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Crimson Dragon's Opening Video, Gameplay Demo Streamed

The game developer Grounding presented the opening video and gameplay demos for Crimson Dragon during the "Xbox 360 Fan Appreciation Festival in Akiba" at Tokyo's Akihabara district on Sunday. As the Panzer Dragoon's spiritual game sequel, Crimson Dragon allows players to use the Xbox 360 console's Kinect motion sensor to fight with a dragon.

In the game's story (reminiscent of Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern novels), humanity has emigrated to a planet where dragons dwell. The player assumes the role of a novice dragonrider who, with his steed, protects humans from other dragons. Yukio Futatsugi, Gounding's Crimson Dragon director and the creator of the Sega Saturn game Panzer Dragoon, explained how the user feeds the dragon, level attributes up, navigate, and attack enemies. Microsoft Japan's Toshiharu Tange demonstrated the game's controls on stage.

Although the game is a 3D shooter on rails, the player can control the dragon's basic movement and attacks with gestures through the Kinect senor. The dragon will steer left or right if the player's upper body tilts left or right. Similarly, bending forward or backward will make the dragon rise or dive. The dragon's main weapon is a lock-on laser; the player can mark targets by moving the right hand around, and then fire the laser by swinging the right hand forward. The machine-gun-like sub-weapon can be similarly controlled by the left hand, while raising and lowering both hands will launch special moves.

The game is planned for release on the XBox Live Arcade service this year at a price to be announced later.

Source: Game Watch via Hachima Kikō