‘DragonStrike’ – The Dragonlance Combat Simulator
Sharpen your lance and grab your radar orb; it’s time again to jump into way back machine as we take a look at the 1990 D&D video game, DragonStrike.
Released in 1990 by Westwood Associates and Strategic Simulations, Inc., DragonStrike was a Dungeons and Dragons-flavored flight simulator with elements of a role-playing game sprinkled in.
You played as a knight-flying dragon back to fight armies of enemy dragons, manticores, and gas spores armed mainly with a lance and a crystal radar ball, but a handful of other magical items as well. True to D&D fashion, the dragon isn’t a helpless steed, armed with its own bite and claw attacks as well as the infamous breath weapon. And honestly, that’s just about it.
There is a plot, but it’s loose and a minor part of the game overall; more of an excuse for you to be lancing dragons while riding a dragon in different locations than a story to immerse yourself in.
DragonStrike takes place on Krynn during the War of the Lance and your character is a greener knight. You spend the game taking on missions to prove yourself and earn more powerful dragons and more chances to excel. Interestingly, the choices you make and which dragon you chose dictates which missions you go on. This adds some nice variance to the game. It’s not a huge role-playing aspect. But, the small influence you can take over your character’s story is a nice touch
Gameplay gives you control over your dragon’s direction and elevation. The graphics are pretty nice up close and get cheesier and cheesier as the object gets farther away. This is to say that your dragon looks great and a monster near enough to engage with probably looks pretty good too. But, anything farther away is a collection of pixels or basic shapes that eventually morph into recognizable creatures. In 2020, it would be bad even as a phone game, but in 1990 it would have been fairly impressive.
DragonStrike was a simple game, but that’s not a bad thing. Simple games are a cornerstone of gaming. I can personally play Centipede or Tetris for hours at a time without so much as a thought. So, a game like DragonStrike can be downright addictive.
DragonStrike earned a lot of praise as a fun and innovative way to merge fantasy and strategic simulation games. Unfortunately, this didn’t equate to sales and DragonStrike only sold about 34,000 copies. Some say, however, that this was an underappreciated game in its time and deserves a remake. Is there a rebirth and future for DragonStrike? Only time will tell.
