| Dragon Spirit | |
|---|---|
 Japanese flyer | |
| Developer(s) | Namco |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Designer(s) | Tatsuya Ishikawa |
| Composer(s) | Shinji Hosoe |
| Series | Dragon Spirit |
| Platform(s) | Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, TurboGrafx-16, Sharp X68000, ZX Spectrum |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Vertical-scrolling shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer (alternating turns) |
| Arcade system | Namco System 1 |
Dragon Spirit[a] 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 Amur, the player must complete each of the game's nine areas to rescue the princess Alicia from the demon Zawell. Similar to Namco's own Xevious, Amur has a projectile weapon for destroying air-based enemies and a bomb for destroying ground enemies. It ran on the Namco System 1 arcade board.
Music for the game was composed by Shinji Hosoe and designed by Tatsuya Ishikawa. Hosoe, previously a graphics artist for Namco, was allowed to work on the music himself due to most of the company's composers working on Genpei Tōma Den, however much of his work was accidentally wiped from the hardware midway through development and forced him to start over. Ishikawa previously created character artwork for Rolling Thunder, being assigned to the project after taking interest in the enemy designs. The game was dedicated to Shouichi Fukatani, a Namco programmer who had died a few years earlier in 1985 and worked on many of the company's older games, such as Dig Dug and Super Pac-Man.[3]
The game was ported to several home systems, including the Sharp X68000, Atari ST and TurboGrafx-16, and is included in several Namco video game compilations. The arcade version of Dragon Spirit was met with positive reviews from critics for standing out amongst other shooter games, being praised for its Paleozoic setting, graphics and soundtrack. Home versions were met with a more mixed reception, being criticized for its high difficulty and inferior graphics and music. It was followed by two sequels, Dragon Spirit: The New Legend (1988) and Dragon Saber (1990). A ShiftyLook webcomic adaptation of the game was also produced.
- ^ "DRAGON SPIRIT. (Registration Number PA0001353942)". United States Copyright Office. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
CVG71was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Szczepaniak, John (11 August 2014). The Untold History of Japanese Game Developers (First ed.). SMG Szczepaniak. p. 363. ISBN 978-0992926007. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
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