A Namco vertical shoot'em up with a mythological dragon. The extra-head power-ups are a delight. Polished visuals, well-measured challenge. An excellent overlooked shooter in the NES catalogue.
Your verdict
Category
Shooter1 player7+
Description
Vertical shoot-'em-up featuring a flying dragon breathing fire and lightning against enemy armies. Published by Namco, released in Japan in 1987. Dragon in top-down view breathing fireballs and lightning, transformation into larger dragon power-ups and massive bosses. Famicom port of Namco's Dragon Spirit arcade.
Dragon Spirit - Aratanaru Densetsu review
4/5
Art direction
★★★★★
"Striking"
3/5
Music
★★★★★
"Memorable"
2/5
Story
★★★★★
"Classic"
Namco flies a dragon rather than a ship, which changes the whole vocabulary of the vertical shooter: beating wings, a shadow cast on the ground, extra heads growing as bonuses accumulate. The overflown scenery, swamps, volcanoes, sunken ruins, keeps natural tints that contrast with the bright colours of the projectiles.
Namcot's Famicom port of the vertical arcade shooter, with modifications and a mode unique to the Japanese version. The cart is paradoxically more interesting than the US release thanks to that exclusive additional content. Boxed CIB with intact Namco cardboard sleeve remains a Namcot collector target, and the cote climbs in parallel with the Switch Namcot Collection inclusion, which has not quenched physical demand.
Is Dragon Spirit - Aratanaru Densetsu still worth playing in 2026?
Dragon Spirit - The New Legend, also Aratanaru Densetsu in Japan, is Namco's mythological vertical shooter where you fly a dragon. The power-ups that grow extra heads are a delightful signature, the visuals are polished and the challenge sits well-tuned for the genre. The NES port slightly reorganises the arcade structure and stays approachable. Still an excellent overlooked shooter in the NES catalogue today.
