his home country for the first time."

Talk about character development! SquareSoft never wrote anything this good in their entire life. Even Final Fantasy VIII (Japanese version) doesn't fill us in on little details like how much pocket money Squall or Rinoa has. I tell ya, Acclaim should be the critically "acclaimed" RPG developer, not Square. It's just too bad Acclaim wastes their time making useless dung (i.e., STINKS!) like Turok: Dinosaur Hunter, Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, the never-ending NFL QBC series and Shadow Man.

With that aside, an action/adventure needs more than just a movie-caliber story moving things along at an unbelievably slow pace to make it a great game. Fortunately, Acclaim's trademark qualities are all absent from Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, because this game is actually fun.

I've had a lot of fun with this game, more fun in the past six days than I've had with any other video game given to me as a Christmas gift from my aunt and uncle. This game is only $5 at Toys 'R' Us (at least it was when I got it two years ago, they might be sold out by now), which is the price of one rental, and trust me, this game is a lot better than anything Acclaim has for rental on Nintendo 64.

Gameplay: 8
Now let's get down to the reasons as to why this game is so great -- no, not it's spellbinding storyline, but the gameplay. Maybe not quite as versatile as Bad Dudes for the NES (a true classic, one of my all-time favorite "bought it cheap, sold it for a whole lot less and kind of wish I still had it" NES games) in the moves department, Dragon does pack quite a powerful punch when it comes to comparing it to other Game Gear games in the same beat 'em up genre.

Game Gear only has three buttons, one of which is used to pause the game, leaving you with only two. To pull off a regular punch, hold the directional pad left or right towards your opponents and press the second button. Hold up and press the second button for a kick, and hold buttons one and two for a jump kick. All of these moves can be repeated continuously by merely holding the buttons down that are needed to do them.

And for a slow-moving "Spinning Punch" (the booklet's name for it, not mine), just hold the second button and press the D-pad away from your opponent. Another original move is something Acclaim likes to call the "Stomp." Little is known about the Stomp and who knows what secrets lie beyond this interesting move. Just hold down on the D-pad when falling for the shock move of your life. That'll teach ya to mess with me!

Dragon's level design consists of the average platforms you'd expect in a portable action/adventure. Unlike X-Men, which has a lot of action and a lot more platform jumping, Dragon is mostly about fighting your enemies, jeet kune style!

One of Acclaim's trademark qualities did make it into this game after all -- enormously smart opponent AI. If you thought the raptors walking around and scratching their heads, not knowing what to do next or who to attack made Turok 2: Seeds of Evil a hard game, you might be a little disappointed --or for all you gamers of poor skills-- a little happy, Acclaim didn't make Dragon quite as smart as Turok.

Just like a classic kung-fu movie, enemies will rarely attack you all at once. Three is the highest amount of enemies Acclaim shoved into the screen at once, and thank goodness! I couldn't have defeated anymore than that at a time. It was hard enough jump kicking two guys in a row while the other just stands there hopping up and down, getting ready for battle. I think martial arts teachers should use this as an example for their students; human beings aren't this stupid.

Overall this is a great game, not necessarily a long-term game of fun, but for quick thrills on the go at a cheap $5 price tag, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is the way to go. I normally wouldn't recommend anything that Acclaim has released, but for $5, you can't go wrong with Dragon.

Sound/Music: 4
:::Punch, kick.... punch, kick.... jump kick... listen to boring music::: that's about all the sound you get out of this game. Sound familiar? That's probably because, like most Game Gear games, this one doesn't differ much in sound or music. The songs themselves are more... cheesy martial arts movie sounding, and could have almost been considered quality listening five years ago. However, this isn't five years ago, this is 1999, and now the music stinks.

Graphics: 8
Very impressive for Game Gear. Although things look a little hazey at times, the overall picture quality is very detailed, especially in the final graveyard stages. The regular enemies aren't that much more detailed than Bruce Lee himself (who isn't that detailed at all, but has very smooth animation and non-choppy looking moves, very nice), but the bosses look pretty cool. Especially Fan Dancer, it's like having Katana in an action/adventure... only she has really bad moves and no fan wave (or a fan decapitation!). She's highly detailed though, but way too over-sized (as all of the bosses are in this game).

Story: 1
Let's face it... Acclaim sucks at story writing, and they haven't shown any signs of improvement at all. In the words of Queen Amidala to Acclaim, "I hope you can bring compassion, dignity and a quality story back to the gaming world," those weren't her exact words, but you get the point.

Replayability: 1
Replayability is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm still playing Dragon, but the fun is lessening everyday, hence so does the replay value. This would kill the game at full price ($30-$40) when it was first released, but at five bucks, you can't complain.

Should I buy Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story?: Yes.
For five bucks, who wouldn't buy this game? Someone who doesn't own a Game Gear. But everyone else should probably buy it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99