Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll
System: NES
Release Date: August 1989
Developer: Culture Brain
Publisher: Culture Brain
Genre: Action/Fighting
It’s a mixture of action and fighting in today’s title, Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll. You are Ryuhei, student of Hiryu-no Ken master Juan, seeking to avenge his master and collect the titular Secret Scrolls. The Tusk Soldiers have challenged you to take part in the upcoming World Tournament of Contact Sports. There are several rounds that you must win before making it to the World Tournament. There are two types of levels, Journey levels and Tournament levels. You begin in training with Gengai, where you learn how the tournament levels work. Then you head off to the journey levels.
These are side-scrolling action in nature. Punch with the B Button and kick with the A Button. Enemies run mindlessly at you and you need to defeat them to coax a mid-boss to run out. Five of them need to be defeated to earn the key to unlock the end of the level. Dragon statues can be attacked to reveal hidden items. While you’re running through the level, you must touch hidden pictures of Juan which will give you intel needed to transform disguised Tusk Soldiers in the Tournament levels.
The tournament levels are the closest thing to a modern fighting game that I’ve come across so far. These levels pit you in one on one combat. A red dot appears at low, medium, or high on either you or your opponent. If it’s on your opponent, you want to attack quickly and try to score a hit. If it’s on you, your goal is to time a button press with the opponent’s attack. If they try a high punch, you can block and then quickly press down and the B Button to do a strong trick throw. Blue dots show a weak point and red stars show an instant kill strike.
If you touched enough Juan panels, you’re told how to transform a Tusk Soldier before the fight. These guys are HARD. When a bottle of Mystic Water floats above the fight, you want to jump into it as they are the only way to heal. I made it to the third tournament and threw in the towel. There was one more journey stage and another tournament left, but then you have to play the game all over again for the real ending. I couldn’t get myself to do it.
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics aren’t up to par to 1989 standards. They’re alright, but not great.
Sound: 1.5
The sound isn’t offensive, but they aren’t particularly good.
Gameplay: 2.0
Everything works, but the controls don’t work well.
Difficulty: 3.0
You have unlimited continues to win this one, and you’ll need them. It’s hard, but when you’re patient and figure out the patterns, you can win.
Fun Factor: 2.0
I kind of enjoyed myself and kind of didn’t. You know how it goes.
Overall Grade: 2.0
Flying Dragon: The Secret Scroll earns a C. I didn’t particularly like this game, but I didn’t hate it. If it was 1989 I would have gotten through it, but not today!