Retro Replay Review

Gameplay

Steel Dragon EX blends two classic shoot ’em up experiences—Shienryu (Steel Dragon) and its arcade-exclusive sequel, Shienryu Explosion (Steel Dragon Evolution)—into one tightly tuned package. The original Shienryu is a faithful port of both the arcade and Sega Saturn versions, preserving its relentless vertical scrolling action and tight hitboxes. Meanwhile, Steel Dragon Evolution introduces fresh mechanics, giving players a choice among three distinct spacecraft, each with its own speed and firepower characteristics, and six colorful pilots whose only difference lies in shot color.

The core of Steel Dragon Evolution’s appeal is its analog fire button: the harder you press, the more devastating your shots become, but at the cost of reduced ship speed. This risk‐and‐reward system demands that players constantly weigh offense against maneuverability, especially when weaving through dense bullet patterns or trying to collect fragile power‐up stars. For traditionalists, the game also offers three separate buttons mapped to low, medium, and heavy fire settings, providing a more familiar, albeit less nuanced, control scheme.

Multipliers turn every encounter into a strategic puzzle. Destroying enemies with heavier fire yields a higher kill reward—up to 256×—but the highest scores often come from grabbing star drops without firing, as those follow an inverse scale where restraint is richly rewarded. With limited lives on offer and occasional extra‐life pick‐ups, players must master these systems to push deep into each stage and ultimately defeat the towering end bosses.

Graphics

The visual presentation of Steel Dragon EX is a loving tribute to late‐’90s shmup artistry. In the Shienryu segments, you’ll find finely detailed sprites and parallax backgrounds that evoke the gritty, industrial sci-fi settings of the arcade original. Enemy designs range from spiky drones to lumbering battleships, each rendered with crisp pixel art and fluid animations.

Steel Dragon Evolution ups the ante with more varied environments, from neon-lit alien caverns to shattered space colonies hovering in orbit. The color palette is vibrant without ever feeling garish, and explosions pack a satisfying punch thanks to layered particle effects that burst across the screen. Even during two‐player co-op, the frame rate remains rock solid, ensuring that performance never undermines the frenetic gameplay.

Small touches—like screen shake on heavy laser hits and dynamic foreground elements that scroll independently—add depth and immersion. While this compilation doesn’t radically reinterpret its source material, it does polish and stabilize both games for modern platforms, ironing out slowdown and flicker issues that plagued some arcade and Saturn builds.

Story

As with many shoot ’em ups of its era, narrative takes a backseat to high-octane action, but there’s still a framework that keeps you pushing onward. In Shienryu, you pilot the titular “Steel Dragon” fighter to repel an extraterrestrial threat known as the Shienryu Armada, whose bio-mechanical dreadnoughts have laid waste to humanity’s colonies. The plot unfolds in short text interludes between stages, offering just enough context to justify your relentless strafing runs.

Steel Dragon Evolution picks up where Shienryu left off, introducing new commanders of the Armada and more exotic locales to liberate. Pilots come with brief bios—ranging from a cocky ace pilot seeking redemption to a stoic android programmed for revenge—but these character sketches are more window dressing than deeply woven narratives. Nevertheless, each pilot’s unique shot color and craft selection inject a sense of personality into the proceedings.

For gamers who crave rich storytelling, this won’t satisfy a lore binge. But for shoot ’em up aficionados, the minimalist approach works: it never distracts from the core gameplay and provides just enough flavor to make each stage feel like a meaningful mission in resisting an overwhelming foe.

Overall Experience

Steel Dragon EX stands as a compelling package for both shmup newcomers and veterans alike. The dual‐game format offers a satisfying dose of nostalgia through Shienryu’s classic levels while presenting fresh challenges in Steel Dragon Evolution. The analog fire‐power mechanic alone gives this compilation a unique hook, incentivizing risk‐reward playstyles that can dramatically alter each run’s pacing and strategy.

Multiplayer adds another layer of depth, as two players weaving complementary speeds and firepower settings can tackle even the most chaotic boss encounters with surprisingly coordinated finesse. The finely tuned difficulty curve ensures that casual players can get a feel for the mechanics before diving into the punishing later stages designed to test the mettle of seasoned bullet-hell pilots.

Graphically polished, mechanically robust, and brimming with retro charm, Steel Dragon EX delivers a blockbuster shoot ’em up experience. While you won’t find sprawling narratives or over‐the‐top production values, what you do get is two of the genre’s most enjoyable arcade blasts packaged together. If you’re searching for a tight, high‐intensity shoot ’em up collection that rewards both precision and daring, Steel Dragon EX is a dragon you’ll definitely want to slay.

Retro Replay Score

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