365//365: Day 192 – Panzer Dragoon Mini (GG) [PP]

One would think that downgrading Panzer Dragoon into a cartridge based unit would be next to impossible. It was done. However, it wasn’t a 32X cartridge, or a Sega Genesis cartridge, but a Sega Game Gear, Japan only cartridge, in a game called Panzer Dragoon Mini. While certain aspects of the Sega Saturn iteration have made the downgrade (flying dragon-like creature, holding down the attack button and dragging your cursor over your enemies and instant-killing them), the experience is meager, and accordingly so. It’s the equivalent of putting Fallout 3 on the Commodore 64 — it just doesn’t work out well. Panzer Dragoon’s visuals suffer immensely, with a scrolling background with the most elementary color scheme and clouds that look vaguely like them. While large bosses and side views of your creature actually seem well done, their animations are almost non existent. While the audio actually does come off as a higher quality Game Gear title, they really do not progress the experience in a positive manner. What really hurts Panzer Dragoon is the fact that, outside boss fights, there’s no reason to shoot at anything. You can simply bob and weave and play the pacifist role throughout the non boss segments, and it reaps the same rewards as blasting through the pitiful enemies that lie in wait. Best left in Japan, Panzer Dragoon Mini proves that just because you can severely downgrade a game to a vastly inferior platform, doesn’t mean you should.

The bosses look impressive. Everything else is akin to a six year old with three different color crayons..

Rating: 2.2