A Namco vertical shoot'em up with a mythological dragon. The extra-head power-ups are a delight. Polished visuals, well-measured challenge. An excellent overlooked shooter in the NES catalogue.
Your verdict
Category
Shooter1 player7+
Description
Vertical shoot-'em-up featuring a flying dragon breathing fire and lightning against enemy armies. Published by Namco, released in Japan in 1987. Dragon in top-down view breathing fireballs and lightning, transformation into larger dragon power-ups and massive bosses. Famicom port of Namco's Dragon Spirit arcade.
Namcot's Famicom port of the vertical arcade shooter, with modifications and a mode unique to the Japanese version. The cart is paradoxically more interesting than the US release thanks to that exclusive additional content. Boxed CIB with intact Namco cardboard sleeve remains a Namcot collector target, and the cote climbs in parallel with the Switch Namcot Collection inclusion, which has not quenched physical demand.
Is Dragon Spirit - Aratanaru Densetsu still worth playing in 2026?
Dragon Spirit - The New Legend, also Aratanaru Densetsu in Japan, is Namco's mythological vertical shooter where you fly a dragon. The power-ups that grow extra heads are a delightful signature, the visuals are polished and the challenge sits well-tuned for the genre. The NES port slightly reorganises the arcade structure and stays approachable. Still an excellent overlooked shooter in the NES catalogue today.
