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Dragon's Lair 3D Not Worth The Effort

Posted by timothy on from the behind-its-time dept.

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."

6 of 262 comments (clear)

  1. I like Dragon's Lair 3D by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Althought I got stuck pretty far in to the game, I think DL3D is an excellent game keeping true to the original Dragon's Lair.

    DL 3D gives the full range of motion the original Dragon's Lair always lacked. D3 3D also keeps up the cartoonyness and originality from the original.

    It's definately worth checking out in my opinion. But as the CNN review's opinion differs, it only proves that everyone has their own opinion...

    1. Re:I like Dragon's Lair 3D by tornater · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yea, I liked it pretty well too. The full range motion, like you mentioned, plus being able to save the game at any time. It was a not-too-hard, jumping/puzzle, fight/action game with a little bit of a story. Nice change of pace from the frantic twitch FPSs that we are bombarded with. One thing I've noticed in other bad reviews of it is they say Dirk moves way too slow. I wonder if they just didn't figure out double-tapping the forward key makes him run faster. Only thing I didn't like was lots of crashing. Somewhat buggy. Also, it was a little short.

  2. Re:Well respected? by geekoid · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The first game to bring hand animation, laserdisks, and alternative paths together in a single game. The technology was really advanced for the time, and it grossed 34,000,000 in the first year, thats a lot of quarters.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  3. I've played the crap out of it. by deathcow · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Mainly because my 3 yr old digs it so much. Lets play Dragons Lair. Lets play Dragons Lair. The kid tells his mom, "You're Daphne, I'm Dirk" and he proceeds to rescue here from me.

    I think the game surpasses the original, (given proper allowances for what years they were both created.) Dragons Lair 3D allows Dirk freedom of movement, he can go anywhere basically, jumping, rolling, crouching, sneaking, climbing, swinging his sword, running etc. I find the idea much more enjoyable than a "go left, right left left up left right left to survive" type game.

    The graphics arent up with the latest "Unreal 2" type lighting, etc. but who cares. They are 3D accelerated and the textures look good and Dirk himself and the cartoony characters look great.

    The frustrating aspect of the game is the level bosses, sometimes they are so hard to figure out that you pretty much "throw down the mouse" and say "screw it, I'm not going to try for a 500th time today to beat the smithey" (HOW do you beat the Smithey?)

    Dirk gets cool "essences" along the way from various level bosses, dragon wings to help him fly, spirit to keep him alive, eyes to let him see secret doors.

    Overall, I give it an "A", with a "B-" for the level bosses and having to determine each of their secret formulas for whippin their butts.

  4. Re:One game is a 20 year franchise? by iocat · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It may not be franchise, but given the number of platforms the original has been released on, it's practically it's own industry:

    Arcade

    Macintosh

    PC

    straight-DVD

    Colecovision

    Coleco Adam

    Commodore 64

    Game Coy Color (!)

    3DO

    Super Nintendo

    Sega CD

    various euro-micros

    CD-i

    I don't know if there's any time since it was released that you haven't been able to purchase some version of Dragon's Lair!

    --

    Dude, I think I can see my house from here.

  5. Re:Well respected? by Performer+Guy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I watched people pump quarters in, watched them play, remembered their moves then tried it myself and mastered it without emptying my wallet. It was amazing at the time, but laser discs are inherently limited. It WAS ahead of it's time.

    Very annoying when the joystick wore out though. Ahh the black screen of doom as the laser disc accessed the appropriate death sequence. Those were the days.