- "Dragon Gunners! I call on you to save us from a horrible fate! I am Anne, ruler of Plaitoria. Two years ago a great rift in the earth opened up, releasing all manners of beasts and goblins who tore our world asunder. Suddenly, we were visited by a messenger from a Dragon Kingdom. The messenger instructed me to see out two heroes who would save our world. These heroes would wield the legendary Dragon Guns. Dragon Gunners, I call on you to save our world."
Dragon Gun (also known overseas as Dragon Gun: Firebrand, Gun of the Ark-Magi.) is a Light Gun Game developed by Data East.
Set in the fantasy Kingdom of Plaitoria, an evil sorcerer, Dramass and his second-in-command , the sorceress Bishuna, have unleashed the forces of chaos upon the land, in the form of chaos dragons and assorted monsters. Queen Anne Rochelle of Plaitoria managed to summon help from our world, Earth, with two heroes, a marksman named Anthony (P1) and a huntress named Samantha (P2) - recruited as the "Dragon Gunners" to save Plaitoria.
Dragon Gunners contain examples of:
- Amphibian at Large: Flagog, the boss of the swamp level, is a giant toad who constantly hops in and out of the lake in the boss area as he spam projectiles and summon enemies to attack.
- Background Boss: As all the bosses are all kaiju sized, they appear in the background of the arena while firing ranged projectiles (which needs to be shot to avoid getting damage), while the players in control of Anthony and Samantha repeatedly shoots them until they fall.
- Bad with the Bone: Several enemies will shoot their bones as ranged projectiles, and even launch flying skulls which comes biting at Anthony and Samantha. Including Quatra the dragon, the first boss.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gigantic flying insects are among the many enemies that turns up in this game.
- Breath Weapon: All the dragon enemies and bosses can breath fire and assorted projectiles from a distance.
- Creepy Centipedes:
- Torpod the flying centipede, the second boss who's larger than dragons. It also has two heads, one on each end, both capable of attacking.
- There's also a later boss, Giokk, a deformed millipede-like monster whose body carapaces can store and launch extra mooks to attack.
- Cut and Paste Environments: Some of the levels are recycled. The swamp and underground stage are visually identical, save for the marsh's waters being recolored into lava pools, while the castle environments are used for multiple stages (with differences in the color of walls, floors, lighting, but everything else is otherwise the same).
- Draconic Humanoid: While most of the monsters are dragons, the Big Bad, Dramass, is a humanoid with dragon features, including large wings and the ability to breathe fire. He's also skilled in all sorts of Playing with Fire magic, making the battle appropriately difficult and intense as a Final Boss.
- Dragons Are Demonic: Played absolutely straight, with every single onscreen dragon depicted as enemies delighting in wreaking havoc across Plaitoria.
- Evil Living Flames: Dramass' second form is a Fire Elemental, depicted as multiple pillars of fire with dragon heads made of flames on their tips, each capable of attacking from a distance.
- Gashadokuro: Giant armored skeletons (so huge, the screen shows only their upper half!) are recurring enemies Anthony and Samantha will battle when they're outdoors. These enemies need to be killed one part at a time, by shooting and destroying their arms, shoulders, skulls, ribs until it gradually falls into a pile of bones.
- Gold-Colored Superiority: The game has a stronger-than-average Elite Mook enemy clad in shiny gold armour occasionally showing up, trying to hack Anthony and Samantha to bits with his heavy battleax. Said enemy can absorb lots and lots of hits before going down thanks to it's armor, and it's ax can deflect bullets as well - the only way to avoid getting slashed is by aiming a weak spot in the torso when he raises his ax.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Enemies tend to break into sizeable pieces after they're killed, with some of their death animations having them splitting vertically in half. The zombies in particular breaks horizontally if shot in the waist, only for the upper to continue attacking.
- Hunter of Monsters: The two playable heroes, Anthony and Samantha, becomes this the moment they accepted their quest to become dragon gunners and fight the forces of chaos.
- Lethal Lava Land: The fifth stage is an underground cavern full of lava pools that somehow spawn enemies into attacking.
- Living Statue: The statues of heads, seen carved on pillars in various areas are alive, and can shoot projectiles as attacks. They can even taunt Anthony and Samantha when scoring a hit.
- Lizard Folk: Lizard men are another constant enemy variety in the game, with gigantic claws which they'll use for slashing up close.
- Losing Your Head: The last phase of the boss fight against Giokk, with his head (and two forearms) detaching from it's body, gaining a new health bar as it continues biting and slashing.
- Ludicrous Gibs: The fate of pretty much every onscreen enemy. More often than not the screen will be covered by ridiculous amount of flying limbs and guts (and it's awesome!).
- Man-Eating Plant: This type of enemy appears in the swamp and in the final stage, depicted as multiple red Venus flytrap heads attached on sets of vine-like feet scuttling around.
- More Dakka: Anthony and Samantha both use automatic firearms that never needs to be reloaded, which is great considering the massive amount of enemies they'll be shooting throughout the game.
- Multiple Head Case: One of the stronger enemies, a two-headed aquatic monster several times larger than lesser mooks who can shoot projectiles from both it's heads.
- Our Dragons Are Different:
- Most of the mooks in this game are dragons (well, with a title like that...) coming in varying colors, shapes, sizes, from organic dragons to dracoliches...
- The first boss, Quatra the Dragon, is a bone white supernatural dragon, whose ranged attacks swaps around between the usual dragon breathe and shooting flying skulls from its mouth.
- Our Zombies Are Different: There are zombie enemies in the game, who claws their way from underground and attacks by ripping out their own hearts as throwing projectiles.
- Rolling Attack: There are shelled enemies who can roll themselves into a ball and crash into Anthony and Samantha causing damage.
- Segmented Serpent: How the serpentine dragon Mini-Boss (fought before Quatra the first boss), Torpod the centipede and Giokk the millipede bosses are depicted in the game.
- Sequential Boss:
- Giokk the giant millipede needs to be fought multiple times, as each health bar depleted represents a segment of it's body, quickly replaced by another as more of the monster comes into view. And after taking down what appears to be one last bar, surprise surprise, Giokk's head detaches alongside two of it's forearms...
- Bishuna starts by spamming a Macross Missile Massacre made of flying skulls, all which must be destroyed, before she takes flight out of the castle. Once outside, she unveils her Doppelgänger Spin abilities with a new health bar until she's finally defeated and dropped into the lava lake.
- Final Boss Dramass spams fireballs and energy blasts while flying all over the place, keeping Anthony and Samantha busy trying to hit him while shooting his attacks. When he's finally defeated, he turns into a Fire Elemental with another new health bar... and still refuse to quit, with his third form being a flesh-and-blood human warrior that summersaults all over the place while shooting his gun. Ironically (and thankfully) his third form is actually easier than his first two.
- Smart Bomb: The one this game uses comes in the form of two powerful stream of flames incinerating all onscreen enemies.
- Swamps Are Evil: The third stage is a swamp infested with assorted monsters, some which pounces out from the marsh's waters to attack.
- Zerg Rush: The amount of enemies appearing onscreen to swarm over Anthony and Samantha simultaneously is insane. Good thing they're not durable and are easily killed en masse.
