Akai Ryu
Akai Ryu, or Red Dragon, is a surprisingly addictive little shooter created by Jason Reinsvold and available to play on his LostVectors website.
Use the mouse to control the red dragon, it will always follow the mouse cursor. The objective of the game is to stay alive as long as possible while shooting down all of the various enemies that come into play. Click the mouse to shoot the currently selected element straight from the dragon's mouth. Click on an element to change weapons, or use the number keys [1]..[6]. Press the [space] bar to activate spike bombs after shooting them.
What gives this game its surprising depth is that every enemy has a different strength and weakness, and you will need to learn them all to be effective. For example, the ice horse will deflect any ice shot at it, so you will have to try a different element.
The red dragon itself has its own strengths and weaknesses that must be taken into consideration as well. Its red back is resistant to fireballs and therefore any fireball hitting its back will be deflected away. Similarly, the dragon's white underside is resistant to ice and will deflect any ice that hits it. Ice and fireballs that are not deflected cause damage when the dragon comes in contact with them.
Spiked bombs will always cause damage, so it's best to avoid them altogether. Shoot any element at them to explode them at a safe distance.
Analysis: Although a rather simple shooter, Jason has done an excellent job of creating a much richer game play experience by implementing a complex set of behaviors. The result is a game that I found myself coming back to again and again. I especially liked the attention to detail seen in the animations and graphical effects, such as the falling air ships, the deflected fireballs, and the smoke trails they leave behind. The mesmerizing movement of the dragon really hooked me and pulled me in.
On the downside, the game's presentation would benefit from a more robust sound implementation, as the audio seemed only half-baked and incomplete.
Overall an unusual and original, deceptively simple game that's surprisingly fun to play. Click.
This game is the best I just hope LostVectors can release Bowmaster 2 soon. They have a website for it here.
Nifty little game nice:)
Link doesn't appear to be working...
Fixed now.
Unfortunately it seems the LostVectors site buckled from the surge in traffic generated by the review. Jason had given me permission to host the game on the JIG servers, but I linked to his page instead to help him with his own ad revenue.
Has anone worked out all the elemental counters ?
I.e. what beats who ?
Jarak
How to kill everything:
Fire (1) beats the airships (or kill the five warriors on top of it)
Meteor (3) kills most any elemental dragons (except snot)
Snot (5) kills the small wyvern (?)s with riders on them
Grease (2) kills the snot elementals
Still haven't found a use for ice (4) or steel (6), since meteor kills anything I'd consider using them on.
For enemy weaknesses, this is all I have
Most of these aren't weaknesses, they are just elements that work well against the enemies
The weaknesses I've discovered are:
thanks for the tip on using grease and fire together 10kan
I like the sounds.
Haha cool game, great graphics, and fun. It was really fun. But is it just me, or is your rating always noob?
LOL, "noob" is just your name the game enters by default. You can change it by clicking on it and typing your own. =)
Whoo! 112500.
*Probably a n00b score, but whatever*
I just meteor anything except the airships, and I fire those.
The ice seems to work well on the tiny dragon riders, and the metal dragon
120400
About 3 or 4 shots take care of most things, if you're
shooting with the thing's weakness
Monster Weakness Attack Drops
Red Dragon Ice #4 Fire 10 Flame
Red Fireball Meteor #3 Fire 20 Meteor
Black/Grease Dragon Flame #1 Spikes 10 Grease
Snot/Green Ball Grease #2 Ice 10 Snot
Bone Dragon Snot #5 Spikes 10 Spikes
Blue/Ice Dragon Meteor #3 Ice 10 Ice
Any Dragonriders Snot #5 or Flame #1
Weapon #6 is Spikes and hurts all targets for
significant damage, much like the spikes that the
monsters shoot at you. However, spikes are difficult to
use, as you need to hit Spacebar after you've shot them
to "trigger" them. If they are your most plentiful
ammo, I would use them, otherwise, no.
For the Airships, use the ammo that you have the most
of to take out the crew on top. It's best to come in on
a 45 degree angle (or more) from either side. It
usually takes two or three swoops to take everybody
out.
Black and Bone Dragons (and Airships) shoot spikes,
which cannot be deflected and must be shot down. Spikes
also hurt twice as much as Fire or Ice.
The Grease #2 and Flame #1 combo is fun to watch, but
is not too useful.
Snot attacks that hit spray snot from the target. Bits
of spray that hit something will hit for full strength,
even if the monster hit is immune to Snot.
The only problem with the above spoiler is that using the most optimal weapon every time means that the monsters usually won't get off a shot. Not only this, but they will die so fast they won't have time to pile up, which means only one monster on screen at a time. The game kinda bogs down, as nobody but the airship (which has no real weakness) can pose much of a threat. Sometimes it's cool to see what the Level 2 and 3 weapons look like, and you're not likely to get that far without knowing the weaknesses.
Actually, the pirate ship does have a weakness.
my score is 90087206 try to beat that oh i for got to submint it but still try to beat it
135700 is my score, to deflect fire
man i could never get a score like these i just wouldnt play this game that long
This game is kind of fun, but I dont like the controls because you move the dragon by moving the mouse. But you also fire things by clicking the mouse and it gets annoying when the dragon is moving towards the thing that i'm trying to shoot!
spoiler below
Update