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Boring...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: July 07, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is boring. I wanted to like it, I really did. I tried to like it. I went into it with a biased mind already deciding that I did like it. After all, I love the original Dragon's Lair, so I thought this one would be great. So I played it through. Boy, was I ever wrong.

PROS:
1. Good graphics, very reminiscent of the original DL.
2. Additional animations provided by Don Bluth.
3. Additional bad guys provided for the game.
4. Some visually innovative and interesting levels.

The good things about this game stop right there.

CONS:

1. Play Control. Huh? What's that? The play control in this game is the worst I have ever seen. Dirk moves sluggishly, even when you are holding down the Run button (which you will be doing a lot of, unfortunately). And that's another stupid thing. Why do we need a "Run" button anyway? We already have an analog stick! Dirk moves so freakin' slow without the run button pushed that it makes me wonder when anyone would ever use NOT use it. You find yourself holding down that button about 95% of the time.

2. Platforming. This ties in again to play control. The platforming in this game really sucks. For a game that emphasizes it so much, you would think the developers would try to get it right or at least do a LITTLE better than this. For one thing, your jump control stinks. For another, if you happen to have your sword out you are sunk. You will find yourself laboriously getting your sword out to fight or ring a bell, then hitting the button again to sheath your sword so you will be able to grab ledges. If you forgot, then sorry, but you're gonna die. THE END.

3. Ridiculously Difficult Boss Battles. Don't get me wrong - I LIKE hard games. I beat the original Castlevania for NES, so it's not like I have a problem with hard bosses. But this game makes beating a boss more of a chore than having fun. The Smithee is a real pain to fight. So is Singe. In fact, good luck beating Singe without reading a FAQ. There is only 1 way to do it, and if you don't do it that one way then you are DEAD. At least in the original DL you could learn from your mistakes. Not in this game.

4. Missing Elements from the Original Dragon's Lair. Where is the "Drink Me" potion? Where are the snakes? What happened to the barrel and the rapids? Where went the metal horse? This game could have been so great. It takes some good potential and just destroys it. This is NOT Dragon's Lair 3D. This is some other game, a sort of parody. Why did they take out so much of the fun parts from the original game? The metal horse and rapids would have been even MORE fun in 3D! But here they are nowhere to be found.

5. Stupid Treasure Incentives. You find and collect stuff in this game. WHY? None of the gold and treasure you get ever does anything that I can see. Maybe you don't get anything until you get it all. Good luck with that.

6. Disappointing Documentary. I liked watching the history of Dragon's Lair documentary (unlike another reviewer I did not experience any audio problems), but I did not like the rather self-congratulatory tone of the documentary. I mean, I like hearing about the history of DL, but I am not interested in watching an infomercial. That's what this thing felt like. An infomercial trying to over-hype what is actually just another mediocre platforming game.

7. Dirk's Blandness. Part of what made the original game so great was all the little grunts, whoops, and squeals that Dirk made as he went through everything. Plus all his funny facial expressions. All that is GONE here. The game would have have been so much better if they had just gone to the trouble to make a FEW cut scenes with Dirk doing some goofy stuff. Or at least have him do a few expressions rather than just stare ahead like a robot all the time.

8. Glitchy Crossbow and Magic. The Crossbow is a pain to play with. The camera jumps all over the place while you are trying to aim, and you will constantly lose your lock on on your target. Or worse yet, you will be targeting the wrong thing while you are being hit. This was just another annoyance to add to this game, as was the magic. None of the magic items were very fun or useful. They added virtually nothing to the game.

9. FINALLY, SLOW and BORING. Don't get me wrong - as you wander around this castle and game, the visuals are definitely interesting. But that's it. The interest ends there. By the time you beat this game, you will just be glad that you finally got it over with. The play control is so freakin' bad and slow that getting to the end of this game is a real chore.

CONCLUSION:

This game plays like a poor man's Prince of Persia (those games beat this one by a LONG shot!). It looks a lot like the original Dragon's Lair, but it's just not very much fun. This is a game that could have been so much. It had so much potential, but in the end that potential was wasted by the developers. They lost their focus. Instead of concentrating on redoing the original Dragon's Lair in full 3-D glory, they tried to do something new and added a bunch of unnecessary junk while taking out the cool and memorable stuff from the original. Disappointing.

Finally!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: January 01, 2003
Author: Amazon User

At last, Dragon's Lair can be played as it always should have been - in real-time 3D! I am glad to see this ground-breaking classic back and in good form. The look of the game is nearly the same as the original, but now you have complete control of your character. The developers have added some additional villainous creatures, but you still have the time-honored foes (Fire Drakes, Giddy Goons, Singe the Dragon). The game in its present state has 15 levels and over 250 "chambers" loaded with traps, puzzles, and secrets.

The cel-shaded animation is smooth and looks simply awesome. (It even supports HDTV 1080i, for those lucky enough to be able to take advantage of this!). The music and sound is great, and you can expect hours of gameplay. The only downside of this new Dragon's Lair is exactly that of the original - limited replay value. But it provides a wonderful bit of nostalgia for us older folks, and the younger kids should get plenty of play out of the game.

Dirk doesn't fit the environment!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: December 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Yes, this game is fun and easy. The graphics are great, but Dirk the Daring looks annoyingly 2D, in the game and on the box. It's like putting some old cartoon in the real world. If you can ignore this fact, you will enjoy the game.

Fun for a while, and easy

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 5 / 9
Date: December 15, 2002
Author: Amazon User

As a dragon steals a beautiful princess (my god, for a gamecube game she really dresses oddly) Dirk the Daring stands up to the fire breathing foe. Dirk follows the dragon to a castle, that's where the story leaves off to you. The whole game feels like the tutorial. Daphne always tells you what to do, all the way through. The gameplay is very limited to several moves, but the good thing about that is it makes the controls easy to remember. This game is very easy, and makes it good for younger gamers. It has some frustrating moments. The graphics are fun to look at with the beautiful cell shading. I constantly got lost in the huge castle. There aren't any pretty visuals, but that dosn't hold the game back. The game is mainly action oriented, mainly puzzles filled with monsters, which can get hard. The Dragon's Lair saga still keeps it's cartoon look, but all the levels look the same with dungeons. This game has fun moments in combat. Puzzles are challenging, and they are fun. Sometimes you have to get really close to an object for the answer to the puzzle, but sometimes that can be hard. Sometimes you have to ring bells to finish puzzles, and those add fun to the somewhat boring wandering.

Altogether, this game may appeal to some, mainly fans of the original. But to adventure fans this will leave you wanting. I suggest just get a good RPG for fantasy gaming.

THIS IS ONE FUN AND GOOD GAME

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 8
Date: June 20, 2003
Author: Amazon User

THIS GAME IS VERY FUN. THE GRAPHICS MAKE IT LOOK YOU'RE IN A CARTOON. DIRK IS VERY EASY TO CONTROL AND FITS INTO ALL THE SCENES AWESOMELY. SOME PUZZLES GET FRUSTRATING BUT ARE WELL WORTH IT AFTER YOU FIGURE IT OUT. AND DAPHNEY I WOULD GO THROUGH A CASTLE MYSELF TO GET THIS FOX. EXCELLANT GAMEPLAY EXCELLANT GRAPHICS AND EXCELLANT FUN. GO GET THIS ONE

Dragon's Lair 3D: The Search for More Money

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: January 03, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game had everything going for it, from the technology to pull off cel-shading, to a nostalgic audience unbroken by a decade of low-res bad ports. Unfortunately instead of a 20 year anniversary resurrection in an all new format, this game is the last nail in the coffin for a series that never really was a series (though the developers would like to make you think otherwise in the self-glorifying promotional "documentary").

Mordroc the wizard pulls no stops on this game. He uses every bit of his magical powers to hinder Dirk's quest. Magical powers like poor collision detection, bad play control, and even the power to crash your Gamecube during a fight with Singe the Dragon (sadly enough this is an easily reproducible error, not just a one time fluke on a bad system). The journey doesn't stop there. Aside from the poor game control, the rest of the interface (menus, save/load, options) is poorly designed as well. If your memory card fills up (but you still have space to overwrite existing games), you get an error message reporting that you don't have enough space EVERY TIME you want to save. Bringing up the save screen places your cursor by default on the exit button, instead of intuitively on a save spot. When choosing between two menu items, it's sometimes tough to figure out which item is selected (is it the nonchalant blue font, or the highlighted gold font? Nope, it's the blue font.) These small annoyances are evidence of bad UI design, but could possibly be ignored if the game didn't crash your Gamecube console (reporting a Singe not found in MotionSequencePlayer.cpp error).

The icing on the cake is the Princess Daphne pseudo-rock and roll/rap that plays during the credits. Instead of appealing to a generation that has now matured since first playing the original, it sounds like it was performed for an audience of pre-teen girls, which may have been ok if they didn't toss in some misplaced swearing in the lyrics (Princess Daphne swearing is about as moving as a 5 year old girl shouting "darn" after stubbing a toe). It is literally embarrassing to watch the credit sequence and admit that you played the game to be rewarded like this.

There are only two good things about this game. The first is the experience you get in the first 30 to 60 minutes of gameplay, while nostalgia strings you along before boredom and frustration set in. Once you get over the fun concept that you're directly controlling Dirk instead of playing along with an interactive movie, the game barely keeps your attention. The second good thing is the amazing musical score (except for the song at the end). Whoever the musician was, he was the only guy that knew how to do his job right. The score definitely brings you into the game...too bad the game can't hold you there.

If you adored the original Dragon's Lair, rent this one, shamelessly look up a strategy guide to avoid wasting any more time than you must, and put this game out of your mind for good.

From the moment you turn on the GameCube and see that Comic Sans MS Font to the second you rush for the mute button when Princess Daphne bursts into song, Dragon's Lair 3D is a unforgettable experience into how games should not be made. The Smithsonian may keep the original as a prize, but Goodwill will be collecting this version for the next 20 years.

Challenging Fun!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: January 12, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The only explanation I can think of for the previous poor reviews is that this game might be too challenging for those people? This game has everything: story line, challenging mazes that make you think, and nostalgia value. I was really little when this game was in the arcades and it seemed their was always a crowd around watching it being played. It's soo cool to be able to control Dirk in real-time from the comforts of your home. Some of the levels are very difficult and take a lot of time to figure out. This game does take a lot of skill, so it's not really the best for little kids or people who like getting through a game in a single afternoon. I would recommend this game wholeheartedly.

DRAGON'S LAIR

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: June 19, 2008
Author: Amazon User

After reading some of the negative reviews here I had to put in my two cents. Any fan of the original Dragon's Lair or Space Ace or Don Bluth's style of drawing will really love this game visually. It's worth buying it just for being able to crawl around in many locales from the original game where you once could not. The score is nicely done.

The gameplay definitely has its faults. The most frustrating thing in a video game EVER is trying to jump across from platform to platform with really bad controls. You'll do things in this game over and over til you finally get it right, not unlike the original.

There's no groundbreaking material here. I would advise against purchasing this game for any other reason than for the nostalgia.

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