Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (video game)

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a fighting video game developed and originally published by Virgin Interactive Entertainment in Europe for the Sega Genesis on June 1994.[1] It is based on the Universal Pictures' 1993 film of the same name, which is a semi-fictionalized account of the life of Hong Kong-American actor and martial artist Bruce Lee. Following the events of the movie, players take control of Bruce Lee across several stages that takes places in different time periods of his life and fight against some of his adversaries.

This article is about the 1994 video game. For the 1993 film of the same name, see Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story. For other uses, see Dragon (disambiguation).

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story
North American Sega Genesis cover art
Developer(s)Virgin Interactive Entertainment
Publisher(s)
Director(s)Colin Gordon
Producer(s)Daniel Marchant
Designer(s)Daniel Marchant
Ian Mathias
John Palmer
Programmer(s)Dave Chapman
Ronald Pieket-Weeserik
Artist(s)Jon Green
Mark Anthony
Mark Smith
Composer(s)Allister Brimble
Platform(s)Atari Jaguar, Game Gear, Master System, Sega Genesis, Super NES
Release
Genre(s)Fighting
Mode(s)Single-player, co-op, multiplayer (up to two players)

Initially released for Sega platforms, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was later ported to the Atari Jaguar and Super Nintendo Entertainment System, each one featuring several changes and additions compared with the original version while both the Game Gear and Master System versions, which were also released in 1994, feature an entirely different gameplay format.

Since its release, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story garnered mixed reception from critics across North American and European regions between each version. The original Sega Genesis release received mixed to positive reception from reviewers who praised the graphics and audio but criticized the slow-paced and unoriginal gameplay. Both the Game Gear and Master System versions were met with an equally mixed reception, receiving praise for the visuals but criticized for the repetitive and slow gameplay. The Jaguar port was also met with a mixed but slightly more positive response from reviewers who were divided in regards to the visuals and audio, with some feeling that it did not improved upon from the 16-bit versions, while the Super Nintendo conversion got mixed reception as well. A conversion for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was planned but never released.

Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot of the Sega Genesis version.

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story is a fighting game where players assume control of Bruce Lee and must defeat the sailor from the dance in Hong Kong, the chefs from the Chinese Restaurant in San Francisco, the martial arts master who challenges Lee, amongst others adversaries through his life to progress further in the title, recalling major action scenes from the film.[2][3][4] However, the video game adaptation leaves out valuable plot information from the film and most of the romantic content between Bruce Lee and his future wife. Players can use a variety of martial arts moves to defeat their enemies and build up a chi meter, which can help unleash special moves on their opponents. The players have three continues, and if lost, they must fight The Phantom (the personification of Bruce's fear who takes the form of an armored Japanese Samurai) to continue, though he is near invincible. They face The Phantom Samurai again at the end as a final boss.

The game features supports for up to three players simultaneously, playing through the game co-operatively, or against each other in a battle mode. Characters other than Bruce Lee are not playable, and so the additional players only control clones of Lee, differentiated by different colored trousers.

Development and release

The producer for the video game adaptation of Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story, Daniel Marchant, stated in a 1993 interview with Mean Machines Sega that the team was against the idea of creating a beat 'em up project similar to Streets of Rage 2 and they instead opted in developing a fighting title that was more in the lines of Capcom's Street Fighter II: The World Warrior.[5] The sprite work for each characters consists of 100 frames of animation and the music was done by composer Allister Brimble.[5][6]

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story was first released for Sega platforms in 1994 on Europe including the Genesis, Game Gear and Master System, while each version of the game were developed internally at Virgin Interactive Entertainment.[1] The Genesis version was also released on Australia during the same year, then in North America the next year where both it and the Game Gear version were published by Acclaim Entertainment instead, and later in Brazil as well by Tectoy. The first console port to be released outside of Europe was the Atari Jaguar conversion on 28 November 1994, which was published by Atari Corporation instead of Virgin and/or Acclaim, and this version was also released in Japan by Messe Sansao on July 1995.[7][8][9] The second console port to be released was for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System on 23 February 1995 in Europe and later in North America on July of the same year, becoming both the last version of the game to be officially released and the final version developed by the original team.[10] A version for the 3DO Interactive Multiplayer was planned but never released.[11][12]

Both the Sega Genesis and the later Super Nintendo port are similar but have a number of key differences between each other besides visuals and audio such as the latter having a new introductory sequence upon starting the game, a missing intermission sequence before a bonus stage after completing two levels, among other changes. The Atari Jaguar version plays like the previous 16-bit version and contains the same game modes but has considerably more frames of animation than the Super NES and Genesis versions without running any slower that results in smoother animation, redrawn visuals, higher color palette for both stages and sprites, as well as a higher quality soundtrack. However, the Jaguar version lacks the introduction and intermission cutscenes between stages and since its release predates the launch of the Team Tap adapter, it only supports up to two players. Although the Genesis, Jaguar and SNES versions are a one-on-one fighting title, both 8-bit versions are a hybrid beat 'em up/platform game instead and the only difference between the Game Gear and Master System versions is mainly screen resolution.

Reception
Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator Scores
Genesis Game Gear Master System Jaguar SNES
GameRankings 60%[13] N/A N/A 40%[14] 69.50%[15]
Review scores
Publication Scores
Genesis Game Gear Master System Jaguar SNES
AllGame [16] [17] N/A [18] [19]
Atari Gaming Headquarters N/A N/A N/A 4 / 10[20] N/A
Computer and Video Games 75 / 100[11] 60 / 100[11] N/A N/A 84 / 100[11]
Electronic Gaming Monthly N/A 24 / 40[21] N/A 22 / 50[22] N/A
Entertainment Weekly C-[23] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Excalibur N/A N/A N/A 65%[24] N/A
GamesMaster 90%[25] N/A N/A N/A 91%[26]
Game Players 55%[27] N/A N/A N/A N/A
GamePro 13 / 20[28] N/A N/A 13.5 / 20[29] 7.5 / 20[30]
Gamers 4+[31] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Games World 78 / 100[32] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Jeuxvideo.com 12 / 20[33] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Joypad N/A N/A N/A 84%[34] N/A
MAN!AC 67%[35] N/A N/A 70%[36] 70%[37]
Mean Machines Sega 77 / 100[38] 80 / 100[39] 80 / 100[39] N/A N/A
Mega 89%[40] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Mega Force 85%[41] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Mega Fun 73%[42] N/A N/A 66%[43] 73%[44]
Mega Power 78%[45] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Next Generation [46] N/A N/A [47] [48]
Nintendo Player N/A N/A N/A N/A [49]
Nintendo Power N/A N/A N/A N/A 12.8 / 20[50]
Player One 82%[51] N/A N/A 80%[52] N/A
Play Time 73%[53] N/A N/A 66%[54] 80%[55]
Sega Power 91%[56] 42%[57] 42%[57] N/A N/A
Sega Pro 70 / 100[58] 52 / 100[59] 47 / 100[60] N/A N/A
ST-Computer N/A N/A N/A 70%[61] N/A
Super Game Power 3.8 / 5.0[62] N/A N/A N/A N/A
Super Power N/A N/A N/A N/A 84 / 100[63]
Total! N/A N/A N/A N/A 2+[64]
Ultimate Future Games N/A N/A N/A 80%[65] N/A
Video Games 71%[66] N/A N/A 69%[67] N/A
VideoGames 7 / 10[68] N/A N/A 5 / 10[69] 7 / 10[68]

Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story received mixed reviews. While the game was poorly received in the U.S., it was a very different perspective in Europe.

Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the Jaguar version a 4.4/10, calling it "More or less your run-of-the-mill action fighter game". They commented that the game was released too long after the movie (which came out well over a year before) to benefit from the license.[22] Atomic Dawg of GamePro similarly commented that the game "lacks fire", elaborating that the graphics are moderately impressive, but the gameplay is crude and requires little skill due to the limited set of moves.[29] French magazine Player One, however, gave it 80%.[52] French magazine Joypad gave it 84%, regarding the controls better than those of the 16-bit versions.[34] Next Generation reviewed the Jaguar version of the game, rating it three stars out of five, and stated that "Nothing truly amazing, but still good fun."[47]

Reviewing the later Genesis port, Johnny Ballgame of GamePro criticized the unimaginative graphics and weak music, and summarized "There's nothing special about this fighter".[28] Next Generation reviewed the Genesis version of the game, rating it one star out of five, and stated that "Virgin was right on the money when it decided not to release Dragon. If only Acclaim had a conscience then we wouldn't have had to waste our time reviewing this retread of a game."[46] Mega Force gave the Genesis version 85%.[41] Player One gave the Genesis version 82%.[51] Entertainment Weekly gave the game a C- and wrote that the characters are very stiff, and more resemble Rock'Em Sock'Em Robots than graceful martial artists.[23]

GamePro's Tommy Glide was no more pleased with the Super NES version, saying that the game has weak graphics and sound effects, and is so simplistic that it is more of beat 'em up than a true fighting game.[30] A critic for Next Generation said the Super NES version plays much better than the Jaguar version, but that the game is still poor. He elaborated that "this is the only fighting game we've ever come across that not only has no special moves to speak of, but also enables you play as only one (count it, one) character, namely Bruce Lee, even in VS mode." He also criticized the fighting system, and gave it one out of five stars.[48] Super Power, by contrast, gave the SNES version 84%.[63]

The Jaguar version has sold nearly 20,000 copies since its release as of April 1, 1995, though it is unknown how many were sold in total during its lifetime.[70]

References
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