Review - I played Dragon Unit (aka Castle of Dragon ) for the first time on the Famicom and only now I had a chance to finally play the original board.

As I suspected, there are some significant differences between the two versions. For one thing, the graphics are much better in the Arcade game. The level of detail is much higher, sprites are bigger and backgrounds are richer both in terms of detail and colors. Enemies and bosses also look definitely much better.

What isn't exactly exciting though is the overall speed of the main character (although it can be increased by getting the boots) and the animations which are a bit lacking.

Interestingly, the music is also very different from the famicom version as it features an excellent metal soundtrack that gives a pretty unique feel to the game. Oddly, medieval hack'n'slash action goes well with this kind of music!

As far as gameplay is concerned, here again there are some noticeable differences. Specifically there is an additional button to duck and most of the levels can be played in the foreground and the background. There are basically 2 fields of play and you'll be often going back and forth from one plane to the other to get items and kill enemies. Also, the level layout isn't carbon-copy as the Famicom port has more levels.

Now that we have seen the main differences between the arcade game and the famicom game, which one is better you might be wondering? Well, despite the better audio-visuals, the arcade game is less enjoyable since it really is just a side-scrolling fighter whereas the famicom adaptation is what I like to call an “action-adventure” game maybe a bit similar to games such as Shadow of the Beast or ShapeShifter.

This means that gameplay is somewhat richer as there are a certain number of platforming sections and a few RPG elements (such as killing the last boss with the appropriate weapon) missing from the original.

Also in the famicom port, the difficulty curve is more balanced and it is overall more challenging (and rewarding).

To conclude, the original Castle of Dragon is a nice, if a bit limited, early fantasy beat' em up. It 's worth playing to enjoy the nice audio-visuals but for the real challenge, I would recommend the Famicom version. Sure it looks poorer but gameplay is definitely a step above!

Bottom line: a pleasant side-scrolling fantasy fighting game exslusive to the arcades. 7/10