Underplayed Gems

Dragon King: The Fighting Game

Dragon King: The Fighting Game cover
Developer
HAL Laboratory
Publisher
Nintendo
Platforms
Nintendo 64
Genres
Fighting, Platform

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The 3D catalog: game boxes on wooden shelves, with the cat sitting at the counter next to its greeting.

The catalog in 3D

The same catalog has a room you can walk around in. The cat behind the counter is the AI Catbot, and they pick real games from it when you tell them what you feel like playing. Nothing is for sale, here or in there. Go in from here and this game is already out on the counter, with more like it waiting on the shelf next to it.

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How it feels

The raw predecessor to Super Smash Bros, a rough low-budget 3D fighter that laid the groundwork for the iconic series.

historicalproto-fightingexperimentalfast-pacedactioncompetitiveorigins

About

Dragon King: The Fighting Game was an unfinished low budget 3D fighting game, and was the first in a planned series of fighting video games. The game was developed for the Nintendo 64, where it was to make unique use of the joystick on the controller. After deciding to use Nintendo characters to give it a more proper atmosphere on the Nintendo 64, the game later became Super Smash Bros. In 2022, Masahiro Sakurai presented in his own YouTube Channel some footage of the game, with the official title localization of "Dragon King: The Fighting Game".

Screenshots

Dragon King: The Fighting Game screenshot 1Dragon King: The Fighting Game screenshot 2Dragon King: The Fighting Game screenshot 3Dragon King: The Fighting Game screenshot 4Dragon King: The Fighting Game screenshot 5

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This page is from Underplayed Gems, a catalog of older and overlooked games. Not quite it? You can browse by platform and genre, or take this one into the 3D catalog and ask the Catbot for something closer.