Flying Dragon (Nintendo 64, 1998)

Product Specs

Description

"Hiryu no Ken!" If Street Fighter II comes to mind, that shouldn't be a surprise. In this game's context, however, it is used as the name of the Japanese version of this game. Natsume, which is best known for its Harvest Moon series, is responsible for bringing Culture Brain's distinctly Japanese-style fighting game to American gamers. Flying Dragon is two fighting games in one with its "SD Hiryu" and "Virtual Hiryu" modes. Over 20 different characters can be found between the modes, with a few characters appearing in both styles. The SD Hiryu, or Super Deformed, fighting mode features unrealistically small anime-style characters. It also features a role-playing fighting system. Each character can have four items equipped -- one offensive, one defensive, and two special -- to help in his or her match. As you progress through the game, these "treasure items" can be powered-up and can evolve. You also can acquire other treasures -- which affect your attack, defense, medicine, and special attributes -- from a list of over 200 different items. The following modes are available within the SD Hiryu portion: Circuit Mode, which is an alternating series of battles to win special medals and items; Versus Mode, which allows you to play against a human opponent, using data saved on the Controller Pak; Tournament Mode, which consists of tiered matches against eight human or computer players; Group Battle, which is combat between two teams of up to five characters; Treasure Box, which is where you can view, exchange, purchase, and sell treasures; and Practice, which contains many different training modes. The other fighting system within Flying Dragon, the Virtual Hiryu mode, is a fighting simulator with more human-like contestants. You can choose from 2D or 3D. The traditional 2D mode doesn't allow sidestepping. The modern 3D mode allows sidestepping and includes additional special moves. Instead of gaining items to strengthen your character, the main goal of this mode is to advance your fighting technique on a ranking system. Virtual Hiryu contains the following play modes: Circuit, Versus, Tournament, Group, Ranking List and Practice. In the Circuit mode, you're trying to advance up the Ranking List, which goes from 10 Kyu (beginner) to 1 Kyu (amateur) for white belts and from 1 Dan (pro) to 10 Dan (expert) for black belts. You're ranked by the skills you demonstrate in the areas of attack, defense, stamina, combos, time and more. The other modes are identical to their SD Hiryu counterparts. Both of Flying Dragon's fighting modes are completely customizable, allowing for unique fighting experiences. The game takes 47 pages out of 123 on the Controller Pak to save data, which comes mostly from the SD Hiryu mode. It also supports the Rumble Pak to feel the impact of each hit.