The King of Dragons (Japan 910805, B-Board 89625B-1)

Arcade Video game published 33 years ago:

The King of Dragons (c) 1991 Capcom Company, Limited.

The King of Dragons is a horizontally-scrolling hack 'n' slash beat-em-up for up to three players who must travel through the kingdom of Malus, defeating the army of monsters who have invaded their world, before finally defeating their leader, the red dragon Gildiss.

The game's controls consist of a single attack button and a jump button. By pressing both buttons simultaneously, the character will unleash a magical attack that strikes all on-screen enemies at once, with the trade-off that each time a special attack is executed, some of the player's health is lost.

King of Dragons features a level advancement system. Points scored for killing monsters and picking up gold count towards experience and the character gains levels at regular intervals. With each level, the character's health bar increases and other attributes, such as attack range, are also improved. At the point of levelling up, the character is also invulnerable for a few seconds. Along the way, different weapon and armour upgrades can be picked up.

Player can choose from five playable characters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses:
* The Fighter is very good with melee attacks and defense but lacks magical ability.
* The Dwarf can dodge and block attacks, has decent melee attacks but little magic ability.
* The Elf is agile and uses his bow for ranged attacks but is not physically strong.
* The Cleric has good defense, melee attacks and magic (and can heal his comrades) but poor agility.
* The Wizard has poor defense but very good magical attacks and fast melee attacks.

The fighter, cleric and dwarf can also use their shield to block certain attacks by tilting the joystick back right before the impact. The King of Dragons features sixteen stages of play.

- TECHNICAL -

Capcom Play System Hardware (CP-S)
B-Board #: 89625B-1

Players: Up to 3 simultaneous
Control per player: 8-Way Joystick
Buttons per player: 2
=> [1] Attack, [2] Jump

- TRIVIA -

The King of Dragons was released in July 1991 in the Japanese arcades. It was known there as the 15th video game made for this system.

Known re-release: "The King of Dragons [B-Board 90629B-3]"

Derek, Ravel, Leger, Vargas and Aldo all returned in the Japan-only release Capcom World 2.

Pony Canyon / Scitron released a limited-edition soundtrack album for this game (Captain Commando : G.S.M. Capcom 5 - PCCB-00083) on March 21, 1992.

- TIPS AND TRICKS -

* Strange Item :
Ice Star : sometimes in 2P mode at second stage, an ice star appears after breaking the wood cask. It seems it only restores energy like a fruit.
Gold Gauntlet : sometimes at fourth stage, a gold gauntlet appears after breaking the second-last chest. It seems useless.
Cutpurse's Sack : it's a small sack with a light blue question mark that is dropped by Cutpurses after they get hit during the game. A hidden trick or simply a Capcom's joke?

* Gaining extra points :
1) Eat a fruit or a elixir at full energy: this gives 5000 experience points.
2) Hit flying objects like wolves archers arrows, skeletons lances and knights archers arrows.
3) Hit Cutpurse : they take away items like gold's sacks, rubys, pearls, gems, diamonds and fruits.
4) Kill all the green lizard spearmen during the battle with the Wyvern at fourteenth stage (they can release a lot of diamonds or precious).
5) Hit Gildiss fireballs : some of these turns into green apples that at full full energy gives 5000 experience points each-one.
6) Don't use magic attacks or magic crystals at bosses : these kinds of attacks are incredibly more powerful than normal attacks so a boss needs many less hits to kill him.

* BOSSES and POWER-UP WEAPON STRATEGY : middle or end level bosses give experience points for each hit taken while normal monsters give experience points ONLY when they die (it has no matter how strong is the attack, they give ALWAYS the same experience points).
- With Elf, Fighter, Cleric and Dwarf : DON'T power-up your weapon during the game and ALWAYS use the LEVEL-1 WEAPON. So a boss needs many more hits to kill him (remember? more hits > more experience points). To gain extra point it has no matter if character power-up or not bow (for Elf) or shield (for Fighter, Cleric and Dwarf).
- With Wizard : DON'T power-up your weapon during the game and use the LEVEL-1 WEAPON until the wizard can take the LEVEL-5 WEAPON (a wood staff with metal headpiece and red gem/orange flame). This weapon isn't much powerful but a singular attack to a boss increases three times the experience points for each hit.

* INFINITE WOLVES ARCHERS TRICK: At the beginning of the sixth stage on the beach, don't go forward but wait. After a few seconds a blue wolf archer appears and after you kill him, another appears then another one in sequence (then two wolves at a time, then three at a time and then four at a time) to infinity. One single wolf is equal to 1300 experience points, so the player can accumulate points and win a life every 450k points. If the player wants to squeeze millions of points he has to kill wolves very fast and win a life before the timer reaches zero. Then after he rises again with a new life, he starts again to kill wolves and repeats in the same method.
- In the early 'World revision' (July 1991). (Time doesn't run faster when the 'GO cursor' is flashing, so player can kill wolves without going forward (but he isn't forced to do it).
- In the World, Japanese (August 1991) and US revision (September 1991): Time runs faster when the 'GO cursor' is flashing, so the player is forced to go forward step by step, kill a pair of wolves and before the next 'GO cursor' is flashing once, go forward step by step again (this method is very hard).

ADDITIONAL NOTES : Each character has a maximum of 24 level-up during all the game. This means a full bar of energy with 96 Health Point.

- STAFF -

Music Composer: Yoko Shimomura
Other staffs: Chin, Tomoshi, Tolaya, Gyo, Shimopi, HK, Yama, Mikiman, Miyao, Iwai, SSS, Mizuho, Hayashi, Manbou, Guych, Dany, Blbon, Ogachy, Hirabe, Wakio

- PORTS -

* CONSOLES:
[JP] Nintendo Super Famicom (mar.4, 1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SHVC-EI]"
[US] Nintendo SNES (apr.1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SNS-EI-USA]"
[EU] Nintendo SNES (aug.1994) "The King of Dragons [Model SNSP-EI-NOE]"
[US] Microsoft XBOX (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2"
[US] Sony PS2 (nov.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLUS-21473]"
Sony PlayStation 2 [AU] (apr.11, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]"
[EU] Sony PS2 (apr.13, 2007) "Capcom Classics Collection Vol. 2 [Model SLES-54561]"

* HANDHELDS:
[JP] Sony PSP (sept.7, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection [Model ULJM-05104]"
[US] Sony PSP (oct.24, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULUS-10134]"
[EU] Sony PSP (nov.10, 2006) "Capcom Classics Collection Reloaded [Model ULES-00377]"