Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon

Review

by Scott Alan Marriott

Prominently featured in Microsoft's advertising campaign for the system's 2001 launch, Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon was intended to show off the power of the Xbox and give it some much-needed attention with such a notable yet underdeveloped license. After experiencing some delays in development, Bruce Lee emerges as a shell of the charismatic, talented martial arts superstar whose life came to a tragic end at the age of 33. Perhaps it is best he isn't around to see what became of his legacy.

Known for his lightning fast moves, Bruce Lee moves sluggishly in the game. Call it Jeet Kune Slow. A strange "feature" is the ability to buy moves the character should already know using coins that materialize out of thin air after an enemy is defeated. Gameplay never deviates from the following formula: walk along a predefined path until you see three to four enemies standing around, fight them using one or two moves, and repeat. Quest of the Dragon is actually close to Double Dragon in spirit, but even that relic offers more entertainment than this Xbox title.

Levels are rigidly linear, with no alternate paths to take and zero interactivity within the 3D environments other than kicking a crate or two for a health power-up. The level Hong Kong Streets in particular is filled with manhole covers, strings of lights, ladders, and variety of other potential objects to use in the fights -- all of which tease the player into thinking there's more to the game than just walking and punching. Yet these environments are nothing more than backgrounds for 30 stages of tiresome fighting.

While players can eventually "acquire" 150 moves to use, the fighting system isn't as deep as the back of the box would lead you to believe. Most will be able to get through half of the game relying on three or four combos -- the punches and sweep kick work fine -- which typically involves pressing one or two buttons repeatedly. Fighting isn't as fluid and responsive as it should be because of slight delays in implementing the various moves. Had the game been faster, it might have made up for the shallowness and repetitiveness of combat.

Animation is surprisingly poor. Bruce Lee's torso and head are like a stone block as his arms flail at his attackers. Any game that stars a single character, especially one as agile as Bruce Lee, should have focused on making the protagonist move as lifelike as possible, but the individual football players in Madden NFL 2002 move more gracefully than the few characters in this game. Other visual problems include "shakiness" or a rippling effect whenever the camera swivels around to the next area, causing the textures to warp as if they were under a flame. The visuals as a whole are a huge disappointment.

Yet one of the most irritating aspects, other than the stiff animation, boring levels, and ridiculous system for buying moves, is the sound during the action sequences. Every punch, kick, and jump results in Lee emitting a shrill cry that sounds exactly like a chicken squawking. Either that or the developers sampled one of Yoko Ono's songs to use during the fight scenes. Enemies don't say much, other than the standard "Get him!" or "You will die!" before each fight. Lee's voice is the lone bright spot, as his distinctive style of speech is well captured.

In the end, Quest of the Dragon fails on every level. The game doesn't have a multiplayer mode -- not even a simple one-on-one battle with two versions of the same character, there are no branching paths, and the combat, the heart of the game, is stiff and repetitive. For some inexplicable reason, players are given nunchaku for certain sequences within a level, and though Lee clearly puts them in his back pocket, they are only used in pre-determined areas. There aren't any swords, spears, or other weapons to be found in the game, giving Double Dragon another edge in comparison.

Bruce Lee is certainly a character deserving of a better game, especially if it were a straight 3D fighting title based on the film Enter the Dragon. While there are some challenging boss fights here, they are difficult only because the characters do heavy damage and can stun your character. A quick and near failsafe remedy is to use Dragon Coins to power-up Lee's fists, taking all the strategy out of fighting. Quest of the Dragon has the makings of a title rushed to market before it was ready. It's martial farce at its finest.