Dragon Buster (1985). Play online

Summary

Dragon Buster is often celebrated by retro fans for pioneering the double‑jump mechanic, a trick that later series like Super Mario Bros. would refine. It also introduced a visual vitality gauge—one of the first on-screen health meters—which gradually refilled after each level and added a subtle stamina management layer to the platforming action. The game combined side‑scrolling hack‑and‑slash stages with an overhead world‑map that let players choose different paths, a layout that foreshadowed the exploration focus of later action‑RPGs.

Built on a tweaked Namco Pac‑Land board that added vertical scrolling, the arcade cabinet felt surprisingly smooth for its time. Its success earned ports to the NES, MSX and other home systems, spreading the innovations to a broader audience even though the arcade never became a major hit in the United States.

Storyline

Dragon Buster drops you into an unnamed kingdom—later identified as Raxis in the Dragon Valor series—where an ancient legend foretells a lone warrior who will end a dragon’s reign of terror. The hero is Clovis, the son of the royal chief bodyguard, who was cast out by his father for childhood mischief and raised by a forest monk. When the dragon and its minions descend on the realm, they kidnap King Lawrence’s sixteen‑year‑old daughter, Princess Celia. Learning that he is the prophesied savior, Clovis sets out for Dragon Mountain, battling through hordes of monsters to confront the beast. His quest is to slay the dragon, rescue Celia, and restore peace to the kingdom.