Game #894: Panzer Dragon(Switch)

  Maybe it's one of those 'you had to be there' games....

 Panzer Dragon is one of those games that you've always head about, but unless you were a Sega kid, you never really played. Maybe if you were one of the few original X-Box adopters you got a bit of a taste of those late 90's Sega properties, but otherwise, you never really got to experience it. Well, after going through this game... can't say I care much about it.

 Panzer Dragon is a on-rails shooter, like Star Fox, but a bit different. For instance, while your dragon is moving on-rails at all times, you'll have to use the directional pad to shift your rider around in order to aim to the left, right and behind your dragon. It's a bit clunky, and 360 degree camera control would've been better. For you see, when you look sideways or behind you, the camera gets super zoomed-in, which was awkward to say the least. You can use the right analog stick to zoom out a bit, but still.... I mean, it's not like dodging incoming fire is easy, as your dragon barely moves around the screen, so you're better off trying to shoot down enemies before they get to shoot. To help you keep up with incoming enemies, you have a radar which shows you on which side enemies are approaching. It gets a bit annoying the few times it's hard to pinpoint if you should be looking left or in front of you, but it's not too bad.

 You have to means of offense. Tap the shoot button to make your dragon rider shoot with his gun, or hold down the shoot boot and aim over different enemies to use your homing laser. The homing laser is infinitely more useful, but some enemies and bosses are more vulnerable to gun fire. And that's the game, there are no screen-clearing bombs, no evasive maneuvers, no nothing. One thing to keep in mind is that the game is super oldschool, it runs on credits, and while it's very easy to gain 1-2 credits per level, you only get a bit healed between stages and if you die and use a credit you have to replay the entire stage again, even if you got to the boss. I was a bit antsy when I realized this because I was playing on Normal and I didn't want to replay the entire game again(Since I wasn't liking it too much) but I managed just fine.

 The game is super short, I finished it quicker than I did Donut County, a game that's often lamented as being too short. Still, what really hurts the game are the incredibly long loading times. They are almost a minute long, which is surprising for a game this brief. In its defense, it looks really good, but I would've easily taken worse graphics if it meant shorter loading times.

 I'm sorry to say, but I didn't really care for Panzer Dragon. I wanted to, I wanted to be in on this whole Panzer Dragon thing, but I found the game too clunky and the loading times too annoying. It's not like I'm against shooters like this, I really love Star Fox 64, another game from this era, so maybe it's one of those games that you had to be there and play it back when it first released to understand why it was/is so good. But I'm not, so I don't think I'll be coming back to this one any time soon. That said, I admit that I'd be willing to give the sequels a try, if they ever get re-released or remade, for something about its setting piqued my curiosity.

 5.5