Crimson Dragon Critic Reviews

A pleasant surprise. As a massive fan of the Panzer series, I was worried that this wouldn't quite honor it, but there's plenty here for gamers who have been longing for an entry since 2003's Orta. There are some mechanical problems, but any old-school rail shooter fan will be able to handle them.

Given its feel as a challenging, enjoyable homage to gaming's past, we relished Crimson Dragon for serving hard-earned silver linings to those wiling to stick with it.

You have to have kind of an addictive personality to really get into it. A lot of the game is propelled forward by its grindy levels and progression system, and if this isn’t your thing, then you’ll likely get incredibly frustrated and just turn the game off to play more Killer Instinct.

Just don't expect anything particularly "next-gen" about the game. The visuals are reminiscent of any given game from the end of the X360 or PS3's life cycle. This is an update to an old style of gameplay, but there's not a lot new here. There's a lot of old to love, though.

Crimson Dragon isn't a bad game in itself, but its epic scale pales in comparison to what every Panzer Dragoon fan would have expected from it. Technically it doesn't look like a next gen game at all.

Its pretty world and detailed monsters are slightly offset by a lack of variety, and its free flying segments feel kind of pointless when they don't let you do anything you otherwise couldn't on-rails. But its score-based, arcade core and digestible levels will keep you coming back for more until you're sittin' pretty on top of the leaderboards.

Crimson Dragon is an impressive game that falls short of Panzer Dragoon‘s lofty heights.

A solid railshooter in a fascinating fantasy world. But it can’t compete with the likes of Panzer Dragoon Orta, Rez or Child of Eden.

It needs a long period of adaptation, since the complex controls match the complex gameplay we're facing. Crimson does have its audience, but maybe it's not wide enough for a launch title.

Despite the efforts and the good intentions, Crimson Dragon betrays its origins: you can definitively tell this project was born a generation ago, and the scars of a troubled development are visible. The result, even if it's not that bad, is surely far far away from its spiritual predecessors.

Leveling up dragons and replaying for ranks and leaderboard score might be enough to garner Crimson Dragon a cult following, but for most people the bungled core mechanic is a deal-breaker. This dragon might fly, but it never truly soars.

Though Crimson Dragon has a slight next gen aesthetic, the controls are unintuitive and sluggish – proving that you can’t change the recipe after you’ve started cooking.

Crimson Dragon entertains most when it's the power fantasy it wants to be - when you're mopping up streams of curious beasts from an early level, with credits and items flying into your backpack as you 100% a level. When you're beset, besieged, and bullied by streams of incoming missiles, you feel cheated rather than challenged, and the beckoning gem shop makes the process feel dirty.

Crimson Dragon is a good game. Funny, sometimes engaging, but it isn't Panzer Dragoon and although sometimes it really gets close, it fails to reach the heights of its predecessor.

It's a thin and troubled tribute to the original Panzer Dragoons, slim on the ambition, vision and art that made its predecessors what they were - and some way short of the invention and execution in the games they inspired.

Crimson Dragon isn't bad, and there's plenty to do if you simply must unlock and evolve every dragon, but it runs out of ideas long before it runs out of missions.

At a cheaper price, Crimson Dragon would be a little more acceptable; although it’s enjoyable at its core, there are few redeeming features.

There’s some nostalgic value, too, but its weak graphics and frustrating free-flight boss fights make it tough to enjoy the stroll down memory lane.

Could have been a great time-sink, but Crimson Dragon disappoints.

This is, by all means, an Xbox360 game. And it could have been good, if the control scheme wasn't messed up and the scene so full and hard to read.