WA

Panzer Dragoon

by

SEGA

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Panzer Dragoon is a fantastic 3D shooting game available for the Sega Saturn by Sega which features 360 degree views and shooting possibilities.

Thousands of years ago man created genetically altered beings called bio-weapons. Things didn't go as planned and the creatures turned on their masters almost eliminating the human race completely and leaving only a few tribes.

One of the tribes known as the "Imperials" discovered an ancient tower which housed the old weapons of the past. They used the weapons to hunt and destroy the dangerous creatures roaming on the Earth. Unfortunately they discovered the true use of the tower which is the most powerful weapon even created and plan on becoming the new rulers of the Earth!

You are a hunter and one day as you were out hunting with your fellow hunters in the Great Plains, you notice an Imperial Battlecruiser overhead. While you watch it, a Burrower jumps out of the ground and attacks one of the others. You instantly begin to chase after it into an area where you have never gone before.

You find yourself in an abandoned warehouse startled by two dragons fighting right overhead of you. The rider of the blue dragon is fatally wounded by a laser blast and lands next to you. He reaches out for your hand as he dies and transfers his mind to yours so that you become one with the Sky Rider. His dying words to you are, "Don't... let the Dark Dragon return to the tower... if that happends, the horror of the Ancient Time..." He then falls to the ground and his dragon lets out a cry for his master. You then look at the dragon and he looks back at you. You realize the fate of the world relies in your hands as you pick up the Sky Rider's weapon and get on the armored blue dragon.

This is where you take over with the control pad and fly the blue dragon to victory! You will confront many enemies along your path such as giant sandworms, man sized wasps, lethal flying battleships and many other air and terrain beasts.

Your weapon is a powerful one from the Ancient Time which can fire normally and also has a homing laser. The homing laser is activated by holding down the fire button and will lock on up to eight targets while the button is held down. Once your targets are locked on, you can fire a large blue laser blast to destroy your enemies! The homing laser works great for destroying your enemies and I highly recommend its use. It is especially useful in levels such as the 4th where you can almost destroy your enemies before they can even see you. There are three levels of play in Panzer Dragoon which are easy, normal and hard. The easy level will only allow you to play the first four levels, but your dragon can die many times allowing you to continue from the last level you completed. This selection is great for getting use to the game where the targets don't move too much providing nice target practicing. The normal and hard levels require you to take into consideration the credits for continuing a game. Depending on how well you shoot, you will gain credits at the end of each level if you pass a certain percentage. Each credit allows you to continue the game once your dragon dies from the last level completed. In the normal mode, you start off with 3 credits, but in the hard mode, you start off with no credits at all. Accurate shooting will help you in your quest to stop the Dark Dragon permitting you to go further.

Each level ends with a boss type of creature. When it appears, an energy bar for the creature will also appear in the top left corner of the screen. This is really helpful for knowing how much longer you will need to battle with the boss creature. Once the boss is killed, your shooting for the level is evaluated and you move on to the next level.

Conclusion:

Panzer Dragoon is a really cool shoot 'em up style game. I really enjoyed the music and style of the graphics and hope to kill the Dark Dragon one of these days. I really appreciated the homing laser feature, since my aim is not that great and this really helps bring up my shooting ratio, and highly recommend this game to everybody that enjoys shooting.


Ratings:

Overall: ****


Publishers:

In North America:

Sega of America Inc.,
255 Shoreline Drive,
2nd floor,
Redwood City, CA 94065

In Europe:

In UK:

Sega Europe Ltd.,
247 Cromwell Road,
London SW5 9GA

In Netherlands:

Sega Video Games Netherlands B.V.,
47, Huizermaatweg,
1273 Na Huizen.

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