Castlevania: Bloodlines

Released on March 17, 1994 in North America for the Sega Genesis by Konami, Castlevania: Bloodlines brings 2D Castlevania action-platforming to a Sega console for the first time

Many moons ago, I played the Super Nintendo's Super Castlevania IV for the first time, and it blew my mind. The incredible, highly-detailed graphics, the atmospheric, all-timer 16-bit soundtrack, and the finely-tuned, incredible gameplay immediately made the game an instant favorite. I couldn't beat SCIV back then, but revisited it after college in the mid-00's and finally defeated Dracula. The game blew my mind all over again when I was in my 20s, and much stronger technology was available, but that time I heard a small, dissenting voice from several people: Castlevania Bloodlines for the Sega Genesis is better. Before I started hearing these rumblings, I didn't even know the Genesis had a Castlevania game. From that point, I saw videos of the Genesis Castlevania game, and thought about it every now and then, but never gave playing it any serious thought until I saw it on a Tennessee vacation at the end of last year, in a mall video game store for a ridiculously low price. After confirming that the cartridge was real and not a reproduction, I made the purchase, brought the game home, and have played through to the end credits. Is Castlevania: Bloodlines as good as Super Castlevania IV? Is it even a good game?

And whose ribcage is this?

Longtime Castlevania, developer, Konami, wanted Castlevania's first foray onto a Sega console to be different. Thus, Castlevania: Bloodlines doesn't take place during medieval times, but in the 1910s, during World War I. The main villain is a female vampire who wants to use the war as a distraction, in order to revive her uncle...Dracula. Yes, in this side-story from the main Castlevania timeline, Dracula's return is yet again imminent, and the player has to stop it. The change in time period is a cool twist, but the setting here is different, as well. While the first of the game's six stages takes place in and around Dracula's castle, the other five take place all over Europe, as the game's two protagonists chase around the continent, attempting to prevent Dracula's resurrection, reaching such locales as the Leaning Tower of Pisa, Versailles Palace, and a munitions factory in Germany, among others.

Texas, USA! 

I did indeed say "protagonists" in the above paragraph, as Bloodlines offers players the choice of two quite different characters. The first is John Morris (from Texas! I), the slower, stronger, whip-wielding, Belmont-descended, more traditional Castlevania character. The second is the Spaniard, Eric Lecarde, a faster, but slightly weaker character, who carries a more long-range spear. While Bloodlines contains difficulty mode options of EASY, NORMAL, and EXPERT, using Eric is indeed easier. Eric's speed is quite handy, as is the longer range of his weapon, and his ability to strike upward. The easiest mode here is EASY with Eric. I did not do that. While I tested Eric's playability quite a bit for this review, I did my main playthrough here using John Morris on NORMAL mode.

I came here with the Belmonts, and I'm leaving with the Belmonts

Castelvania: Bloodlines looks great. The sprites are big, the backgrounds are detailed, and environments feature plenty of cool animations, like spinning cogs, rising water, scrolling clouds, and shafts of light. The player character, enemies, and bosses are all well-animated and well-designed as well. The color scheme is a little odd and limited, though admittedly, quite Genesis. Likewise, the soundtrack is very Genesis, in a very good way, making the best of its sound chip. Michiru Yamane, just three years before her storied work on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, presents some very solid work, her first for the series, enjoyable, sophisticated, Bach-inspired pieces that are short, and might not all stick in the head, but that are highly effective and perfectly fit the game. Sound effects are what Castlevania on the Sega Genesis would and should sound like.

The Indiana Jones-like map screen with the traveling dots before each level is quite cool

With firm productions values in place, including a well-done cutscene before the start menu that explains the game's story, all that's left is for the gameplay to take things home. On that front, Castlevania: Bloodlines mostly succeeds. From the start, Bloodlines feels like a classic Castlevania game. Walking and jumping. Whipping enemies. Getting knocked back by a previously unseen enemy into a pit and dying. It's all here. In the case of Bloodlines, it's all here for better or worse.

Here comes a medusa head. Whatever you do DO NOT JUMP.

The first Castlevania game is hard. There are notorious moments in that game where the player will try to jump over a pit from one platform to another, only to get hit by a bat and knocked back into that pit, to their death. The thing about that first Castlevania game is that if the player experienced a game over in any of the levels in that game's six stages, they had the infinite opportunity to continue from the beginning of that stage. In Bloodlines, there are only two continues, and three lives per continue. I was overjoyed to find that there are passwords for each level, but when I reached the second stage down a continue, I was dismayed to find that the password actually saves exactly how many continues and lives the player has...meaning the player has a limited amount of lives to get through the game...and that's it. Run out, and you've got to start over from the beginning of the game. Bloodlines is more unforgiving than the NES' original Castlevania!

I. Hate. These. SIRENS!!!!

Thankfully, I eventually noticed that in the options menu, the player can change the amount of lives from three to five (or one, if you're a sicko). This saved my playthrough and opinion of the game. With the limited continues and inability to save or start a stage over with continues intact, playing with five lives on NORMAL mode is a must (I refused to play through on EASY mode). Like in the the original Castlevania, Bloodlines is broken into six stages, though these aren't broken up into three distinct levels apiece as in the original. While six stages may not sound like many, these stages are long. Extremely long. Early in the game, I don't know how many times I survived a section, hoping the next screen would bring the final boss, only to have to get through several more highly difficult screens. Each stage also features at least one, and often many mini-bosses throughout. I need to make it clear, I am not penalizing the game simply for having a tough difficulty level. Anyone who has been reading my reviews over the years knows that I appreciate a tough difficulty...I just reviewed Batman for the NES! However, I dislike when difficulty feels like it is covering up a lack of content, like in old, quarter-munching arcade games that could be beaten in under ten minutes if the difficulty was simply moderate. Bloodlines doesn't quite reach that point, but it does encroach upon it at times. I feel like the ideal version of this game would actually extend these levels even longer...but include either infinite continues or passwords that didn't save the amount of lives and continues the player had remaining from their previous playthrough. As it is, Bloodlines is fun, and quite challenging, but that challenge feels just a bit unfair, a relic of older, less sophisticated times in the 16-bit age. Some may actually view this as a feature, a bonus, and not a bug. However, I think that 16-bit technology should mean the elimination of such tactics...Super Castlevania IV doesn't need them, and its difficulty feels balanced, while the gameplay length feels just right.

 

Super Castlevania IV brought my dead cat back to life! What have you got, bat boss?

While I'm complaining, I guess I'll get the rest of my negativity out of the way. Certain gameplay elements here are extremely finicky. Even I'm at the point where I'm tired of negatively comparing this game to Super Castlevania IV, but I'll do it one more time. Castlevania IV is famous for Simon Belmont's elastic whip, which can lash out in eight directions. In that game, any time I see a place that I can whip and swing from, I get excited because of how fun that gameplay mechanic is. Here, I dreaded having to whip across chasms. John can only lash forward, unless he is jumping, in which case he can whip up, diagonally. Unlike in Castlevania IV, where whipping points are clearly marked, there are times that John just needs to whip and swing from the ceiling, and nothing is marked...it's just the ceiling. Sometimes the whipping mechanic works, but sometimes it doesn't. The developers seemingly realized that the mechanic wasn't working right, and make sure that there are only a few moments that swinging across a chasm is necessary...but I held my breath every time, and loudly yelled at the TV when it didn't, knowing that I'd just lost one of my few, very precious lives.

Spear boy, on the other hand, doesn't need to whip anywhere

With all that said, Bloodlines is actually pretty fun most of the time. Yes, it's difficult, but I often found myself trying to play a stage nearly perfectly, to where I only died once or twice, restarting from my previous password until I beat the level that way. This ensured I always reached the next level and got a password where I still had many lives remaining. Like with any good game, the more I played, the better I got. I'd often continue through a stage, even after I'd died several times (continuing starts the player off at the beginning of the exact screen at which they died), with the intention of starting over if I got to the end, so that I could go through again with the intent of dying less. A stage...particularly the nightmarish, siren-filled Stage Three, would often drain all of my lives and continues before I even got halfway to the end for the first few tries. Eventually, I'd get good enough to almost make it through without dying. The controls, while again limited a bit from Castlevania IV and other future Castlevania title, are pretty tight, excluding the whip-grappling mechanic. Jumping follows the more realistic style of earlier games, meaning once the player has committed to a jump, they can't turn around and correct it in mid-air. A jump forward is always a jump forward, no matter what, unless an enemy flies into the player, in which case, it's a jump forward, then a knock back. The controls became more and more familiar and more and more intuitive the more I played. The Sega Genesis controller's three-button scheme works out well here, as there's an attack button, a jump button, and a secondary weapon button. Like in most Castlevania games, the player can pick up a secondary weapon throughout the game (an axe, holy water, etc.) to use on enemies, collecting jewels as ammunition. This mechanic works just as well as it does in other Castlevania games.

 

The glass breaking throughout this fight is an epic touch

Once I gained more confidence in my Bloodlines abilities, as well as in my chances at progressing through the game's marathon-length levels (particularly after discovering I could up the life count to five), I started to eagerly anticipate whatever crazy thing the game would throw at me next. From a ghost knight with a machine gun, to a weird 90s glitch/steampunk mini-boss, to rooms that play completely upside down, Bloodlines is great at keeping players on their toes. Imagination and ingenuity are on display here by the bloody truckload. The attention to detail is also great. I loved revisiting Dracula's castle in the first stage and seeing how much of it was smashed to bits or banged up from time and the last violent Belmont visit. Despite my qualms, a lot of thought, care, and skill went into this game and it shows.

Used to be a nice room...used to be.

As in all Castlevania games, the levels have secrets. There are big juicy mutton chops hidden in some of the walls (generally the wall will show cracks), which refill a player's depleted power meter. There are also extra lives hidden in some particularly devious places, though these often require the player to risk a life in order to grab them. There are a few Mirrors of Truth hidden throughout the game, which kill every enemy on screen. I really like those. There are Coat-of-Arms, which, when the player has upgraded either their whip or spear to the maximum amount (generally done quickly, right when a player has started a stage, or restarted on a screen), combine to not only create a super-powered whip or spear, but replace the secondary weapon with an awesome, screen-clearing supermove. Each of the regular secondary weapons also has its own supermove, which requires the player to hold "up" when hitting the secondary attack button, though this uses more jewels. Overall, there's enough depth in gameplay to keep the player invested, even if they're struggling with the difficulty (or annoying grappling mechanic). Bloodlines is a good game...

 

Upon reflection...

But claiming that it is better than Super Castlevania IV is frankly ridiculous. These two games are not on the same level. For one, Bloodlines, is a high production value ode to a previous generation in gaming, that is at times held captive by that previous generation's flaws. Super Castlevania IV transcends, makes use of its 16-bit technology to carve out a spot among the greatest 2D action-platformers of all time. In my humble opinion, gaming peaked at the 16-bit generation. Developers could now create games that were large enough to where the difficulty didn't have to be artificially inflated to extend gameplay. Functions like file-saving became commonplace because the ability to save a game now didn't mean that the player could get through it so quickly, the game didn't have value. Music and graphics could be highly appealing given the proper development and care. Games like The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, Chrono Trigger, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and Streets of Rage 2 redefined gaming excellence (though as I think about it, the Genesis titles only furthered the production value angle--those games don't feature any save option, and you have to play straight through them...the newer Super Nintendo most definitely had a leg up in this department). Super Castlevania IV features so many stages, the password system doesn't need to hold players to limited lives and continues to artificially inflate gameplay. While Bloodlines' graphics and sound are good, SCIV features layered, painterly 16-bit graphics, and a soundtrack that would make a gothic film envious (and anyone who would point to the slowdown during some moments in SCIV as its Achilles heel must have somehow never tried to do a Coat-of-Arms supermove in Bloodlines). However...some people just prefer the Genesis aesthetic. They prefer the graphics and sound generally inherent in a Sega Genesis game versus that of a Super Nintendo game. If  that's the case, and you haven't played Bloodlines...head to a shopping mall in Tennessee and pick up this game, now! They had two copies, and I left a copy on the shelf (CM Games in Knoxville)! And if you're a Castlevania fan in general and haven't played this game, I highly recommend it. Even if Bloodlines is not my 16-bit preference, it's more than worth playing.

I felt like I had to take a picture of the screen when I beat the game to prove my bonafides(I wasn't using screen capture on that playthrough),,,because after all the griping I did here about difficulty, I beat Dracula on my first try...on my last life...with one hit left...

Go back to sleep, you blood-sucking bastard

Graphics: 8.5/10.0
Sound: 8.5/10.0
Gameplay: 7.8/10.0
Lasting Value: 7.5/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 8.0/10.0

Sonic Adventure

Released on and alongside the Sega Dreamcast in North America on September 9, 1999, and developed by Sonic Team, Sonic Adventure takes the speedy blue hedgehog into the 3rd dimension

9/9/99. One of the greatest days in human existence. Sega hyped me up to a fever pitch for the release of what turned out to be their final home console, the Sega Dreamcast. Selling for only $199 on that incredible day just before my 18th birthday, the Sega Dreamcast was irresistible. I drove straight from my cashier job at Winn Dixie that afternoon to head to Wal-Mart, realized I didn't have enough money, drove home and begged my mother for a loan (I paid her back with my next Winn Dixie paycheck), then sped back to Wal-Mart and snagged one. I also didn't have enough money leftover for a game, but thankfully the system came with a demo disc, and one of the game's featured was Sonic Adventure, Sega's blue mascot's first fully 3D adventure. Only the first level was included, but I played that first level 100 times in the two weeks it took me to scrounge up enough cash to purchase the full game. I loved Sonic, had great memories of the Genesis games, and couldn't wait to make more. And I did. But now, I'm revisiting the game after 25 years. Does Sonic Adventure still hold up, long after the hype of 9/9/99 has faded back into the annals of time?

You don't have to pull my arm...

Sonic Adventure kicks off with a stunning FMV of a city being destroyed by some type of water monster. At the time, the quality of the graphics blew my mind. My teenaged son just happened to be in the room when I started this current playthrough, and even he said the FMV still looks good for 2024. The cinematics definitely set the tone for the game, particularly when Sonic's cool hair metal theme starts blasting and he runs his way into the FMV.

The Chaos Monster is still pretty freaky looking too--great character design by Team Sonic

For me the Dreamcast is a vision of the sunny, optimistic 21st Century that never came to be. The bright, blue sky aesthetic of the system's games when the Sega Dreamcast was in the production for the United States from September of 1999 to March of 2001 are a sort of what could have been, before two planes slammed into the World Trade Center a few months later and shrouded the new millennium in darkness. You can feel the birth of that optimism in this opening cinematic, as the opening cutscene is representative of the dread, or Fin de Siècle, over the coming Y2K millennium change, death and destruction raining down, before a brave and resilient Sonic rises to defeat it. The game then casts the player into the lovely white sands, blue skies, and crystal green surf of Sonic Adventure's opening level. For me, the Dreamcast will always be representative of the sunny and optimistic 21st Century that could have been. This makes the eventual defeat of the apocalypse by Sonic, and the resulting blue, sunny sky victory feel more poignant, and gives Sonic Adventure an even greater tone of escapism than it held in 1999.

Is there a more Sega Dreamcast image than Sonic running through golden rings over a sandy shore, under a vivid blue sky, sunshine glistening in the dew as it drips from the backs of dolphins?

Sonic Team does it's best with this first stage to show what Sonic in 3D can be. He's faster than ever, he can still run up a wall, through a loop, can spin and launch his body like a deadly whirling buzzsaw. The sense of speed here is fine-tuned and exhilarating. There are still enemies or spikes in inconvenient places, and players will need fast reflexes to avoid them. There are even still alternate paths through stages--not completely alternate, more like frequent offshoots that meet back with the main path. Due to the 3D layout, there's not really a way to layer a lower, middle, and higher path like in the 2D games, but the offshoot paths are still a lot of fun, and much appreciated. Thankfully, the controls, for Sonic at least, feel pretty fine-tuned as well.  Jumping and dashing all feel natural and new moves, like a light dash, or the ability to hone in on the next enemy after jumping are quite satisfying. The camera is usually easily controllable, though it does get stuck in a bad place every once in a while, particularly in the later stages.

 

Not a big deal when you're running around in the cozy overworld...a very big deal when you're standing on a platform above a bottomless pit in an action stage

Between stages, the player moves Sonic around a fairly small overhead world. This includes two main areas. The first, Station Square, is a city location, housing Sonic's hotel (and pool), and numerous building locations, including a casino and train station. From the train station, the player can head to the second major area, Mystic Ruins, which houses caves, a jungle, and...some ruins. The player will have to solve some simple puzzles, fight some bosses, or interact with certain characters to access the next action stage through the overworld. Once an action stage is unlocked in the overworld, Sonic can return to it at any point.

I need to be able to go to the pit of this volcano whenever I choose!

Sonic's action stages are fun and highly memorable. From the beach opener, to windy, tornado-ridden hills, to an icy mountain, to an active volcano, to Eggman's ship, to my two personal favorites, the Mayan-inspired Lost World and a huge skyscraper metropolis stage called Speed Highway. Each of the game's levels feature multiple, highly memorable set pieces, from the first stage's famous orca chase, to an avalanche snowboarding run on the mountain level, to a run down a building in the city, to a ride on an enormous stone snake in the ancient ruins of Lost World. 

It's like a level based on a Doors song...

Ride the snake, ride the snake, to the lake, the ancient lake, baby

Ride the snake, he's old and his skin is cold

Or ride this helicopter...

The driving bass at the start of this level and the preceding run downhill is one of the more exhilarating moments in video gaming

This is the best loop in a Sonic game. Twists my head around every time I run it.

Running...down a building

While moments in the game like this often aren't difficult, they are awesome

Overall, while Sonic's mode in Sonic Adventure might not reach the heights of some of the 90s 2D Sonic games, it's still a lot of fun. There are even some fun mini-stages, like an air-battle from Tails' plane. Speaking of Tails, Sonic Adventure features a large handful of characters that are unlocked as Sonic progresses. Each have their own individual gameplay and storyline to complete, though each's seems to be decreasingly rewarding and increasingly half-baked.

 

I highly recommend you select Sonic...

Tails' stages generally involve racing against Sonic through the majority of Sonic's stages, with the hook that Tails can glide great distances (and sometimes access new areas...though again, he doesn't get as many stages as Sonic). Knuckles the Echidna, who can dig and fly, must find three emeralds in several of Sonic's stages, and his gameplay is actually incredibly fun, but there are so few levels in his mode, it's over far too quickly, and the stages are far too short. Amy the Hedgehog hits things with a hammer, but she's constantly hounded by an unkillable, stalking robot, and her few stages are short and not at all fun. E-102 the robot fires missiles, which the player can fire either freely or through locking on--like Knuckles, his gameplay is also incredibly fun, as it's a blast essentially blowing up some of the stages the player visited with the previous characters, but also like Knuckles, E-102's gameplay is frustratingly short, essentially over in an hour. Finally, there's Big the Cat; Big's gameplay, I kid you not, is fishing, which is fitting, since the Sega Dreamcast may be the console with the best overall fishing game library (Particularly first party, and there's even a fishing rod and reel controller for the system!), but Big's gameplay is not very polished and a bit tedious, does not fit with the other modes, and is probably the worst.

 

Time to do it again...but with Tails

I can't believe both how fun this mode is and how short it is

I mean, he can fly! Knuckles is basically a morally inferior Superman!

Amy, your mode stinks! Hit the showers, you're done!

Flying through a Sonic stage and blowing everything up is so fun. You can't tell me they didn't just think of this at the last minute because if they had thought of it earlier, the mode would be twice as long!

Man, what is it with late 90s 3D games and bathrooms? Poor E-102 can't even use it!

I love a big, stupid cat, but Big is a bridge too far

Straight out of Sega Marine Fishing! ...or Sega Bass Fishing!...or Sega Bass Fishing 2!

Sonic Adventure's character design is extremely memorable, and the graphics are bright, colorful, and vibrant. The textures still look pretty good 25 years later, though certain environmental effects, like say, water splashes, are pretty simple to ensure that the game always moves as unimaginably fast as possible. Increasingly detailed water splashes were essentially the 3D platforming games' arms race on the previous generation's Nintendo 64, so it feels a bit strange that droplets don't individually fall down and create individual ripples here, but I must admit, considering just how fast you can move through these levels as Sonic, the graphics are highly impressive, and overall a huge jump from that previous generation.

The sheer speed of the Orca section is still stunning, and even if the graphics are no longer top of the line, it's tough to beat that turn-of-the-century arcade aesthetic

The soundtrack is just as bright, fun, and sunny as Sonic's gameplay. Each character has their own full band theme (with lyrics!), generally energetic late 90's pop-punk, with a horn quartet (East 4th Horns) providing support. However, some of the stages and overworld areas feature beautiful, atmospheric, orchestrated music. I must again bring up the ancient ruins Lost World stage, as its theme is as good as anything in any modern action film. It's incredible, absolutely thrilling music. The weird techno/hair metal mashup in Speed Highway is also particularly satisfying. The game's sound effects are fun, and the voice acting is solid. Sonic in particular sounds great.

Generally, Sonic can do no wrong here

Overall, Sonic has by far the longest and most involved gameplay, and even when the other characters' modes are added, Sonic Adventure is only about 15 hours long. There is a little chao minigame, where you can collect and hatch the little blue blob's eggs, train them for battle, and play around with them on your VMU (memory card), and possibly even fight against others. This mode did not interest me when I was 18, and unfortunately, does not interest me now.

Sorry. I promise it's not because you're blue.

The storyline has the same general Dr. Robotnik is doing something bad framing, but there is a cool intertwined story about an ancient civilization, and the game finds fun ways to develop and explore different facets of the story with each character. It's not Shakespeare, but it's not a nonsensical, completely silly mess , either.

Plus, there's pinball! (in the Casino stage, a fun nod to Sonic 2)

There's even a a Nights pinball table, so Sega can show some love to the handful of folks who bought a Sega Saturn

While it's not a long game, and Sonic's story and gameplay is really the only one that feels complete, Sonic Adventure is still quite a fun, worthwhile game. It's a reminder of a more optimistic time, and an instant mood lifter. Sonic may work best in 2D, but Sonic Adventure is a very good preliminary argument for his existence in the 3D realm.

And here are a couple more picture from the Lost World level...

Because I love it so much! Look at how cool it is! 1999 was such a great year!

9.0

Graphics

Bright, attractive graphics that do nothing to hinder Sonic's speed.

9.0

Music and Sound

A mix of fun, upbeat rock tunes, with some surprisingly great cinematic and atmospheric pieces thrown in, along with solid voice acting and sound effects.

8.5

Gameplay

Sonic's mode is blazing fast and fun 3D platforming, while the other five characters' modes are hit and miss.

7.0

Lasting Value

Sonic's gameplay is short, and the other characters' is even shorter, but there are minigames, and the stages (at least Sonic's) are so enjoyable, they're easy to revisit.

8.5  FINAL SCORE

Rise of the Dragon

Released in 1993 by Dynamix, Inc. and ported to the Sega CD by Game Arts, Rise of the Dragon is a graphic adventure game set in a dark, futuristic, cyberpunk world

I recently played through the incredible Snatcher for the Sega CD. Once I finished and reviewed that great game, I didn't want to leave the realm of Sega CD cyberpunk graphic adventure. I kept hearing Rise of the Dragon mentioned in the same breath as Snatcher, so I decided to give it a try. Is Rise of the Dragon anywhere near Snatcher's league?

Hmm..."Blade Hunter" sounds an awful lot like a certain Ridley Scott cyberpunk movie I love

Nope. Rise of the Dragon has its moments, but contains several frustrating elements that sap the fun away. This 1993 game takes place in a 2053 Los Angeles that doesn't look much different from a slightly dystopian 1980's Los Angeles. The player takes control of William "Blade" Hunter, an ex-police officer, who now works as a private investigator. Blade is tasked by the mayor to investigate a deeply personal matter. Apparently, the mayor's hard-partying and rebellious daughter was experimenting with exotic substances, and died from a drug that mutated her into a horrid looking beast. Blade finds the Chinese Mafia was involved and must hit the streets looking for info...and also win back his angry girlfriend, Karen, who works at City Hall and can provide Blade with valuable info.

 

Turns out the fate of the world rests on you getting this lady to chill the hell out

On paper, this game should work. However, the execution is wanting. Rise of the Dragon is essentially a point-and-click adventure game. The player must pick up items for later use, solve puzzles, and navigate conversations with non-player characters to progress. An intuitive, well-designed interface is key in this type of game. It is immediately apparent that Rise of the Dragon's is neither intuitive, nor well-designed. The player must move a cursor around the screen, to navigate through an area, and to look for objects with which to interact. If the player grabs an item either from their inventory or that can be placed in inventory, but doesn't drag that item to their inventory, then accidentally leaves that area of the environment, the item leaves their inventory...sometimes permanently. And if that item is necessary to progress...the player can't progress. Yes, one wrong step, and Rise of the Dragon is hard-locked--there's NO WAY TO PROGRESS.

 

Yep, that about sums it up

Losing an item isn't the only way to suddenly render Rise of the Dragon unwinnable. Like most graphic adventure games from this era, conversations with non-player characters involve dialogue trees. Unlike most graphic adventure games from this era, telling an NPC the wrong thing can completely stop the player's ability to progress. The NPC will refuse to talk to you again, and there's literally no way to move on in the game. Rise of the Dragon does remind the player to frequently save, which can be done at any time, but the problem is, you don't alwas KNOW that you've made Rise of the Dragon unwinnable, and you might just save after you've done so...meaning your save file is basically a dead file. It's infuriating. Even with three save slots to back up your progress throughout, it's still tough to tell just where you went wrong...and naturally, this is one one of those games that gives absolutely no direction as to what you're supposed to be doing.

That's all I was looking for with this game too, Blade

As to the actual story, there's not really anything innovative or thematically deep here, just a drug lord intent on world domination. The only really futuristic element here is the mutagen drug. Most of the game's settings are dingy alleys and clubs that, as I've mentioned, just look like dingy 80's alleys and clubs. As for graphics, they're stylized and look pretty cool. The Sega CD version (this was originally a late 80's PC release) tints everything green, and while some players have reacted negatively to this, 90's sci-fi (and cyberpunk) did definitively climax with The Matrix in 1999, so I'm fine with it. As for sound, there's a lot of voice-acting, and it's overall not bad. I particularly enjoy the legendary Cam Clarke (Leonardo from TMNT, Kaneda from Akira, Liquid Snake in Metal Gear) as the snarky Blade. The music is hit and miss, a few solid tunes mixed in with some clunkers whose drum tracks sound like they're running into each other.

 

I guess this could technically be Neo's apartment

In a perfect world where certain random actions DIDN'T render Rise of the Dragon permanently unwinnable, I still don't think this would be a great game. Making progress is fun, but several of the puzzles aren't intuitive, and the game also features a timer that rushes experimentation. Yes, not only can you render the game unwinnable by making the wrong decision or losing an inventory item, but you can also run out of time! The joy from these types of games is generally in TAKING YOUR TIME, experimenting and trying to enjoy the world the game presents to the fullest. There are a few gnarly story branches in Rise of the Dragon the player can pursue and some big rewards for lateral thinking, but the time crunch, as well as the possibility of taking a dead end track you can't turn around from, discourages the player from ever discovering them!

 

Let me into this game, game!

Rise of the Dragon also attempts to throw a little variation at the player, by including several side-scrolling platformer segments into the game. Unfortunately, the controls for those segments are exceedingly clunky, and if the player hasn't done things absolutely as the game wanted early in, they're stuck using a lousy gun that makes these segments far more difficult (do things right, and you get a better one). There's also a first-person shooter moment here too that's not only a tiny blip in the overall gameplay, but easily missed if you don't take the longest possible path to the game's ending.

 

Side-scrolling blade maneuvers like a particularly unwieldy refrigerator

Overall, I do appreciate the late 80's/early 90's cyberpunk vibe here, even though there's little imagination in the worldbuilding or futuristic elements. Rise of the Dragon does feature scattered moments that are quite enjoyable, but again, the game's flaws suck most of the fun away. After rendering the game unwinnable several times early in, I nervously looked to a strategy guide to get to the end of the game, just so I wouldn't brick my progress again. That's no way to have to play a game. With just a little more thought toward player experience, Rise of the Dragon could have been a minor genre classic. Instead, it's a frustrating misfire whose positive moments aren't quite plentiful enough to lift Rise of the Dragon to hidden gem status. For me, Rise of the Dragon is just a minor curio to alleviate my Snatcher comedown.

Graphics: 6.5/10.0
Sound: 6.5/10.0
Gameplay: 4.9/10.0
Lasting Value: 4.5/10.0
Overall (Not an Average): 5.5/10.0