kibasnowpaw
Well-Known Member
I got a free pre-release key for Dragon Dragon Fire Fire Deluxe through my Steam Curator page. The developer also gave me permission to stream it before the July 17 release, so I played it today on the native Linux version.
Livestream:
The game reminds me a lot of Bubble Bobble, which I played quite a bit on the original Game Boy. You have the green and blue dragons again, but instead of trapping enemies in bubbles, you breathe fire.
The fireballs move much faster than the bubbles in Bubble Bobble. You can shoot forward or upward, set enemies on fire and destroy parts of the stage. If you destroy the blocks supporting something, it can fall down and crush enemies, but it can also crush you.
The game has the old arcade style with points, lives, timers, food and short single-screen levels. The stages become harder as you continue, with more enemies and more complicated layouts.
You can also collect the letters in BONUS. When you complete the word, you enter a bonus level with a lot of food and points. It reminded me a little of the bonus stages in older Sonic games, although the gameplay is not the same.
It also has global leaderboards. I briefly reached sixth place during my stream, although that will probably not last once the game releases and more people start playing.
The game has Story Mode, Score Attack and local two-player co-op. It also supports Steam Remote Play Together, but I only tested it as a single player.
The main thing I wanted to mention here is that it has a proper native Linux build. I did not use Proton or Wine. It launched directly through Steam and used OpenGL on my system.
I had around 120 FPS and did not see any crashes, stuttering, graphical problems or other bugs during the stream. It is always good to see a small indie developer supporting Linux directly, especially when the native version works without needing launch commands or other fixes.
My only real complaint was the default keyboard controls. They felt a little awkward and as though the game was designed mainly around a controller. You can fully change the keybindings in the menu, though, so it was easy to fix.
There are also several CRT filters in the graphics options. They were not really for me and made the image harder for my eyes to process, so I stayed with the normal pixel mode. They are optional, so it is not a problem.
The menu music sounded good and fitted the retro arcade style, but I normally turn background music off during streams because I do not like risking automated copyright claims.
This is not normally the type of game I would play for hundreds of hours because I usually play other genres, but I still enjoyed trying it. It seems like a good fit for people who enjoy Bubble Bobble, old arcade games, local co-op and chasing high scores.
The full game is planned to have more than 200 stages and releases on July 17, 2026.
Livestream:
The game reminds me a lot of Bubble Bobble, which I played quite a bit on the original Game Boy. You have the green and blue dragons again, but instead of trapping enemies in bubbles, you breathe fire.
The fireballs move much faster than the bubbles in Bubble Bobble. You can shoot forward or upward, set enemies on fire and destroy parts of the stage. If you destroy the blocks supporting something, it can fall down and crush enemies, but it can also crush you.
The game has the old arcade style with points, lives, timers, food and short single-screen levels. The stages become harder as you continue, with more enemies and more complicated layouts.
You can also collect the letters in BONUS. When you complete the word, you enter a bonus level with a lot of food and points. It reminded me a little of the bonus stages in older Sonic games, although the gameplay is not the same.
It also has global leaderboards. I briefly reached sixth place during my stream, although that will probably not last once the game releases and more people start playing.
The game has Story Mode, Score Attack and local two-player co-op. It also supports Steam Remote Play Together, but I only tested it as a single player.
The main thing I wanted to mention here is that it has a proper native Linux build. I did not use Proton or Wine. It launched directly through Steam and used OpenGL on my system.
I had around 120 FPS and did not see any crashes, stuttering, graphical problems or other bugs during the stream. It is always good to see a small indie developer supporting Linux directly, especially when the native version works without needing launch commands or other fixes.
My only real complaint was the default keyboard controls. They felt a little awkward and as though the game was designed mainly around a controller. You can fully change the keybindings in the menu, though, so it was easy to fix.
There are also several CRT filters in the graphics options. They were not really for me and made the image harder for my eyes to process, so I stayed with the normal pixel mode. They are optional, so it is not a problem.
The menu music sounded good and fitted the retro arcade style, but I normally turn background music off during streams because I do not like risking automated copyright claims.
This is not normally the type of game I would play for hundreds of hours because I usually play other genres, but I still enjoyed trying it. It seems like a good fit for people who enjoy Bubble Bobble, old arcade games, local co-op and chasing high scores.
The full game is planned to have more than 200 stages and releases on July 17, 2026.
