Dragon Saddle Melee | PC Review

February 21, 2022 Kevin Honigford

Saddle up! Main Tank Software pits you and your aerial mount against other players and computer controlled combatants in Dragon Saddle Melee. Only a few short seconds into the promotional video, I knew I had to check this one out. A modern day Joust? In an ‘80s neon ambience arena? ON DRAGONS?! What’s not to get excited about?!

Fly To Die, Die To Fly

Dragon Saddle Melee is a classic arcade style battle arena. You and your dragons’ soul purpose is to survive. To survive in this arena, you have to fly. Flap your dragon’s wings at the pace you choose using a button or a key on the keyboard repetitively, or simply keep them pressed to fly at a set pace. While not using its wings, your dragon will fall. While doing this, you must attempt to eliminate your enemies by flying into them, only making contact on the top of their dragon with the bottom front of yours.

The reference I made to Joust earlier was not misleading: If you have ever played the early ‘80s arcade classic, Dragon Saddle Melee plays exactly the same. Main Tank Software brings the concept to the modern age by adding power-ups and weapons drops, and by creating a chaotic online multiplayer with objectives and survival goals.

The multiplayer aspect in Dragon Saddle Melee is quite fun. On that note, however, as of now there is no way to play Dragon Saddle Melee with your friends other than sheer luck. When starting a game, it simply builds a match with whoever is available, and there is no way to form a party or play as a team with your Steam friends. Granted, at the time that we played this for review, there wasn’t a large pool for the game to draw from, so we did all play together, but I’m unsure how that will play out as time goes on. Couple this with the uniformity of the different rounds of the survival aspect, and Dragon Saddle Melee could just be a fleeting leisure before moving on to something different.

Classic 2D Mayhem

Dragon Saddle Melee is a devoted tribute to the 80’s era. Neon lighting informs you of the arena edges and platforms. The dragons and characters themselves emit a neon hue. The arena background I felt was actually quite bland with its neon purple grid on black rendering. While it helped to discern friend from foe on the battlefield, it was quite drab to look at after a very short time.

The music and sound effects, on the other hand, were a stark difference in energy. With the upbeat, yet calm synths playing in the background, the explosions and crashes that echo through your ears when something happens on and off the screen add to the experience magnificently. This alone made one type of level my favorite: I’ll just call them “energy beam” levels. As you and all others try to avoid energy beams that move across the screen both vertically and horizontally, inevitably, numerous participants are unsuccessful. And the game lets you know when that happens with a loud concussive impact to your eardrums that immediately provokes an adrenaline push. A word of advice: Play Dragon Saddle Melee with a good set of headphones. You’re welcome.

Final Verdict

Dragon Saddle Melee is quite a charming, energetic throwback to my youth and a game franchise that is dear to my heart. It’s quite obvious from the start that this is exactly what Main Tank Software was going for. With the things they did to bring it to modern life, though, even both of my sons, 17 and 13 years of age, enjoyed it as well. While it’s not a game I would stay up all night playing with my friends or family, it’s definitely a fun little piece of entertainment. If you were a fan of the classic Joust, this is a game you need to check out.

This review is based on a PC copy of Dragon Saddle Melee provided by Vicarious PR for coverage purposes. As of the time of this writing, it is exclusive to this platform.