Play Dragon Lord Online

Dragon Lord is one of those MS-DOS games that somehow slipped under the radar back in the day, which is a shame because it’s got everything you’d want from a side-scrolling hack-and-slash. You play as this armored knight—no fancy backstory, just a guy with a sword and a princess to save—and immediately get thrown into these lush, colorful levels filled with floating platforms and enemies that love to ambush you from off-screen.

The controls are surprisingly tight for an old-school platformer, though you’ll still curse when you miss a jump because of that one weirdly placed spike trap. And the sword combat? Simple but weighty—each swing feels like it actually connects, especially when you find the fireball power-up and start roasting skeletons mid-air. The dragon fights are the real highlight, though—huge, screen-filling beasts that take actual strategy to bring down, not just button mashing.

It’s tough, sure, but in that satisfying way where you can see your own improvement after a few runs. And that chiptune soundtrack? Still stuck in my head years later. If you’ve got DOSBox handy and a soft spot for games that don’t hold your hand, this one’s a blast.

Each game uses different controls, most DOS games use the keyboard arrows. Some will use the mouse , "Alt" ,"Enter" and "Space bar".