Operation Dracula is actually a name of airborn and amphibious attack on Rangoon by the forces of British, American, and Indian. It was an attack against Japan to recover the supply routes from India for British defense.
That’s the origin of the name, Operation Dracula. However, the game today is not about the second World War. Today’s game is brought to you by Crescent Moon Games, an award winning publisher that has released many great games like Aralon Sword and Shadow, Pocket RPG, Shadow Blade, and many more.
Being a great publisher with so many great games, Crescent Moon Games however, is pretty confident with their latest addition in their games library. This time, it’s coming from a developer name Samurai Games that consists of one Moroccans and five US developers.
Operation Dracula: The Premise
You can actually read the premise of Operation Dracula again once you’ve bought the game, but nevertheless let me tell you about it. The story was begun with the Great Vampire War. Four nations have been trying to defeat the Dracula and end his reign of terror over the world.
To end the war, four nations have had all the best wizards they have, to forge the Dracula Spear. It finally forged and the Dracula was defeated, as well as the war that finally ends. The weapon then was split between four nations as a sign of a strong alliance and a glorious victory.
However, a message has spread all over the four nations, that is to bring the Dracula Separ and the retriever will be given rewards beyond their wildest dreams. And the war to retrieve this spear has finally started.
Operation Dracula: The Gameplay
Operation Dracula basically is a shmup game, so you will avoid all the bullets that coming to you. Playing Operation Dracula is very simple, you don’t even need 1 minutes to grasp all the rule. You will be dragging your ship’s to all directions, double tap to activate the super special weapon, and tap the mega bomb to activate the screen wipe ability.
Even if the rule seems simple, it’s how the enemies effort to bring you down that needs to be applaud of. There are wide variety of war fleets, including classic helicopters, jets, tanks, until modern laser and even some electric cannons. Just like the trailer before, you will be showered with hell of bullets from the enemies. Seriously, there are so many war fleets at one screen that your ship will lost its three lives before you’ve finished counting.
And if you think having a screen full of jets, choppers, and cannons isn’t enough, at the end of each level, your ship will be welcomed with a huge boss robots equipped with some serious cannons in its arsenal. Not trying to scare you off, but if you think you can’t cope with hardcore shmup game, this Operation Dracula isn’t for you.
So anyway, you will be given three lives. Everytime you got your ship’s fired, you’ll lost one life point. After three lost lives, like classic arcade games, you will get offer to continue your game, or finish the game just like that. You will have three credits until the game is over.
You can also choose from three available characters, with one bonus character unlocked once you’ve finished all the levels using all the characters, beside him. Each of characters has their own ship, with their own uniqueness, super special weapon, and their own mega bomb.
Everytime you shot down enemy ship, you will get various collectable items. From mini power up and bomb items, up to items that will recover your ship’s health. So anytime, you can still have a chance to recover yourself to a killing machine again.
There are two game modes available, EASY and NORMAL modes. Even if there are no HARD or IMPOSSIBLE mode here, I ensure you that none of these modes can be categorized as easy. These are more like IMPOSSIBLE and HARD to BELIEVE kind of modes if I may state. But anyway, this is why the game is more compelling compare to other similar game.
Operation Dracula: The Music
This is a bit unusual for me, finding a game that puts an exclusive menu just for music. In Operation Dracula, there is this one exclusive menu that will list all the music that have been unlocked during your game session. The further level you can go through, the more music you’ll be able to unlock.
When you’re unlocking enough music, you can go inside that menu, and play the music just like any music player could do. You can shuffle it, repeat the music you like, while doing whatever you want to do.
The music itself mostly is a hard rock music. Well, the basic of creating music for games is to let the music influence player’s emotion. In this case, since Operation Dracula is a shmup game, the music needs to be fast beat, to pump player’s adrenaline.
Things I Like
I’m lucky to still be able to experience proper arcade shmup games in my childhood. With how technology has evolved, I don’t think you can find shmup games anymore in arcade. The experience when you have limited chance to play, the feeling when you just wasted your coin. Now with how it shifted into mobile and console gaming (for shmup games), all that feeling has long gone.
With Operation Dracula however, there are credits just like the old arcade machine has. With this use of credits, you can’t just play the way you want, especially when you’ve got pretty far with the game. The way they shower you with hell bullet also brings back good memories. I just can’t believe that someone can actually manage to survive after being showered like that.
The last thing that I like about Operation Dracula is the music menu. I love the production value of these songs, I can actually just play the music like a playlist and listen to it while I don’t feel playing the game. Unfortunately, this time I don’t have any songs preview for you, but nevertheless, you can enjoy it when you’ve played the game.
Conclusion
Operation Dracula is a solid bullet hell game for your iOS devices. It is a must have game for any gamers that claim themselves to be the master of shmup games. Let’s see if you can unlock the last character in this game.
About Crescent Moon Games
Crescent Moon Games was founded in late 2009 with the introduction of Ravensword: The Fallen King. Ravensword quickly became the #1 RPG on the iPhone, and stayed at the top of the Role Playing charts for a month straight.
Crescent Moon Games puts emphasis on collaboration, innovation, and unique ideas. To follow their ideas, go check their website, facebook, and twitter.
Lastly, I would like to thank Crescent Moon Games for providing me with Operation Dracula to put my most honest review.
