Home

Dragons, Videogames, and YOU.

The Dragon, in all of it's various incarnations and forms, has always been highly esteemed by man, woman, and child alike. Their beauty, strength, intelligence, overwhelming presence and sheer strength exude an undeniable desire to fellowship with these fascinating creatures. Throughout history, tales have been spun and books have been written as dragons have been artistically and reverently portrayed down to their very scales. Our desire to know this creature accents our desire to be with, and even be like this creature. They are the embodiment of many of the traits we wish to express, while retaining none of the traits we see in ourselves and dislike.

In this modern age of computers, hi-tech movie marvels and sophisticated computers, dragons have once again vehemently tread their way into yet another growing medium of entertainment, the videogame.

In the growing world of interactive entertainment (read, videogames) dragons have made their presence known again and again and yet again. However, dragons have not always been the stars of these games, and sometimes were portrayed as downright nasty. In the past, games such as "Adventure", for the Atari VCS (2600) not only made the dragon out to be the bad guy, but was graphically represented by one of the most horrifying portrayals of a dragon ever - what appears to be - a duck. Dragons everywhere were outraged, and threatened an immediate strike unless future iterations of dragons were more appropriate and fitting for these awesome creatures. Thus, future portrayal of dragons in gaming got much more sophisticated, detailed, prevalent, to the point where these days, dragons are not only accurately portrayed in gaming, but are literally the stars of the show - as we shall see - as we take a closer look at dragons in gaming.

Dragons have taken center stage in games for a long time, especially as boss characters. One of the most well-know dragon-bosses was Singe, the boss dragon from the smash-hit arcade game "Dragon's Lair", released in arcades by Cinematronics in 1983. This game was not only a major step for dragons everywhere trying to break into the videogaming scene, it was also a major step in gaming because of it's use of cell animation (read cartoon-like graphics) which was then used in tandem with laser-disc technology, providing an immersive, interactive Disney-like experience.

While Singe from Dragon's Lair didn't take lead role in the game (that was left to "Dirk the Daring"), several console videogames have had the player assume the role of a dragon, mighty or otherwise. Among the better known games are Insomniac's original "Spyro The Dragon", a game that was originally released for the Sony Playstation, and has seen many sequels and iterations on differing home consoles since it's debut in 1998. Spyro's gameplay was primarily frun-and-jump platforming, but was full of action and had some very fun flying sequences.

While Spyro's approach to videogaming was to win our hearts with his cuteness and broad appeal, another dragon decidedly shot the whole place up in Sega's 2003 masterpiece for the Xbox, "Panzer Dragoon Orta", a game that was solely aimed at the total destruction of your enemies while flying through stunning, surreal environments, the likes which can only be explored in videogames. While the game also stars Orta, the young woman who rides upon the beast, the game's star is definitely the anonymous yet powerful and determined dragon - without which, Orta would be dead from the outset, and we wouldn't have a great game like this. This game is defined as a straight forward shooter on rails, and has some of the best weapons effects, explosions, lighting and graphics seen in that entire generation of videogaming.

The most recently released game starring the mighty and enthralling dragon is aptly named
"Blue Dragon", for the Xbox 360. Presently, this game has only been released in Japan for Microsoft's extremely small Xbox fanbase, but is tentatively scheduled to be released here in the States on June 1st, 2007. Among other individuals, Blue Dragon stars a young boy named Shu who's shadow is actually a large blue dragon. He gathers several friends together and goes up agains enemies such as General Mecha Szabo, and Nene and his pet/sidekick Deathroy, with the fate of the world in their hands. This game is a traditional Japanese RPG, and is highly acclaimed by Famitsu Magazine as one of the best RPG's of this generation.

Finally, there's a game that not only stars dragons, but is decidedly focused around tons of dragon-on-dragon battles, effectively putting every dragon who wants a job as a starring role in this game. This game is none other than Factor 5's "LAIR" for the Sony Playstation 3. This game is looking absolutely epic, with massive battles in the sky, as well as dragons tearing through ground militia (read fodder) and the like. With the ability to attack ground troops and various ground installations, as well as battling other dragons in the sky, even dethroning their mounts and them and killing the dragons in midair, this game looks like it could be the defining dragon game, ultimately putting dragons on the gaming map to stay.

The above list is by no means conclusive. Dragons have both starred in and played supporting roles in videogames as long as games have been around, and it would appear that dragons are here to stay. While it would be nigh impossible to list every game that has had dragons in it in one form or another, here is a small list that this author has compiled, followed by a link with a much more complete list that's found on wikipedia.

• Drakan
• Eragon
• Rise Of The Dragon
• Quest For The Rings
• Dragon's Fire
• Dragon Force (1 & 2)
• Dragon Rage
• Breath Of Fire (series)
• Reign Of Fire
• Legend Of Dragoon
• Dragon Tales Adventures
• Golden Axe
• Dragon Spirit
• Dragon Age