American Dragon: Jake Long – Attack of the Dark Dragon is based on the Disney Channel show of the same name. At the center of the show is a kid named Jake who has the ability transform into a dragon. After his girlfriend is kidnapped, Jake must take to the streets of New York City in order to rescue her from the Dark Dragon.
American Dragon is a platformer with a few flight elements sprinkled in every couple of levels. The platforming elements are okay and stick to the basics. As your make your way across each level, enemies come at you. The variety of enemies you face and their basic attack patterns are reminiscent of Kung-Fu on the NES. The most basic of enemies will simply walk towards you while more advanced ones will brandish some sort of weapon and put up a fight. In addition to common thugs, you’ll also face off against magical creatures that offer a little more challenge, but not much of one.
Level design sticks to the basics. Things are kept simple while some tricky parts sneak in every once in a while. Most moments involve jumping between colored platforms that you must activate by collecting and using colored gems. The downside is that gravity doesn’t seem to affect Jake all that much, so he floats more than he jumps, making jumping between moving platforms tricky.
Flying levels break up the platforming areas. As the dragon, you fly around parts of the city shooting down enemies. Jake has free reign to fly anywhere in the arena and can fly under, around and over enemies. Enemies can do the same, making dragon dogfights more than just target practice.
Boss fights take place at the end of each section and follow the same basic setup. The boss stands at the center of the level while Jake runs around him. Although the setup is the same, all of the bosses follow different attack styles and patterns so you’re not always doing the same thing. One of the few downsides is that there’s no way to tell how much damage you’ve done, which might frustrate younger players – especially since some fights are tricky.