Dragon Drive Impressions

Dragon Drive D-Masters Shot is a recently released action game from Bandai. The title is based on an anime franchise that has been popular in Japan. Fan-favorite developer Treasure, a veteran studio that's been around since the early days of gaming, has put together a title that blends various gameplay styles into a unique mix. We recently got our hands on an import copy of the game to see how it turned out.

For those unfamiliar with the Dragon Drive phenomenon, the series combines virtual-reality gaming, dragons, and a young boy who gets swept up in a series of fantastic events into a pretty solid mix of action and adventure. Treasure's attempt to translate the franchise into a game relies pretty heavily on the source material. The game's structure sticks pretty closely to the anime's narrative. The story sequences that set up the action on each level make use of footage from the anime, as well as real-time cutscenes, static screens, and text. The game unfolds in fairly linear fashion, although there's a bit of variety in the actual levels. Your time with the game will be split between free-roaming segments that will require you to dispatch assorted enemies, as well as boss-battle and rail-shooting segments reminiscent of Sega's Panzer Dragoon games that feature the same clear requirements. You'll also collect cards over the course of levels that you can use for a variety of different effects, such as powering up your dragon.

The gameplay is accessible, and it's easy to pick up if you go through the in-game tutorial. You'll basically steer your dragon and aim with the analog stick, move forward with the right trigger, and move back with the left. Double-tapping either trigger will cause you to briefly dash in the appropriate direction. While you'll fire with the A button, the other face buttons on the GameCube controller can be used to perform more-powerful attacks and dodge, which means you'll have to become very familiar with mixing and matching. The most useful aspect of the game's control is its lock-on system, which lets you move relative to your target, à la Konami's ZOE games. However, the game's control isn't quite that tight.

The graphics in the game, while solid, are a bit modest in scale. Your dragon and the environments make use of a fair share of polygons but don't exactly push the limits of the GameCube hardware. The texture work is along the same lines, with solid but unspectacular visuals. Your dragon fares the best in the game, featuring a nice character model that stays very true to its anime counterpart. The dragon's presentation is enhanced by some respectable special effects for its various attacks. The downside is that there's some noticeable slowdown during the more insane attacks, and your character's animation is a bit on the stiff side. The enemies you'll encounter in the game look good enough and explode nicely. The bosses are suitably menacing, thanks in part to the game's nice sense of scale. The game's audio is pretty low-key. The voice work is one of the best elements, as the anime's voice cast was tapped to lend their talents to the action. The sound effects aren't quite as top-notch, but they do get the job done. The soundtrack is a mix of suitably melodramatic and catchy tunes that helps drive the action.

From what we've seen so far, Dragon Drive D-Masters Shot is a solid game that doesn't rank among Treasure's best work. The game's presentation is good and faithful to the source material, and the gameplay is solid and accessible. However, the game is also targeted squarely at fans of the franchise--as evidenced by the second disc in the game package, which includes an episode of the series--and that may make it a tough sell to US audiences. At present, Dragon Drive D-Masters Shot is not slated for a US release.