DragonStrike Review

Saw this recent review of DragonStrike.

Holy shit! How have I never heard of this game. That video is horrendously cheesy in the way that only 1980's fantasy could be. I love it!

flim_flam wrote:

Holy shit! How have I never heard of this game. That video is horrendously cheesy in the way that only 1980's fantasy could be. I love it!

LOL

I think I'm going to part with mine. I'm checking to see if it is complete. The cheesorific video is present too.

It's actually a fun enough game. It was TSR's response to HeroQuest if I recall correctly.

Pretty funny. I just found this in a thrift store for $5. I'm thinking I'll hold on to it for a while since my 4 year old likes to roll dice against the baddies and find treasure. I don't think I can bring myself to watch that video though.

Dragon Strike is a much better game than HeroQuest in some ways, but you really have to get into the RPG aspects of it to make it work. It's not very tactical, but when I was a kid, it was my absolute favorite game. I didn't play RPGs, so at the time, the idea that we could talk to the monsters, or perform any sort of action we could imagine was pretty mind-blowing at the time.

The variety of scenarios is nice too. I've played it it 5 times so far and each one has been pretty entertaining.

Steve"Dungeoncrawler"Avery

WOW! Not only does that game look amazingly awesome, but that video was hilarious too. I hope that guy does more.

The base video of the game is great. The game itself is ok...

The quests are really entertaining, with some actual light roleplaying, puzzles and stuff. The only issue is that combat can get tedious. I saw one combat where a monster has 8HP, each hit does 1 HP of damage, and each member of the party has like a 1 in 6 chance of hitting.

The other thing is the way the game handles time pressure. After X rounds, a dragon comes in, moves toward you, and starts to methodically kill you. The X rounds limit seems to be just a little too tight.

But there is a surprising amount of fun to be had.

That guy? You guys haven't seen the Angry Video Game Nerd before? He's got his own collecitble card game now, I think.

DragonStrike rocks! I need to play it again now.

clockwirk wrote:

I don't think I can bring myself to watch that video though.

Look, this could be your last day on earth.
You could be driving home tonight, and BANG - you are lying in a pool of your own blood looking at your spleen 10 meters away. As your intestines fall out in a heap and you lose conciousness what will your last thoughts be as they shovel you into a garbage bag?
"I never even go to see a live action owlbear."

I don't promise much in this life, but I promise you hollywood will NEVER EVER give you a live action owlbear. They'll give you zombies and goblins are fuckin vampires until you are sick to death of them, but the primitive magestic beauty that is cross between an owl and a bear? Never.

My friend, you only have one chance, just one chance, in life to see a live action Owlbear. It is in the dragionstrike video.

Don't risk missing it - go right now to you tube and watch this epic saga. Worry not, the turtle neck dungeon master will guide you. Don't let yourself pass into the afterlife without the knowledge this video will impart to you!

Some may claim it's cheesy, and to them I say - yes. But twiggy cheese sticks are cheesy, and so too are they awsome.

Christ man it's got a LIVE ACTION OWLBEAR! Do I really need to say more?

Are you feeling brave?

moofrank wrote:

The base video of the game is great. The game itself is ok...

The quests are really entertaining, with some actual light roleplaying, puzzles and stuff. The only issue is that combat can get tedious. I saw one combat where a monster has 8HP, each hit does 1 HP of damage, and each member of the party has like a 1 in 6 chance of hitting.

The other thing is the way the game handles time pressure. After X rounds, a dragon comes in, moves toward you, and starts to methodically kill you. The X rounds limit seems to be just a little too tight.

But there is a surprising amount of fun to be had.

Even as a kid I remember calculating that even if played perfectly one of the castle quests was impossible to beat in the time they gave you. The idea of a dragon comming if you take too long was a great idea, but the time limits were way too strict, especially considering the game sort of encouraged you to be creative rather than just bash monsters immediatly. Since BGG wasn't around back then to bitch about it I just house rulled it, from memory by rolling a die with a 50% chance of the turn limit going up.

The game was certainly one of the best of the Hero Quest rip offs. The four maps were awesome as they each played differently (especially the outdoor forest one which was mostly open space.) The sculpts were pretty average for the time (fucking ugly by todays standards) but they were very creative with a nice mix of unusual monsters. I loved the fact they all had different numbers so you could keep track of which ones were injured.
The base mechanics were not as good as heroquests, but overall the game felt a lot more creativethen the standard dungeon crawl. The quests were not replayable but the creativity behind them is unreal. I loved the one where you escort a cart down the road while the monsters ambush you.
If you have kids the is a no-brainer.

Mr Skeletor wrote:
LIVE ACTION OWLBEAR! [/quote]

Is that what the "BUGBEAR" is supposed to be? I've been wondering what the hell that was ever since I cracked open the game.

clockwirk wrote:

Mr Skeletor wrote:
LIVE ACTION OWLBEAR!

Is that what the "BUGBEAR" is supposed to be? I've been wondering what the hell that was ever since I cracked open the game.[/quote]

No they are 2 seperate species. Bugbears are in the game. The Owlbear is in the movie, but he falls off a ledge and dies (spoiler) which is why he doesn't make it into the boardgame.

If you cast the "play" spell on your VCR you would know these things.

Mr Skeletor wrote:

No they are 2 seperate species. Bugbears are in the game. The Owlbear is in the movie, but he falls off a ledge and dies (spoiler) which is why he doesn't make it into the boardgame.

If you cast the "play" spell on your VCR you would know these things.

Well now you went and ruined it for me.

Fuck, thanks a lot.