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The King of Dragons; the best Capcom beat em up nobody seems to remember

VGEsoterica

Member
It's interesting when it comes to gaming and large developers like Capcom, Konami, Sega or Namco....they were all prolific makers of games and they had a ton of hits...which seemingly means some of their best output almost feels forgotten about by most people.

That's 100% what feels like what happened to The King of Dragons. It's just an absolutely incredible beat em up that can stand toe to toe in my opinion with Final Fight, AvP or The Punisher...yet its one of Capcom's arcade games that rarely gets mentioned in any list of "best beat em ups of all time"

You can 100% see how Capcom used the formula of The King of Dragons to make the two D&D games that came out on the CPS 2 (Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara) as the light RPG and upgrade system in those two games is borrowed whole cloth from The King of Dragons...which is a good thing!

But it got me thinking...what other games are legit amazing that time seems to have forgotten about? Because I can think of a few but I always love learning new game suggestions from Gaf people I may not have encountered yet
 

TintoConCasera

I bought a sex doll, but I keep it inflated 100% of the time and use it like a regular wife
I remember trying out this game long ago. IIRC you can use the shield to cover yourself, which I think was a very cool mechanic and helped making the game less button-mashy.
 

sloppyjoe_gamer

Gold Member
Animated GIF


lol sorry to admit i have no clue what this game is.....i'll have to check it out!
 

fallingdove

Member
Loved this game back in the day. I think it was forgotten because Capcom and Konami were releasing so many of these at the time.

Knights of the Round which came out a couple months after King of Dragons feels closer to what we got with the D&D games.

The final form of King of Dragons + Knights of the Round was Red Earth. 😄
 

Neff

Member
I have this on cart. It's pretty simplistic compared to their other belt scrollers but it's really fun.
 
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Nautilus

Banned
I thought I was alone loving The King Of Dragons!

One of the best, if not the best, beat em ups of all time!Both the Beat em up collection just to replay that masterpiece.

Here's hoping that Capcom makes a sequel one day.
 

yurinka

Member
It's one of the worst (or less good) Capcom beat'em ups. Seems the OP VGEsoterica VGEsoterica didn't read the 'Winners don't take drugs' messages of the arcades.

Final Fight, Alien vs Predator, the two DnD games, Cadillacs & Dinosaurs, Captain Commando... Capcom has many beat'em ups that are better than this one.
 
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VGEsoterica

Member
You spelled Magic Sword wrong.
Haha but that game feels totally different. Sure it’s a beat em up but it’s on a single plane of movement. So while I absolutely love Magic Sword and did a video on it...it still feels mechanically different enough to not compare it to The King of Dragons
 

MagiusNecros

Gilgamesh Fan Annoyance
Haha but that game feels totally different. Sure it’s a beat em up but it’s on a single plane of movement. So while I absolutely love Magic Sword and did a video on it...it still feels mechanically different enough to not compare it to The King of Dragons
Yeah I get it. Magic Sword, King of Dragons, and both DnD(Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara) beat em up games by Capcom are some of my favorites of all time.

I always prefer Magic Sword for some reason.
 

Old Retro

Member
That era of Capcom fantasy beat em ups is blending into each other for me, or I am losing my memory. 👵 I thought King of Dragons, Magic Sword, and Knights of the Round were the same game. Although I remember playing Magic Sword and BaseBall Stars in the same arcade a ton till SFII was released.
 
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Isa

Gold Member
Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder. Never got ported from arcade and is mostly forgotten about but it was the real sequel to Golden Axe.
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My favorite beat'em up ever right there! Dora is my main all day every day. I imported that little Astro City arcade emulator thing just so I could have it available to play anywhere lol. My girlfriend loved it too.

On a side note in regards to Capcom's DnD games, I recently found out about their Puzzles and Dragons game for arcades and PS2 collection. There is a lot of artistic similarity between the two games, and I really dig the style they both have. But anyway, I noticed that the warrior chic uses the same scream the Elf does in the Mystara games. Or one of those lady screaming samples lol. Game looked really cool, I'd love to play it one day, but it'll probably have to be emulation since Capcom doesn't want my money.
 

jshackles

Gentlemen, we can rebuild it. We have the capability to make the world's first enhanced store. Steam will be that store. Better than it was before.
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Seriously though, I played through this in the newest Capcom beat-em-up game (for the first time ever, weirdly enough) and fuckin loved it.
 
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Saber

Gold Member
Never heard of it, I'm afraid.

At the time my greatest joys were Cadillac and Dinosaurs, which I believe is the best beat up ever.
 
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Kuranghi

Member
Looks great! I've been meaning to play Knights of the Round and Revenge of Death Adder since I saw them in the Capcom logo arcade stick thingie. I have a friend whose attention span doesn't last much more than the length of an arcade beat em up so they are perfect.
 
Looks like a good game. Me and my roommate have been playing old beat em ups on the raspberry pi recently. Going to have to add this on the to play list.
 
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Ozzie666

Member
The SNES port of this game was actually really good. I also like their other game Knights of the Round, both very under rated and came out to little fanfare at the time. Very little hype for either. Both got decent ports.
 
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VGEsoterica

Member
Looks great! I've been meaning to play Knights of the Round and Revenge of Death Adder since I saw them in the Capcom logo arcade stick thingie. I have a friend whose attention span doesn't last much more than the length of an arcade beat em up so they are perfect.
You are def gonna enjoy Death Adder
 

Dev1lXYZ

Member
It’s one of my favorites. It’s deeper than you think, which is what makes it great. I also have the Astro City mini and enjoy Golden Axe: Revenge of Death Adder. The SNES port was pretty damn good. It’s also way easier than the arcade game as it’s tuned to be a console game. Knights of The Round is also up there in greatness.

Now, other games like D&D are far more technical. That shit is too technical actually and for me gets in the way. It’s flashy and fun, but not as distilled. AvP and Battle Circuit are also cool, but use elements from Street Fighter that in my opinion, fall flat. When they were made SF2 and fighting games were all the rage, and it just hasn’t aged well gameplay wise,
 
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I'd thought about making a 30th anniversary thread (CPS1) for it but felt I couldn't do it justice so I guess this will do.

The legendary Yoko Shimomura was behind the soundtrack and it is fantastic (duh!) but the SNES port later in 1994 really makes it shine with the drumwork being done justice and the rest of the instruments being phat as well.

It's a pity that I've only ever found one good arrangement of the music and it doesn't cover the amazing first boss theme (my favourite of the lot).


Spritework is excellent throughout and it's a very colourful affair. Beyond the lovely visuals and audio, what I really like about the game is its brisk pace, no-frills gameplay and that opening warcry on every level (HOOOO!).

Regular enemies don't feel like damage sponges, your regular attack feels good and before you get bored you're facing a boss or bosses and then it's off to another different, yet beautiful locale. By the end of the game it'll feel like you've gone on an eventful quest with all the variety.

Basically, instead of seeing a bunch of combos flying left and right with up to two other partners, you're all just mowing baddies down with good positioning and timing.

TL;DR: it's an epic journey.

Little tidbit: The director of this game was working on what would go on to be Street Fighter III: New Generation. There's a good read at Polygon about SFIII for anyone interested.
It's a bit of a complicated story, but [Tomoshi] Sadamoto, the director of The King of Dragons, initially conceived of making an original fighting game that wasn't part of the Street Fighter series.
- Akira Yasuda

Edit: Corrected CPS number.
Edit 2: Added a short clip.
 
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SunlitSword

Neo Member
The King of Dragons is a fine game.

1. Dragon's Crown (one of my GOATs)

2. Dungeons & Dragons Shadow of Mystara

3. Muramasa Rebirth

4. Odin Sphere

5. Golden Axe or The King of Dragons

Though not a beat em up, a true hidden gem is Grand Knight History by Vanillaware. Unfortunately it was only released in Japan.
 

xiseerht

Member
It is one of the best . It is easily in my top five all time. Right behind Dungeons & Dragons Shadow of Mystara
 
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