The King of Dragons is one of the Best Beat’em Ups on the SNES

The King of Dragons feels a beat’em up inspired by Gauntlet and Dungeons and Dragons. Much like Knights of the Round, The King of Dragons was released by Capcom in the arcades in 1991. It would be ported to the SNES in 1994.

I wonder why Capcom waited to port this game to the SNES. The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round were three years old when they made it to the home console. Interestingly, they didn’t make it to the Sega Genesis.

This is one of the best beat’em ups on the SNES. I wish I had played it earlier and in the arcades. It is a great game.

TLDR: The King of Dragons is a fantastic beat’em up and one of the better SNES games.

Narrative

The story is very simple. The Red Dragon Gildiss is attacking the Kingdom of Malus, and it is up to the player to defeat him. Some cutscenes give the player more information about what is happening, but it is all about Gildiss attacking people. The story is okay.

Gameplay

This is a standard beat’em up. The leveling system, five playable characters, and beautiful graphics are what separates it from a crowded field. Capcom did a fantastic job with this game, and the SNES port is excellent.

There are five characters you can choose from. This makes it one of the bigger rosters for a beat’em ups:

• Fighter
• Cleric
• Dwarf
• Elf
• Wizard

The King of Dragons has a leveling system to it. A character’s weapons and armor get upgraded during the game. It is really cool when beat’em ups do this.

You can level up by collecting points through the game. It is nice that this game rewards you for getting points. You can also get items that increase your character’s attack and defense. There is also a visual change to your character when you pick these items up.

Like other beat’em ups, there are some items that you can pick up during the game. There are the standard health and bonus points. There are also five crystals you can get:

• Meteor – Attacks enemies with a meteor
• Thunder – Launches a thunder attack
• Fire Wall
• Frog – Turns enemies into frogs
• Crystal – Turns enemies into crystals

At its core, this is a standard beat’em up. You move to the right, the screen locks until all enemies are defeated, and you fight a boss and mini-boss during the level. Each boss has a pattern you need to learn, and your tactics will change depending on the character you choose.

Each character has a superattack. These are limited attacks that don’t take some of your life away when you use them. I like this better, but the game only gives you one attack per life, which is a little disappointing. That is where the magic crystals come in.

The game slowly gets more difficult as you advance. You also get stronger, so some enemies don’t feel overwhelming. I like it when games do this.  

The gameplay is very good for an early 1990s beat’em up. The King of Dragons has everything you should expect from a beat’em up, and Capcom did an excellent job. I also like the fact that this is a two-player game.

Visuals

This is a very good-looking game. The sprites were reduced from the arcade, which is an understandable change when bringing an arcade game to the home console. While it isn’t as detailed, it does look very good for the time.

The character sprites look great for the home console. When you get upgrades for weapons and armor, it looks great. I like seeing how characters get stronger as the game goes on.

I like how the enemies look, especially the bosses. While the regular enemies have many pallet swaps, they still look good, and this is an understandable limitation for a game of this period. The bosses are big and look fantastic.

Cutscenes are used to explain what is happening in the game. They look okay but aren’t anything special. They use in-game graphics, and a textbox pops up to give you some information. You can ignore them as they don’t add much to the game from a story or visual standpoint.

The graphics are excellent. The King of Dragons is a wonderful looking SNES game. If you want to see what the arcade game looks like, you can check it out on the Capcom Beat’em Up Bundle or one of the other Capcom arcade compilations.

9/10. Excellent graphics, great gameplay, and it is fun to play. Despite the changes to the arcade game, this is still one of the better beat’em ups on the SNES. I like it as much as Knights of the Round.

Pros

• Great Graphics
• Excellent Gameplay
• Lots of Playable Characters

Cons

• Repetitive
• Short game

Conclusion

The King of Dragons is a beautiful game. I like it as much as Knights of the Round. I like both of these games more than the Final Fight games.

Playing these games on the SNES was the only way for me to experience them back in the 1990s. Unfortunately, I didn’t have an arcade near me, and I wasn’t exactly following video game releases when I was 10. It is one of the things that is often forgotten when people talk about retro games on the internet.

No one knew about every game that was released, and not everyone had a subscription to Nintendo Power or another video game magazine. I learned about video games from my friend group. If they hadn’t told me about them, I would never have known about them.

The King of Dragons is a game I wish I had known about in the 1990s or 2000s. I first read about the game in Pat Contri’s Ultimate Guide to the SNES. I’m glad I did because it is a wonderful beat’em up.