Dragonheart: Fire & Steel

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The game is based on the 1996 movie of the same name and generally follows the plot of the movie that exploits The story of a medieval dragon slayer named Sir Bowen, in his attempt to free the world from a particularly evil king and seven powerful dragons! Dragons once swarmed the skies and would attack humans on a regular basis. Fearing the dragons, humans went on a hunt to eliminate. But now, only one survives. You take control of Bowen a retired knight and former dragon slayer and his dragon friend in an attempt to free humanity from this tyrannical rule. In this game, you run, jump, punch, kick and slash through a fantasy, hazardous world. However, if Bowen exerts himself too much, his cardiovascular gauge will decrease and it will be imperative to get some rest and refill and this is vital since the hero gets easily tired using his huge sword. The game features nine levels of hack'n'slash action on your way to victory. Note: The hero is not alone since he has the aid of his precious friend, Draco, who will burn everything to ashes with his flames.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
The 2d graphics on the Sega Saturn version are awesome. The pre-rendered backgrounds and the almost digitized characters are well designed but the animation seems to have a few problems, as only a few frames are used. The whole atmosphere though is absolutely beautiful with fantasy places to go through. I was always a fan of this kind of epic slashing action 2D games (Dragonheart reminds me of some classic coin-op games like Golden Axe) with details and colors taken directly from the dark ages! The sound is equally good, featuring a few medieval-style music scores and a variety of sampled sound effects. Technically, the game is great, although it should have better sprite animations, that would add more to its playability.