Top 7 dragons from video games

 With 2012 being the Chinese year of the dragon, the scaled mythological beasts have been ever present in the likes of Game Of Thrones, Dragon's Dogma and those still playing Skyrim. The pieces of merchandise featuring dragons has soared  such as notebooks, ornaments and pendants as they become ever more popular. 

   But what are the 8 greatest dragons from video games I hear you ask (actually no-one asked, but this is my random blog) so let's enter the dragon's den :-

8. Dragon Man from Altered Beast (1989 for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis)

Altered Beast was originally an arcade classic about a Roman centurion who after dying is resurrected by Zeus (got to love the attention to timescale in these games) who circles through Hell to save Zeus' daughter Athena from the demon God called Neff (yes....Neff!), the hero gets jacked up and can transform into animal forms of a tiger, a bear and best of all....a dragon, it's basically a shape shifting version of Dante's inferno.

7. Tyris Flare's dragon from Golden Axe (1989 for Sega Mega Drive/Genesis) 

Golden Axe was a game where you and a friend could pair up and fight medieval vagabonds side by side and one feature was building up magic, the story was very similar to that of the Conan The Barbarian movie. Players could play as a dwarf called Gillius, a barbarian called Ax or a red-headed Amazonian in chainmail bikini and red boots who had the magic ability of fire and when this was built up she could summon a dragon to come down and breath fire to vanquish foes off the screen (playing with a friend meant shared magic resources so many an argument was had when 'I accidently pressed it' was heard.

6. Billy & Jimmy Lee from Double Dragon (1987 for arcade and later NES and Sega Master System)

Okay, so they aren't technically dragons, in fact they are humans but these twins (also known as Hammer and Spike)  were a genre definer. They set the trend for future beat 'em ups like Streets Of Rage (I have TMNT: Turtles In Time on my PS3, it's the still the same concept today) in that two people could play together and not only beat bad guys but pick up weapons they dropped and could also double team (not in that way) opponents, the only odd thing was the twin brothers were out to save their common love interest Marian....maybe they were from Norfolk. This game was so successful there was an animated TV series and even a movie in 1994 starring Scott Wolf, Robert Patrick and Alyssa Milano which was the 166th highest grossing film of 1994, that tells you how bad it is. There is no real reference as to why they are 'dragons'...maybe Duncan Banatyne is a relative)

 

5. Yoshi (various Super Mario Bros games from 1990)

Yoshi would easily be one of the best and most easily recognisable sidekicks of all time as well as being the most popular video game dragon from the amount of games he has appeared in (not to mention the sheer volume of Yoshi merchandise with his likeness and image, girls like him and guys don't mind him). Yoshi always plays hard and has that forever happy smile on his face. Appearing first in 1990's Super Mario World and has featured constantly on any Mario or Nintendo title since as well as being a 6 foot animatronic puppet in 1994's Super Mario Bros. movie....though that's best left forgotten

4. Bahamut (various Final Fantasy games)

Though his allegiance has changed several times throughout the series, Bahamut is a staple of the Final Fantasy Series and even featured in Super Mario RPG. appearing in the very first Final Fantasy game in 1987(2010 saw the release of Final Fantasy XIV), there was even a spin off game in 1996 called Bahamut's Lagoon. As big and as bas as they come and almost as old as computer games themselves.

3. Alduin (2011 for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on PC, xBox 360 and PS3)

This gigantic dragon is the biggest, baddest and brutal of all of Skyrim's flying fire-breathing lizards, this from a game FULL of flying, fire-breathing lizards, is a claim to fame though players are made to feel that him appearing as a world-devouring, fire-breathing serpent is something of a come down as he's a God though oddly, the way to beat him is by shouting at him, that's right, shouting! If only the police could harness such powerful tools to fight crime.

2. Thanatos (1986 for Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad)

Thantos scores so highly as it was arguably the first video game featuring a dragon and one where players could experience the feeling of controlling a huge, devastating fire-spewing behemoth for themselves. The game was on Spectrum, Commodore and Amstrad so controlling it was pretty much a case of wiggling the joystick (back then it was a joystick and just one button) but for it's time it was darn impressive and the game was simple, no complicated mythology added here, just breathing out fire, eating the locals and trying not to get slain.......being a dragon can be really tough sometimes.

1. Spyro (1998 for Sony PlayStation (PS1))

Most of the dragons mentioned (one wasn't even actually a dragon) are of the scaly, hateful vengeful type, so here is a dragon that was born of a good egg. Spyro is the dragon that comes to mind when asking 'name a video game dragon', and one people at least know the name of (rather than 'one from Skyrim' or 'isn't there one in Final Fantasy?'). Spyro has an overwhelming need to please and became adored by any girl who had a PlayStation when he came out in 1998). Spyro stands out for his colour and size alone, he's a tiny (in comparison to other dragons) purple guy though that didn't mean he couldn't hold his own in beating the bad guys. Expanding his moves beyond fire breathing to ramming enemies with his horns and over time, spitting ice and electricity, this little fella certainly had no Napoleon complex going on.