Dragon Buster

Overview

An early 1985 arcade platformer with action RPG elements, Dragon Buster is notable as the first game to feature a double jump. It was also one of the first games to include a life meter (along with Flash Boy and Punch-Out), known as vitality in this game. The game featured side-scrolling platform gameplay and a hub "world view" map similar to the later Super Mario Bros. series. It also featured hack & slash combat, like the later Tritorn and Legend of Zelda series.

Dragon Buster was developed and published by Namco. The game is a side-scrolling dungeon crawler, where the goal of the game is for the hero, Clovis, to rescue Princess Celia. Dragon Buster was later ported to a variety of home consoles, notably the Nintendo Entertainment System and the MSX.

Dragon Buster has also been included in Namco Museum Vol. 2, Namco Museum: Virtual Arcade, Namco Museum: Battle Collection, as well as an extra in Tales of the Abyss. The Famicom release of Dragon Buster was also included in Namco Museum Archives Volume 1 in 2020.

The game later received a PlayStation exclusive sequel, titled Dragon Valor. The first chapter of Dragon Valor is essentially a remake of Dragon Buster, making Dragon Valor a requel.