As your skills get better, you'll want to play The King of Dragons even more!
Capcom probably was inspired in the Dungeons 'n Dragons series when they idealized The King of Dragons, because the setting is pretty much the same. You can choose between five characters to venture in a medieval/fantasy world: Elf, Wizard, Fighter, Cleric and Dwarf. They all have their pros and cons; although I suspect that the Wizard is the best one to pick up. The melee classes can count with a shield to block incoming attacks, but the Fighter and the Dwarf blocks have a huge delay and it's hard to master the tempo. The Cleric blocks much faster but his ability to jump so low and to swing slow attacks are his main drawbacks. The Elf is a ranged character that doesn't have the possibility to defend incoming attacks, but his arrows almost traverse the edge of the screen so it's relatively easy to overcome his lack of defense capabilities by keeping the enemies far away. Lastly, the Wizard is the weakest character when taking damage, and he also can't block opponent's attacks, however his powerful staff can take down bosses and tough enemies quite fast when at close range. If you get used with the timing to dodge incoming attacks, the Wizard is probably the best choice due to the huge amount of damage he deals.
The maps and enemies in The King of the Dragons are stereotypes from the Forgotten Realms' world. You'll be killing lizard warriors, skeletons, orcs, minotaurs, sorcerers and, of course, dragons in medieval environments such as castles, open fields and catacombs. The graphics are okay considering the year of release, and the enemies are smart enough to give you trouble until you understand their behavior. Like in any Beat-'Em-Up game, after lots of retries you'll get the correct timing to dodge, block and attack your enemies without being hit. The bosses work in a similar fashion: they all have their predictable twitches, although sometimes you must be extremely fast to avoid their cheating attacks. Even worse, some bosses can go off the visible area of the screen, so it's impossible to tell their next move.
In general, I found killing bosses with the Cleric quite easier than with any other character, because of his fast recovery after blocking attacks. The Wizard, on the other hand, may take down the bad***** amazingly fast if you manage to avoid their attacks properly. The Fighter is okay as well because his sword swings very fast, so it's relatively easy to attack and block at the same time when fighting against nimble bosses.
Since we're talking about a Beat-'Em-Up game inspired in a paper-and-pen RPG, you can bet that The King of Dragons has a leveling system to give you the sense of character progression. And it's indeed effective because, in certain points of the campaign, you'll find upgrades for your defense and attacking abilities. For instance, the Cleric will upgrade his tiny mace to a huge hammer and, instead of using a buckler he will get a huge tower shield that is amazing when fighting against the crowds of monsters. Not only this, your characters also level up their personal stats, which consists in a crucial boost in their maximum health to endure the cruel battles towards the end.
The gameplay in this game is simple: attack enemies as fast as possible while taking care to not get hit meanwhile. But that's just the basic principle to reach the end of the campaign. Like in Knights of the Round (1992, Capcom), a bit of strategy comes handy. For instance, blocking attacks makes a huge difference when playing with the melee classes; and no one can say it's easy to use this feature. You have to push your controller moments before an incoming attack, so you have literally to predict the correct time of your enemy's attacks. When you're playing with a ranged character, since blocking isn't possible, you must use the desperation moves to avoid getting hit. This ability is available to all characters, but it's essential for the ranged ones. This special move drops your health a little and makes your hero invincible for a few seconds, and it also casts a powerful spell that damages multiple monsters in the screen.
The soundtrack in The King of Dragons is fine, and effective enough to give a good dose of adrenaline to the player when battling against the bosses. The music is especially captivating in the final encounter if you're playing the U.S. version. Indeed, oddly enough, there're some noticeable differences between the European and North-American version of The King of Dragons. The game flows faster in the U.S. release, and there're more enemies which increases slightly the difficulty in the game. The first time I played was the Euro version, but you'll never want to play it again after trying the North-American one.
No matter the version in question, The King of Dragons is definitely a game that you'll want to try with some friends. You can play with two buddies at your side, and it is fun to combine, for example, the powerful attack of the Wizard with the amazing blocking ability of the Cleric. On the other hand you may try mixing the Dwarf, the Fighter and the Elf to keep the opponents distant while the melee brutes protect the fragile archer from getting hit. However, even with strong combinations like these you can't avoid the cheap deaths in this game. Sadly, there're some unfair circumstances in The King of Dragons that will let your nervous system uncontrollable. You'll want to hit the arcade stick (or keyboard, as the case may be) repeatedly when someone attacks you from the outside of the screen. It's definitely a dishonest game sometimes, especially at the hardest setting, but the sweet taste of victory will certainly make you waiting for more.
It is quite unfortunate the fact that you can't find any arcade machines around running this game, so you'll have to rely on emulators and roms that are hard to get a license on-line. If you manage to get one, though, you'll enjoy one of the best Beat-'Em-Up games ever released by Capcom.