1UP's Preview: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire

[kiraevo]

1UP's Preview: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire
We try on the Dragon Powers of this Wii game for size.

Fight fire with fire? This goes against all elemental rules in every videogame ever, but as the hero in Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire, you'll be using the fiery powers of dragons to wipe evil beast-men off the planet. Through five worlds of four levels each, you'll quest for the six pieces of the legendary dragon blade. Each mini-boss you defeat in a level adds a new dragon bit to your collection, which you then use to slay a huge dragon at the end of each world.

For most standard enemies, though, you'll want to use your sword to keep the Dragon Power meter filled. The Wii Remote controls are basically just what you would do in real life (that is, if you were a swordsman). So if you want to slice your sword from side to side, stab, or slash up and down, you just make the analogous motion and the character on-screen does the same.



This works with your dragon parts, as well. With both dragon claws out, making a clapping motion will box the enemy's ears, while bringing your hands together and swinging downward will pound your foes into the ground. The fire breathing head and the dragon wing's dash attack are cool looking, but we found the tail (whip) to be most effective, because it has the simplest motion to pull off for a really good ranged attack.

During our hands-on time with an early build of the game, we got to test out all the dragon powers while wandering around slaying beast-men. One dragon boss we saw -- the three-headed metal/electric dragon, Norgiloth -- magnetically charged the floor as his defense, so while we weren't harmed by the shocks, we did need to hit one of the many switches scattered around the room to neutralize the current before we could hurt him. After hacking away, primarily with the whip, which we had just unlocked in that world, we uncovered a weak point -- three of those, and the monster went down for good. You might expect dragons to come with a typical medieval setting, but fantasy author Richard Knaak and D3 Publisher have aimed at something with a little more Asian flavor. Dragon Blade looks to reach the arcade-action goal, but we'll see this September whether there's enough variety there to keep it interesting all the way through.

Source: Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire Wii Preview, Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire Preview

[brockly]

now that game looks fun ... nice eye candy. but dose the game have meat to it ???