Flying Dragon Review (Nintendo 64, 1998)

Fighting fans by and large avoided the Nintendo 64 console. Unlike it’s predecessor, the Super Nintendo, this system sorely lacked generation defining fighters. Third party developers did churn out a variety of different second rate fighting games, but for the most part these have all been forgotten. None were amazing, but a few were pretty interesting. Flying Dragon is one of these such ‘interesting’ fighting games. Developer Culture Brain packed a lot of content into this one, and even brought some unique concepts to the table with it. Today we’re going to take a look at Flying Dragon for the Nintendo 64.

When it comes to story Flying Dragon is a little scatterbrained. The game doesn’t really spell it out for you. If you let the demo run you’ll get some information on the characters, but that’s about it. These blurbs are pretty typical for the genre; you have shadow organizations, lone wolves, plots of revenge, fights for glory, etc. It’s all generic anime rubbish but that’s alright by me. I won’t fault it because I’ve not only come to expect this sort of thing but I also like it. There’s even some dialogue before fights in specific modes which is kind of neat.

Before we dig into the gameplay we must first touch upon the most intriguing aspect of Flying Dragon. It has two modes which are so different that they feel like separate games. The game is divided up between an SD mode, and a more realistic one featuring real life human proportions. They are both heavily anime styled, but one looks like Virtua Fighter Kids and the other like Virtua Fighter. That’s my take on it anyway. What’s interesting is the fact that the graphics aren’t the only change. The two modes play quite differently from one another. They both have their own rosters (though there’s some cross-over but even shared characters have different moves) as well as separate gameplay mechanics. It’s actually really interesting and pretty much saves this one for me.

Let’s dive right in starting with the SD mode. SD stands for super-deformed and this means the characters have big heads, small bodies, and look somewhat like children. There are a lot of unrealistic moves such as the traditional projectiles and impossible feats of athletism. You’ll be punching, kicking, and just plain beating the health bar out of your opponent at which point you move on to the next match. But not so fast. Every time you defeat an enemy you gain experience points (which increases your level and stats such as attack and defense). Your equipment also gains these points which make them more formidable gear.

Wait, equipment? That’s right, in the SD mode in Flying Dragon your fighter can use gear like in an RPG. These increase their attack and defense while providing other bonuses as well. You have four slots which can be assigned different items. There’s an offensive slot, defensive, and two accessories. You acquire new gear both from winning fights and the in-game shop accessed from the menu. The progression system is pretty neat and very unique for the genre. This is seriously a major part of what makes Flying Dragon stand out so much.

Now we come to the more realistic mode. What’s nice is that this features two different means by which to play. While the graphics are polygonal no matter what you can select either 2D or 3D modes. This refers entirely to the gameplay and your freedom of movement. In the former you’re locked into moving only left or right, but the latter allows you to sidestep or knock foes out of the way. They play pretty similarly overall, but it’s still neat that they included this here.

Culture Brain went with a more realistic approach to gameplay for this virtual mode. They were aiming for the likes of Tekken and Virtua Fighter, but clearly Flying Dragon falls significantly short of those. The equipment system is gone, as are the projectile attacks. The fighting is more short ranged and the combo mechanics are a little more refined. There’s also quite a bit less personality here, and the roster in my opinion is better in the SD mode. Virtual mode on its own is a largely forgettable fighter that suffers from being very generic.

While there are some differences between the two modes they both suffer from the same major issues. First of all the gameplay is very clunky. Characters do not move smoothly, at all. The inputs aren’t as responsive, and moves not nearly as smooth as they should be. Because of this problem Flying Dragon just isn’t particularly fun to play. Another drawback is how low budget this one feels. Everything from the presentation to the interface seems cheap and thrown together. I also have some issues with the combo system. It encourages button mashing, and lacks finesse and nuance. There’s not a lot of strategy in this game; you can succeed just by memorizing a few moves and mashing the attack buttons over and over again.

Flying Dragon is also a pretty ugly game. The anime motif is fine, and I really liked the portraits on the character select screen in SD mode. Unfortunately the super deformed characters look pretty awful. I’m just not a fan of the SD art style which is sad because this is clearly the stronger gameplay mode here. Virtual mode looks cleaner, but at the cost of being incredibly generic in appearance. Flying Dragon could be any other slapped together fighter and you’d never know. The framerate is also a little slow and I wish the game ran more smoothly. The soundtrack is also pretty poor. It’s low quality midi compositions that I found slightly offensive. I know it’s the Nintendo 64, but so many other games sound significantly better than this.

It’s not perfect. Heck, it’s not even that good to be honest. For some reason I feel the need to defend Flying Dragon, but only slightly. Few other fighting games of this era had some many options and modes, and even today you won’t find one quite like this. I can really appreciate the ideas the developers had here. It could have been a hit had they focused a little more on the gameplay engine, or finding something, anything, to make the fighting engine more unique. Flying Dragon is just too clunky to be fun. It’s better with a friend, but at best the game is tolerable.