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As a child, Bruce Lee was known as the 'Little Dragon', which proves quite prophetic for this handheld recreation of the events of his life. Charting his progress from petty crook to martial arts expert and movie star, Dragon is a scrolling platformer reminiscent of US Gold's C64 licence of way back.

Starting on the boat from Hong Kong to America, the action contains both fight scenes and object collection, with the former coming into play via a series of kicks and punches, and the latter used to replenish any lost energy or add a few extra points to Bruce's score. This mixture is then repeated as the player guides Bruce to movie stardom and into countless scrapes.

A platformer based on the eventful life of Bruce Lee, as seen in the biopic, Dragon.

Explore platform stages collecting bonuses and kicking the crap out of the game's many assailants.

Unlike the Megadrive game, Game Gear Dragon's levels are loosely based on large parts of Lee's lie as opposed to specific fight sequences. As such, the first level sees a young Bruce fighting his way across the steamer taking him from Hong Kong back to his native America, whilst later on the game jumps forward a few years to the set of 'The Big Boss'. Each stage is made up of three smaller levels, with a larger figther acting as a level 'Boss'.

The Master System version of Dragon is identical in content to that of the Game Gear. In terms of levels, the two games are exactly the same, but for some reason the Master System version seems to run a little slower. It also suffers from the 'Exploding Fist' syndrome of the handheld game where every foe can be felled with a sly leg-sweep. As such we're going to award it 76%

Whilst Game Gear Dragon may not look much, it does play rather well - if only for a while. The fighting action is limited to a handful of movies (with one despatching virtualy everyone with minimum effort), but the platform part of the game throws up some really smart ideas.

Handheld Dragon was never going to win any awards for its similarity to the movie, but the game has more than enough neat ideas inspired by the film's fight scenes.

People jump out of ice blocks, and band saws are a real danger, and these ideas gel together to create a playabe, but never taxing, game.

Game Gear fans are a bit tight for good stuff right now, and whilst Dragon isn't the exact solution to the drought, it's a worthwhile filler.

The fact this is totally uunconnected with the Megadrive, Dragon is a good thing. The closeness it bears to Virgin's own Robocop Vs. Terminator is not so good.

Like RVT, it's nippy, slick and reasonably playable. The graphics ain't too bad as well. But in common with too many Virgin games of the mo it's a bit too easy. Play it only on hard, and even then another notch on the challenge ratchet would have been nice. All in all, it's rather well suited to the Game Gear: pick up Bruce and give him a spin as and when you feel like it.

Graphics 74%
P. A nice variety of small sprites.
N. The backdrops don't change a great deal.

Sound 71%
P. Nice introductory tune, and more than adequate sound effects.

Playability 85%
P. The simplistic gameplay means it's a doddle to pick up. New hazards are constantly added throughout the game.

Lastability 73%
P. Some of the bosses are tough, and the addition of more and more hazards make it a toughie.
N. The levels are a little similar, and this hardly inspires progress.

Value For Money 80%
P. Not an accurate licence, but a playable game for a reasonable price, and that's what counts.

Overall 80%
Simplistic but playable stuff. By no means a classic, but one of the most original Game Gear platformers for quite a while.