Dragon's Lair 3D Not Worth The Effort

Anonymous Coward writes "While not the best source for gaming information, CNNs Technology section has a review of Ubi Softs Dragon's Lair 3D. Long story short, according to the writer Marc Saltzman, the game isn't worth it. In fact, the opening paragraph says, 'The only thing worse than a lousy video game is when it taints a well-respected, 20-year-old franchise.' One interesting tidbit from the article, the original Dragon's Lair is one of only three video games on display at the Smithsonian. The other two games being Pac-Man and Pong."

Comments

Uhm...

[NetJunkie]

Why is this on Slashdot now? That game has been out a while. I messed with it on XBox. It's the only title that does 1080i HD. The game itself was terrible...though my Dragon's Lair fan friend liked it.

Not even worth an article.....

Well respected?

[Schnapple]

Shall we define well respected? Dragon's Lair was never a good game, just memorable since it used full animated cartoons and had a story in a time in which no one questioned why the yellow circle eating dots. Dragon's Lair 3D didn't do anything to the legacy in my opinion.

Re:Well respected?

[jason.hall]

I'd say it was well-respected since it used a technology unlike any other game in the room, successfully enough that there was usually a line to play it.

Re:Well respected?

[fondue]

Dragon's Lair was an interesting technical experiment without a game attached, from a time when such mistakes could be more easily forgiven (because no one had made them before). The fact that the developers of the game have continued to flog the same pretty but gameless dead horse for the following 20 years (Dragon's Lair and its equally non-interactive ilk tainting every platform from the 3DO to the Game Boy) strikes me as an unprecedented marathon of creative bankrupcy.

Interesting how nostalgia can be based entirely on looks. (Myst- another tedious waste of polyurethane and aluminium- has a similarly inexplicable cult following.)

credible?

[tx_mgm]

cnn reviewing games? how about they stick to what they're good at and speculate on how this game is going to cause violence in our schools.....of course it will have to air during the 15 minutes out of the day they arent speculating on our coming war with iraq...

/sarcasm

So

[Bob Abooey]

Game reviews are so subjective I don't know why anyone would put any stock in them.

I could write up a review of the latest version of nethack describing how intense it is and how it sucks you right into the game and eats up hours of your life which would be a bunch of blather to someone who only enjoys FP shooters. Of course that's an exageration to prove my point but you get the idea.

One game is a 20 year franchise?

[loucura!]

The game is a sequel. It suffers the same problems that most sequels suffer. What made the original popular was it's originality. Sequels suck because they try to leech off from the originality of the original.

That said. How the hell does one game make a 20 year franchise? Did Dragon's Lair spawn several sequels? If not, then it's a 20 year late sequel.

Real franchises spawn fun sequels...

Not that bad!

[DJayC]

I don't understand why people are pissed off. I loved the Dragon Lair series, and I thought the 3D version was faithful to the originl. It was neat to see environments in 3D normally seen in cartoon form. The animation was beautiful, and the game kept me interested longer than most games I play today. It's a fun game that doesn't take too much to play, and I think that's missing a lot these days. I didn't have to sit through a half an hour introduction, the puzzles are fun and fast paced, and the characters familiar. Just my two cents though..

Excuse Me?

[_Neurotic]

How does one bad review for a game constitute a statement like "Not Worth The Effort"?

Here's a tip: Try looking at more than one review before you bash something in such a high profile forum.

In the future, try looking up a game's rating on MetaCritic. Have a look and you'll see that altough not everyone liked it, it wasn't universally panned either.

The Slashdot editors need to wake up to the fact that Slashdot holds sway over many a mind. This influence should not be taken lightly.

Worthy of the Smithsonian?

[fastdecade]

Pong - Icon of early video gaming. Very worthy.

Pacman - First mainstream video game character. Very worthy.

Dragon's Lair - first laserdisc game. Important but not top three material.

How about ...

Donkey Kong - the game that started the biggest dynasty of game characters

Street Fighter - spawned by far the biggest gaming genre of the past decade

Tetris - the "Hello World" of video gaming ... the most widely ported arcade game ever. And also its graphics were mundane, even for the late 80s, demonstrating games don't have to be sexy to be addictive.

And from the perspective of technology, how about some of the early 3D classics (Star Wars, Tron) or some of the Japanese "VR" dancing, musical instrument etc, games. And for cultural impact.

Dragon's Lair was great technology for its time. But top 3? Not even a contender!!!

Re:Ubi Sucks

[Warin]

There is one title that completely nullifies your opinion of UBI...

IL-2 Sturmovik.

One of the best flight sims ever, but largely ignored because it deals with the eastern front. Hopefully the stand alone 'expansion' Forgotten Battles rectifies this by adding the American aircraft to the mix. Its one of the best flight sims I've ever played, and kicks Combat Flight Simulator 3 all over the skies!