Ludography
Saint Dragon cover

1989 · NMK · Science · Shoot 'em up

Saint Dragon

Tenseiryuu: Saint Dragon is a side-scrolling shoot 'em up video game originally released as a coin-op by Jaleco in 1989. It was converted to several home computer platforms by Storm Entertainment in 1990.

Released
1989
Platforms
AmigaAmstrad CPCArcadeAtari STAtari ST/STECommodore 64Commodore C64/128/MAXMSXNintendo SwitchSinclair ZX81TurboGrafx-16ZX Spectrum
Genres
ScienceShoot 'em upShooter
Developers
NMK
Publishers
Jaleco
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Side view
Themes
Science fiction
Country
Japan
Languages
English, Japanese

About

Saint Dragon, released in North America as St. Dragon, is a 1989 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed by NMK and published by Jaleco for arcades. Ports to several home computer systems were published by Storm Entertainment in 1990.

›Story

Cyborg Monsters have taken over the galaxy, reducing race after race into slavery. Being designed by man these beings have superior firepower and attack capabilities, and can only really be beaten by one of their own. St. Dragon the Cyborg Warrior chooses to fight back against this tyranny, and that is the role you take in this horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up.

Keywords

  • shoot 'em up
  • shmup
  • bullet hell
  • side-scrolling
  • cyborg

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

In Saint Dragon, the player controls the cyborg Saint Dragon, who has rebelled against the tyrannical Monster Cyborg army. Saint Dragon is initially armed with plasma bolts and a fiery breath. By collecting tokens, the dragon's firepower can be upgraded with pulse torpedoes, a laser, bouncing bombs, ring lasers or a turret. Other tokens can upgrade the dragon's speed, weapon power, or initiate a "hyper" mode which endows maximum firepower and invulnerability. In addition, the dragon has an armoured tail which follows the player's movement, allowing it to be used as a defensive shield.

There are six levels, each culminating in a battle with a large end-of-level guardian.

Reception

In Japan, Game Machine listed Saint Dragon as the sixth most successful table arcade unit of March 1989.

The ZX Spectrum conversion was well-received on its initial release. CRASH awarded it 92%, finding the dragon theme to be a refreshing change in the genre. The graphics were highlighted as well-animated, smooth and colourful. Your Sinclair awarded 80%, criticizing the uneven difficulty and low number of levels but praising it as "pretty, tough and a blast-a-minute".

Legacy

Hamster Corporation released the game as part of their Arcade Archives series for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in February 2020.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Arcade31 December 1989Worldwide · Japan 31 December 1989
TurboGrafx-1621 December 1990Japan
Amiga31 December 1990Europe
Amstrad CPC31 December 1990Europe
MSX31 December 1990Europe
Atari ST/STE31 December 1990Europe
Commodore C64/128/MAX31 December 1990Europe
ZX Spectrum31 December 1990Europe

Editions and related releases

Included in
Jaleco Arcade 1Legends Core PlusPolymega Collection Vol. 13: Sengoku Blade
Ported as
Arcade Archives: Saint Dragon

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.