Draconus

You control Frognum, whose task is to reclaim his kingdom from the Tyrant beast. Find the four special abilities in order metamorphose into your waterborne Draconewt and face the evil! You'll encounter bats, balls or giant rats which general follow fixed paths but may also swarm and chase you! There are two primary weapons at your disposal to eliminate these enemies; you may punch and claw them, or you may incinerate them with your fire breath. Fire breathing is limited but may be replenished once in a while by collecting items. The atmosphere is at times truly adrenalin-pumping with the repeated shock factor of reaching a new screen that was teeming with large monsters and swirling, squidgy pulsating blobs. Note that, enemy contact reduces your life energy which may also be refilled by collectible symbols. On loss of all life energy Frognum loses one life and restarts from the last Record slab. The action is great I believe, and this happens to be one of the best arcade games released on the 8 bit computer, followed but its sequel Dragonus 2!

The graphics are great on the 8bit Atari, having detail using different color palette in each screen (though the background color remains black...). The graphics are almost identical to the Commodore 64 version too. The sprites animation is a bit bulky, but can be easily adapted. Now as far as the sound, this games features one of the most memorable tunes for me really! Note that it's music has been remixed a lot by many people. But although I liked it a lot on my 8bit Atari (65XE), I was amazed by the C64 version (well, I'm a great fan of SID chip). The games does not have any sfx, but only this awesome game tune.