Nostalgic Game Design Focus - Saint Dragon

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An unsettling shoot-em-up adapted from the arcade with a difficulty level that 'will' kick your butt.

Mine is still sore after all these years... but I've just got to try again!

A bonus for some... the above-pictured Pokemon 'slightly' looks like the main protagonist. ;c)

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Welcome. This is 'Nostalgic Game Design Focus' a series where I get to think back and comment upon games that I had played when I was much younger - mostly from a game-design perspective.

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Title: Saint Dragon

Publishers: Kixx

Distributor: US Gold

Development: Random Access

Programmer: Croudy, John

Graphics: Langman, Ned

Music/ SFX: Unknown

Released: 1989 (Atari Port 1992)

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This was a rather late-comer to our collection, and to be honest it doesn't have a lot of personal story to go with it.

That being said, it 'was' a game that would both thrill and unsettle.

It seemed to be a bit of a trend at the time.

It was almost as if game developers were trying to achieve that effect - and 'Saint Dragon' delivered.

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Story and Objective

In 'Saint Dragon' a great evil in the form of monster machines have emerged as scourge to and conquerors of the galaxy. The peaceful peoples of the galaxy are either enslaved or annihilated and nobody has the strength to stand against them.

A hero rises, part-dragon and part-machine, from within the scourge's own number to face them alone and restore peace to the galaxy.

Why? I have no idea. They must have ticked off this dragon big-time such as to inspire such a risky rebellion.

Maybe the dragon got hacked or something. You need to be a little cracked to enter this World of pain!

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Game Objective and Controls

The aim of the game is to guide your heroic dragon through the extremely hazardous levels of the game - and defeat the difficult bosses so as to liberate the galaxy.

The dragon itself is actually pretty cool-looking.

A steel creature featuring a reptilian shaped head followed by a number of disks with the last one looking extra spiky.

This sums up the protagonist in looks.

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Functionally, the dragon floats in a stationary position on screen unless moved. in any of 8 directions.

The tail follows.

The dragon shoots two kinds of bullets initially. One weak shot with a degree of spread and another more powerful flaming shot. Picking up power-ups enhance these weapons as well as providing new ones.

While the tail is for all accounts indestructible (and will even absorb weaker shots), the head is vulnerable.

If you get hit in the head then you lose a life.

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Level Design

Did I mention that this is a tough game?

How tough? I always got annihilated in level two - and that is when I go past the first level!

Do I think that it was too tough? Yes.

Did this make 'Saint Dragon' a bad game? Not necessarily.

But it is fair to note that at times the game does get 'unfair'.

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What Constitutes an Unfair Game?

Having a power imbalance can a good thing when the scales are tipped against you. This kind of 'unfairness' is, to a degree, interpreted as challenge.

In fact, many games opt to toughen their monsters up so as to produce a tougher game. It is much cheaper to do this than to tweak the intelligence of a monster to behave in a different and more difficult-to-counter fashion.

There is plenty of this in this game - but the designers go beyond this at times.

Having boulders of death hurtling from the obscured bottom and top of the screen with no warning is an excellent example of 'truly unfair' at play.

These antics are designed to catch players off-guard, and to get them to dig into their pockets for more coins.

The only way to get past these many instances is either to get lucky or to succeed in memorizing when and where parts of the screen are suddenly going to become hazardous. This is not my idea of fun - and some will agree. Others will appreciate the persistent challenge that this game will offer them - never becoming a boring 'going through the motions' kind of game.

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OK... Unfairness Aside

Levels are laid out in a fixed format. There is no variance between one game and another and so it is very scripted. Which is not to say that it gets boring. The difficulty level ensures that the game never gets boring and players will find themselves appreciating the ability to anticipate that which is to come.

And I cannot even call out the developers on being lazy.

They didn't just try to make a short game presentable by making it unbeatable. The different levels have their own sprites and their own threats. It would actually have made the game 'less' interesting to have had the game be more of the same - repetitive - just harder and harder and harder.

Of course this also means that you will find youtube videos of the game on cheat mode. Heh...

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A word on Power-Ups

Some shoot-em-ups like to completely disempower you when you lose a life.

Thank goodness that this game isn't like that!

It does modestly lower your power but it doesn't completely neuter you. Also, usually there is a way to get most of your lost power back. You will still want to 'not' die though.

• Spread - Those little bullets you shoot forth? From two they can become 3 or 4 or 6. Each increase brings with it an increase in spread and it is 'so' much easier to control the swarms.

• Main - That flaming powerful weapon? It can get more powerful, and it can switch to a laser configuration, each time dealing more damage.

• Secondary - Aside from your tail you have no means of dealing with enemies that aren't in front of you. Secondary weapons change that, and add bouncing weapons that are shot at 45 degree angles both up and down. When things get rough you'd be thankful for the help.

I am sure that there is more ... but they are probably located beyond level 2...

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Of Atmosphere and Conclusion

'Saint Dragon' makes for a high-tension game that 'will' present an intense challenge.

It is so hard that I'll really want to hear from you if you've beaten it. I'll give you a sincere round of applause! :c)

Other than this, on atmosphere the game pretty much nails it - and you feel like you are flying through a malicious dystopia...

Did I like this game?

Sometimes?

It was addictive.

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But it is too dang hard. :cP

I guess that was the takeaway from this.

When porting games to home systems, feel free to dial back the difficulty at least optionally.

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Today's video shall be a speed run conducted by a TappyLP. Its a very good representation of the game, even if it is rather competitive and snappy in play style.

At least he was having a pretty good time. :cP It 'is' a solid shoot-em-up. :cP

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Sometimes its the frights that stay most embedded within memory - and while Terminator-like creatures may inspire nostalgia for some, the same is less true for me. Still - it remains interesting to see how a different developer took the shoot-em-up genre and went about implementing it. As long as the game's aesthetics and gameplay were good - the game could suck up as many coins as customers' pockets could hold.

Do you have any comments or feedback? I look forward to hearing any comments that you have in the discussion down below!

Also, if you found this post interesting and would like to share this with your followers and friends then a resteem is always appreciated.

Sincerely,

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