The screen layout displays a health bar bottom-left and a radar in the top-right to alert of incoming nasties. Just ahead of your trusty dragon sit a series of spinning targets that gradually fade into the distance to give a 3D-like depth and are used to chaperone attacks mapped to the B button. The analogue stick or d-pad will allow slight movement to dodge the incoming barrage of projectiles but is nothing more than a sluggish shift in the corresponding direction. Movement is restricted, as you would expect, and follows a set path toward the finale of each stage accumulating in a boss fight.

Panzer Dragoon is a roller coaster ride that pits you against some of the meanest dragons and creatures that have a sole objective, to shoot the living daylights out of you.

Set over seven action-packed and thrilling stages This is why remaking Panzer Dragoon makes perfect sense, you will get the nostalgia of the on-rails shooter without the need for a gimmick in the control mechanics. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all have dipped their toe into the genre in recent years using motion controls to solve the problem with varying success. The dawn of HD TV gave us crisp visual fidelity but in utilising a different technology rendered these plastic weapons obsolete and the genre fell by the wayside somewhat. Virtua Cop and House of the Dead were akin in format but had the bonus of coming packaged with groovy lightgun peripherals. In 1995 when the game originally released for SEGA Saturn the developer/publisher was cruising on the crest of a string of successful franchises, many sharing similar traits.

But does this modern take on Team Andromeda’s classic warrant a place in your current collection? Publishers Forever Entertainment are hoping to expose a new generation of gamers to 1995’s SEGA on-rails shooter by porting it to current-gen and making slight weeks before bundling it up as a remake. Panzer Dragoon takes to the skies, rising from the ashes like a phoenix from the flames as a timed exclusive on Nintendo Switch with Steam and Xbox versions coming soon.

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