Jaguar

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story

This fighting cart captures a taste of Bruce Lee's fighting flair, but it seriously needs his fighting skill. Dragon lacks fire.

Im ersten Jaguar-Beat'em-Up geht es um die Lebensgeschichte von Bruce Lee. Wie in der gleichnamigen Filmblographie wird versucht, die einzelnen Lebensabschnitte des berühmten Kung-FU-Kämpfers darzustellen. Der Spieler übernimmt dabei die Rolle des "Drachen" und kann alle Kämpfe am Joypad miterleben.

Dragon - The Bruce Lee Story had tremendous potential, but ends up being a prime example of what can happen when high-tech, 64-bit power falls into the wrong hands. Remember, the amount of power you have at your disposal is not as important as what you do with that power.

If the game were opened up, allowing for multiple characters, this would be one of the more enjoyable fighting games out there. It's not one looking for a deep combo system or traditional play. It's for the Bruce Lee fans, who would be better off with the other versions because of the control issues.

More or less your run-of-the-mill action fighter game that follows the movie. There are plenty of moves to learn and the graphics are so-so. The only problem is with the movie released a while ago, it feels like too little too late.

Dragon looks the best on the Jaguar, but not by much, and plays the worst on the Jaguar, but not by much. I'm not a fan of the fighting engine, and that's not going to change no matter what system it's on. Having to pick one of the two strongest attacks because the Jag pad was missing that extra button is a pain indeed, but most of the fault lies with a strange fighting system that favors little except your opponent. The pitiful damage you deal is like playing with a handicap on, even at the easiest level, while you're never given the controls to defend yourself or open up attacks effectively. Not much fun for those expecting to play as and fight like the martial arts icon.

There are plenty of moves, but the control scheme is incomprehensible. First off, I don't remember Bruce having a "bitch slap" move. The "option" button is supposed to toggle between fast and hard punches, but it doesn't appear to have any effect. Different fighting "modes" are available should you build up enough "Chi", but even playing on the "cupcake" skill level, I could never attain nearly enough. The fighting action is horrid, with too many evasive maneuvers that have the fighters kart-wheeling and flipping over each other. Even worse are the weak attacks that just barely chip away at your opponent's life meter. The rounds go on for an eternity, and the default number of rounds is - get this - best of nine! The story mode takes you through scenes from the film, but if you want to battle a friend, both of you are forced to play as Bruce Lee. Dragon is such a sham that it inspired my friend Scott to coin the phrase, "Life's too short for Jaguar fighting games."