Reviews

by Mike A. Richardson, Jane Richardson, Julian Breeze

The tongue winding out of its blazing jaws, the majestic wings flapping, the restless pointed tail, with its impressive size, perfect drawing and its detailed and convincing animation, the ferocious green dragon of Thanatos was arguably the best sprite ever appeared in a Spectrum game until then, and it was all yours, in all its wickedness, to play and destroy humans, monsters and helpless virgins. At the same time, this dragon's heart is fragile, and must be used with care - and this give the game a slower, more brooding rhythm - being often forced to rest. The eerie music is played by Buddy Holly and the Crickets.
4/5


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14 February 2009 review:

The main attractions of this game are two:

first, you are a dragon, therefore you are the bad guy, and you can fly around grabbing humans, smashing them, throwing rocks at them or burning them to ashes - and, last but not least, you can eat helpless maidens to restore your ardent breath: now, this might sound as if i'm a potential serial killer with cannibal tendecies, but - in a game - being a powerful creature with a heavy breath and unleash your wicked side can be quite pleasant

and

second, the graphics are simply beautiful.
In particular, as a child, i used to observe the main, green sprite and be delighted noting the small movements of the body, the tongue winding through the jaws, the tail twisting like a snake and all that.

That said, the game is, in fact, more enjoyable for its look than for its gameplay - although it's highly atmospheric, with epic clashes between dragons at the end of the level, witches to collect along the way (they're hitchiking apparently), and giant creatures of all sorts.
But all is rather slow and monotonous, and you have to stop frequently to let the dragon rest - a necessity signaled by the tachycardia represented by, of course, a heart at the bottom of the screen, and emphasized by sound effects.

Hence, overall, a good game, but more on the aesthetic side than on the fun one.

Big sprite. I mean BIG. And smooth enough to make the experience very pleasing.

I also like very much the way the scroll is done playing with the perspective.

The game itself is quite easy and short, but quite enjoyable. Ah, and the dragon sprite is BIG!.

There is something lacking in this videogame to reach a real classic status , but it is still quite a unique and impressive title .

The dragon is spectacular and , probably , one of the biggest out there .

Thanatos means death so ... long live death !!

1986 Durell Software(UK)
by Mike Richardson, Jane Richardson and Julian Breeze

This really caught my attention and imagination back in 86.
There are several points of attraction here: the graphics, the movement smoothness, the music, the medieval fantasy theme and the overall atmosphere. I could go on, but I don't think I need it, if you've played the game you know how great it is. No doubt one of the best works by Mike Richardson, but also one of the best games ever in any platform of the 80's.
A true classic.

This game is remarkable and really unique for several reasons. The great, big fire breathing dragon over a whole third of a screen, with separately animated head, tail, wings and claws; the beatiful parallax scrolling; the undeniably great atmosphere; but most of all, the fact that there's no energy bar, there are no lifes, the only indicator of your condition is a giant, beating heart! I've never seen anything like that in any other game.
Also the fact, that to beat the game you need to keep TWO characters alive, not just yourself... and you can't really affect the behavior of the witch, even though most of the time she's just clinched on your back.
But you will learn to dread those moments when a spider shoves her off your back and you need to turn around as fast as possible and quickly pick her up again, before one of the spiders crawls to her and eats her...

I've loved this game since I was a kid and I love it still.

So great piece of software and so few remembering it nowadays.

Yes, famous for the unusual size of hero [actually there is a 2nd hero character that adds tons of originality], but... the atmosphere, is like Ridley Scott's Alien. What title could achieve that kind of feeling back in the days?
It's like a survival horror (think about the likes of Resident Evil).

Everything else is much more than correct, an almost perfectly polished videogame.