Previous Next

Strange and beautiful creatures roam the infinite void of space. A myriad of delicate forms, wonderful crystalline organic entities, glitter and sparkle in the light of alien stars. Drifting silently through the universe, they contemplate the mysteries of existence... and then you come along on a dirty great dragon and start shooting the b******s.

Yup, another mindless blast scrolling horizontally across an alien galaxy, and this time you're astride a great big dragon. You, a small, vaguely humanoid figure, sit behind the head of the dragon as it soars majestically above a rocky planet. The dragon is a good deal larger than you, and indeed most of the alien adversaries. His huge tail is indestructible, and it can be used to swipe them darned space critters all the way back to whatever slimy alien backworld they crawled out of.

As if a huge angry dragon wasn't enough, you can collect power-ups by blasting harmless looking sea-horses out of existence. In their smoking trail you will find different varieties of crystal, each having different properties ranging from homing missiles to napalm-breath for your dragon (maybe he should try Listerene!). You also have available an R-Type-style beam, the power of which is dictated by the length of time you hold down Fire, before unleashing various degrees of photon death.

Another novel feature is your ability to jump off your dragon's back and continue your xenophobic rampage along the surface of the planet; Fido the dragon can be brought to heel in case of emergencies with a sharp whistle. Leaping back on to your serpentine mount once more, you soon realise that lickle, ickle, wickle, cutie, pootie aliens, are not your only problem...

You see at the end of each level, your dragon will grow noticeably paler as it realises that it now has to pick on someone its own size, or, more accurately, someone five times its size! Now you shiver and tremble, as stonking great end-of-level-guardians drift menacingly onto your monitor.

These guardians are capable of quite ridiculously awesome feats of destruction, and soon your vulnerable little dragon-rider will be toasted and his faithful mount, so anguished by the loss of his master, simply explodes.

It is this point more than any other that gives this game a slight edge over the current competition. Learning to make the dragon's wayward tail do what you want it to is a task in itself. Once mastered, the game - and a very difficult one it is too - becomes a little more manageable.

Graphically, the game is no stunner, having a very bad case of Spectrumitis, but the graphics are clear and sharp (with the odd exception of some nigh-on invisible enemy bullets), and the parallax scrolling of the backdrop stars is actually quite nice.

Sound is sufficient with average spot effects adding a little to the action. No in-game music to speak of, but the game doesn't really suffer from this oversight. Gameplay is what makes this shine. It's a difficult challenge, a good solid shooter that'll keep even the most hardened keyboard-basher happy for a while.

Dragon Breed is a challenging game, and runs at a fair old rate. So it's a pity about the appalling four colour Speccy-port graphics - that let an otherwise fine game down badly.

Finish the second level.

Graphics 69%
Spectrum port with banal colour scheme but neat scrolling.

Sonics 70%
Reasonable selection of spot effects but nothing special.

Grab Factor 70%
Instantly playable, but initially frustrating.

Staying Power 74%
Very difficult - a long and draining challenge awaits.

Overall 72%
Difficult but rewarding horizontal blast. Pity about the Speccy graphics, though.