PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 6 of 6

...and now, the epic conclusion!

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Stage 6

Regardless of which power-up you have, you'll be gray in the end, and you'll be in dragon form the whole time. For this stage, you're in horizontal shmup mode, and you'll be firing projectile straight forward to the right side of the screen.

The bat enemies are simple enough, but the cyan-colored spheres turn into caped men who will fire four diagonal shots. You won't have to wait for them to unroll themselves to attack them; you can still shoot them even when they are in ball form.

You want to keep as few enemies on-screen as possible at all times. The more enemies you have on-screen, the more you're going to have to dodge and the more you're going to be overwhelmed. Also, you'll want to keep an eye on your health at all times and ensure that you take as little damage as possible, as you won't be able to recover health and you'll need as much as you can get for the boss battle at the end.

The brown enemies carried by the hawks will fire lasers at you. They're pretty thin and pretty fast, so position yourself just a bit lower so you can avoid the lasers and still hit them. If they get too close, go around them, as they can't turn around to fly at you or fire at you.

The brown flying enemies will track you vertically, but that is all they can do. If they get too close, just get away from them and let them over/under you.

The bats show up in greater numbers near the end. Take out as many as you can, then stay on the move to avoid the rest.

The boss is Zabbaong himself, and he will have multiple phases. The first weak spot to shoot down is the hand. Watch out for the ring projectiles that come out of Zabbaong, and stay far back enough so you don't get hit by the hand's own projectiles.

When the hand is destroyed, you'll need to shoot down the face when the small green hand is not blocking it. You'll need to avoid the small lasers that fire out of the face as you fire at it in addition to the rings that will keep flying at you, so you'll need to keep moving up and down to avoid the lasers and the rings before firing at the face again.

When the face is destroyed, you'll expose the skull. At this point, the boss will no longer move up and down; instead, it will slowly move towards you while firing multiple small lasers at once, but at least the rings will be gone. You'll need to fly around the boss while avoiding the lasers, and getting the boss to move in such a way that you can't accidentally run into it as you fly around in a circle (square?) around the screen. You'll have to deal with five lasers at once, but if you take too long, it becomes a ten-way shot that becomes harded to avoid.

Once you do enough damage to the skull, Zabbaong will be defeated. You just beat Dragon Fighter!

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 5 of 6

I spend more time in this stage than any other, but it's worth it.

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Stage 5

The skeletons popping out of the ground will be your biggest nuisance in this stage, and you'll want to make sure they don't pop up from under you. While they are easy to destroy, they can get annoying.

That is left to the skeletal hands, feet and other parts that you'll see throughout the stage. You'll want to take them out from a distance, especially when you can jump over or run under the stomping feet as they bounce around and the hands will stay back and fire towards you in one of eight directions. Some of the early ones will be more open hands that shoot fireballs every so often, but the later ones will stay in the air and fire in one of eight directions, and you'll have to attack them in some sort of off-center way to get rid of them.

Because of the skeleton part enemies that are scattered across the stage, you'll want to carefully inch forward as you play through this stage. If you see a part of a skeleton, stop what you're doing and fight it before moving forward, as you don't want to get surrounded here.

The flying skulls will fly back and forth along the top of the stage and drop down to spit a fireball at you. Charge attacks will work wonders on these flying monstrosities. Stay on the move to avoid the fireballs, which will stop following you completely after a full loop-around in the air.

If you see a pair of skeleton feet, take out the one on the right first. The one on the right will bounce high while the left one will bounce low, and you can easily jump over the left one.

The boss is a culimination of the skeleton parts that you've been facing with a heart in the center. The boss' heart is the weak point, and it can be really easy to decimate with the dragon if you have the homing shot and know where yo position yourself. The feet will move the boss around while the feet will launch themselves at you. If you go back to human form, be ready to throw charge attacks at the heart while avoiding the feet and the hands. 

There is one more wizard's staff to collect after this, but it will only heal you and will not give you more health. The next stage is the final one...

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 4 of 6

Things get a little more interesting - and a little more difficult - as we enter a more mechanical world halfway through the game.

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Stage 4

The tiny robots with the steam coming out of them jump up and down while moving back and forth, and spit out the occasional projectile. Attack it from a distance with charge shots.

You may not get enough energy to fill up the Dragon Meter on this stage, but on the other hand, you might. It depends on how much you luck out and get a dragon head, which will give you extra energy on that meter. I usually don't.

The flying green enemies will spit out spinning projectiles that travel across the ground towards you. Be ready to jump over those things, and hit the flying enemies with charge shots.

The guys riding the spike columns back and forth are vulnerable from behind. Hit them with charge attacks, especially the homing fireball, as it will be your best bet. You'll have to run away from one of them shortly after the start of the stage.

Watch for the blade on the chains that move up and down from the ceiling. You'll need to move past them while they are up to avoid getting him by them.

The platforms above the light blue fires will do one of two things. Sometimes they are stationary and will slowly sink downwards under your weight, causing you to jump on them constantly. Other times, they will move around. Whatever happens, avoid falling into the fire below, and take out enemies with charge attacks.

The "pots" move between the ceiling and the floor and will shoot out five-way shots in-between.

The boss is a mechanical robot of sorts that sends four eyelets after you. The eyelets fly around in 45-degree curves, and you'll need to hit them with charge attacks and sword strikes until they fall to the floor while avoiding any contact damage. They can still damage you even they are down, so you shouldn't touch them after they go down. When you destroy all four, the robot in the center will attract all the eyes to the center, and you'll need to avoid those before attacking the robot while its green eyes is open. When it raises back up with the eyes, the eyes will come back along with the boss, and you'll have to repeat everything you just did to damage the boss again.

If you have enough Dragon Meter energy, you can do damage to the eyes and even do a lot of damage to the robot itself just by getting close enough to the latter. It may not be much, but at least that's one cycle where you won't be taking a lot of damage. Otherwise, be ready to shoot charge attacks and move around a lot.

When you beat the boss, you'll get another wizard's staff and more health, then it's on to Stage 5.

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 3 of 6

This is where the game gets just a little bit tougher.

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Stage 3

The pink flying enemies will show up from the sides every so often and will always try to fly into you.

The pink fish will move back and forth, and they will jump up and spit projectiles when you get close enough to them.

There are plenty of floors with waterfalls above them, and these waterfalls will act as conveyor belts that will push you in the direction of the water. Keep that in mind as you move forward through the level.

The pink bouncy enemies will bounce less and less the more you hit them. They go super high at first, but they will soon stay very low to the ground just before death.

At this rate, you'll start seeing the big health pots. The small ones recover two units of health, but the big ones give back eight, so grab one if you see it.

The bubbles that rise up from the bottom of the screen are part of the background; they won't actually hurt you.

The yellow orb enemies will open up and shoot rings around itself when you get close enough. Get rid of the enemy, and you'll get rid of the rings.

The merman soldiers will poke at you with a trident if they get close enough to do it. If they get stuck behind a wall, they will push themselves back with their tridents, then jump forward to clear the wall.

Sometimes enemies will drop a magic ring. The magic ring instantly destroys all on-screen enemies.

The yellow bouncy enemies will turn into a different enemy altogether that sticks to the ceiling and fire at you if you get close enough to them. Hit them from a distance with the charge attack to avoid that. When you start seeing them, watch the top and bottom of the screen for the yellow orb enemies.

The boss is a serpent enemy. Switch to dragon form, and get close to the left side of the center head and fire at it when it stops moving. The ring projectiles from the other snake heads are easy enough to avoid, but the multiple three-way shots after the center head moves back up can be a bit tricky, as the shots home in your current position when fired. Thankfully, it is a lot easier to defeat this boss in dragon form.

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 2 of 6

The second stage introduces us to the three projectile power-ups as we take on a whole new set of enemies.

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Stage 2

The green bugs will constantly spawn in from underground, but at least they will increase your Dragon Meter. You'll also have blue flying bugs that will fly in towards you. They can fly through the floor and they will definitely come at your current position when they show up.

The sky blue millipedes lower down when you strike at them, and you'll want to him them enough times so that you can jump over them and move on.

The spiders move up and down and fire off a three-way shot, but you can destroy it if you know where it's going to go.

The green enemies that crawl back and forth can shoot upwards, and you'll need to crouch in order to hit them.

There are blue pick-ups that will have either a G, and B, or an R on it. The G will give you the green attack with the basic projectile that you start the game with. The R, on the other hand, turns you red and will give you a couple of fireballs that bounce on the ground near you but can do intense damage to any enemies if it connects. B is the best, as it turns you blue but gives you a homing projectile. Not surprisingly, I get the B power-up and stick with it for the rest of the game. Also, these power-ups also effect your attacks as a dragon, and the homing projectiles from the blue power-up was useful for bosses.

The light blue ball enemies stop at walls, floors and ceilings and will always travel clockwise in the cardinal directions as they do. The blue spiked enemies leap up and shoot a three-way shot downwards. 

The boss here is a centipede. The centipede will fly around and occasionally go in and out of the ground, and you'll want to hit it in the head in dragon form as much as possible before you have to rely on your human form's charge attacks. Hitting the centipede with the blue attack as a dragon is a little difficult due to how the projectiles fly around, but if you can position yourself in such a way that the projectiles travel towards the head more easily, you'll be able to get more shots in.

PrinceWatercress plays Dragon Fighter - Part 1 of 6

I've seen this game a couple of times, and now I've gotten the chance to play through it myself. Looks like a game that would feature on Nick Arcade, although it actually didn't.

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Eons before, when the elders were still children, the fabled land of Baljing was home to a cheerful and trusting race. The Baljing people were generous and looked after each other throughout their lives. Everyone prospered, and hunger and homelessness were unknown. The great Dragon Spirit that protected and nurtured this land was so pleased with this enlightened attitude that it presented them with a splendid dragon statue for their town square. The word of the wondrous statue, and rumors of its magical properties, spread to other kingdoms, and its fame soon established it as the very symbol of Baljing.

Now to the north of Baljing, high atop Mount Gia, there lived an envious and malicious warlock named Zabbaong. And it came to pass that Zabbaong was jealous of the thriving community, since he governed only the monsters and worthless wretches who inhabited Mount Gia and its surrounding area. Nothing but evil reigned in Zabbaong's domain.

Spurred on by his jealous hatred and malevolent passion, Zabbaong and his monstrous armies attacked Baljing and set the city ablaze. Many lives were lost and the land was left in ruin. All hope was gone, and despair settled upon the inhabitants of Baljing. Enraged by Zabbaong's attack, the Dragon Spirit filled the skies with dark and foreboding storm clouds.

Through the thick, black clouds, the Dragon Spirit sent a gigantic lightning bolt to strike the legendary statue in the town square. Wondrously, the statue was transformed into a great warrior who began to strike back at Zabbaong's murderous hordes. In response, the warlock's armies retreated fearfully back to Mt. Gia with the warrior in hot pursuit, determined to vanquish all its evil forces. YOU are that valiant warrior, and your mission is to defeat Zabbaong's sinister crew, stop his reign of terror, and return Baljing to the protection of the great Dragon Spirit.

Stage 1

Left and Right moves left and right, Down ducks, A jumps and B attacks. If you hold B, you'll be able to charge up a fireball that you can then toss at enemies, but you'll have to hold the button down for a few seconds before you can let the fireball loose.

There are two gauges in the upper-left corner. The top one is your health, and it's pretty small (for now). The bottom one is your Dragon Energy. You'll need to find blue jars to fill up your health whenever you get hit. As for the Dragon Energy, you'll fill it up as you defeat enemies. 

There are two enemies prevalent in this stage. There are the green beasts that will run around, jump around and throw the occasional snowball at you. Sometimes they will take one hit, while other times, they will take two. There are also the snowballs that come down from the top of the screen and slowly home in on you in a stop-start fashion. While the green beasts will fill up the Dragon Energy meter, the snowflakes do not.

Your best bet to go through this stage without dying is to rely more on your sword and only attack with the fireball from far-range. You only have three continues to beat the game with, and when you lose them all, it's back to the beginning for you.

The boss is a white creature similiar to the green ones that you've faced the entire stage. He will spawn green enemies, jump high in the air and roll into a snowball while creating projectiles that get knocked upwards into the air that you'll also want to avoid. If you press Select when your Dragon Energy gauge is flashing, you'll turn into a dragon, and your Dragon Energy will slowly decrease. While in dragon form, you can fly in any direction with the D-Pad while shooting out projectiles with B, and you'll want to hammer the boss with a ton of projectiles to take him and his minions down. Charging up your attack also gives you a more powerful attack, and in this face, you'll shoot out a three-way shot.

Usually, while in dragon form, the game turns from a platformer into a shooter, and you'll move to the right automatically, but if you're fighting the boss, the screen doesn't move at all, as you've reached the end of the area. As a result, I usually save the Dragon Energy for the end.

When you beat a boss, they will drop a sorcerer's staff. Picking it up will increase your health, making it easier to survive...if you can fight the enemy!