Panzer Dragoon meets Virtua Fighter

So, what's up guys (and girl, hi Hex)? Been playing a lot? Hope so. Well, for me, I haven't played as I much as I'd like lately, and in the near future that probably won't change. Between studying for my driving licence and working for PTGamers, now more than ever (trying to convince those guys to give me a job there someday), my Saturn has been quite quiet (<-nice succession of words, isn't it?). Despite this I had the time to play a unique fighting game lately that I'm pretty sure most of you won't recognize.
It's name is Elan Doree, a Japan-exclusive arcade port of a fighting game different from everything you've seen before (and after, I don't recall seeing any game even remotely similar to this). Anyway, in most fighting games you control petty humans (now I sound like that alien from Futurama...), and there are even some where you control robots, animals, cars, palm trees, etc... Well, in Elan Doree you do control humans, or something like it, but they're mounted on top of dragons! Now, how cool is that? Really cool? Or Fonzie cool? "Aaay!"

Anyway, now that I've explained the title, let's talk about gameplay! I have unfortunate news, though, for the controls are too simplistic for they're own good. You just have 3 main buttons: attack 1 (quick but weak), attack 2 (slow but powerful) and jump, which you can combine with the attack buttons to make a jump attack. Also, if you press the 2 attack buttons at once you do a special attack that, if done well, can take up to half of your opponent's energy bar. Now, that's a lot!



You need to be careful, though, because this special attack takes time, and if you're interrupted you'll loose your chance (you can't do it everytime you want).

And that's it, those are the actions you can do. Of course there are other things you have to take in consideration, like the fact that you can move in every direction (you are, after all, flying) and that you can get knocked off your dragon (specially when jumping, and until your back on top of your beast you'll be more vulnerable), but overall this game is really too simplistic, and if you have a good timing you can win almost any matches by just using 2 special attacks and 1 or 2 normal attacks in between.



This makes for a very short game, because once you've completed the arcade mode with one character you'll feel like you've already seen it all. There's 2 hidden characters you can unlock, but it's like the palm tree in Fighters Megamix, not worth it unless you're a real fan of the game.



At least the graphics will appeal to everyone, and even shut a few mouths that said the Saturn couldn't handle effects like transparencies. All the fighters, along with their dragons, were modelled with great detail and all are well animated. Even the backgrounds deserve a mention for their quality.


So, is this game worth it or not? Well, if you're a dragon lover like me you should try this game, but if you're just looking for a quality beat'em up there's plenty other titles better than this one.