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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."
It is too bad they butcherd it, Dragons Lair was a kick ass game. Oh well, I still have Xcom (the original)
History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it - Sir Winston Churchill
My first name is Dirk, so does this mean I'm going to go through ANOTHER round of meeting people for the first time and having them say, "oh, like Dirk the Daring?" Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad for this latest version to flop.
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
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...
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.....
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.
Schnapple
In fact my hand still involuntarily twitches in the direction of white flashing lights.
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.
All the best,
--Bob
This reviewer also panned Unreal Tournament.
FWIW.
"The human body's design spec is: A spacesuit for a fish." -Ken MacLeod's 'The Cassini Division'
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...
Black and grey are both shades of white.
Unfortunately, trying to control Dirk is a game in itself. And not a fun one.
Sounds like they've reproduced the all the 'magic' of the original, if you ask me.
While some would argue that any of those isometric-view or 3D Pac Man games from the late eighties and early nineties (Pac Man World, anyone?) "tainted" the original, I'd say even more would just go "huh? Never heard of 'em."
Did Frogger 3D "taint" the original Frogger? IMO, no, it's just pretty much been forgotten. Even better yet, what about Centipede 3D?
Dragon's Lair 3D might be a total waste of time and money for anyone developing or playing it, but that doesn't mean that it detracts from the original (which was pretty much as close to a video game version of "simon says" as you could get, of course. But, ooh, it's on a laserdisc! Eh, whatever...)
Marc Saltzman isn't just a CNN croney, he writes for numerous newspapers (Globe Technology, Toronto Star), writes reviews for Electronic Playground TV Show, written game Design / Review books, and much more. Perhaps you should look beyond the CNN and see who the true author of the article is, you'd be surprised at the content that AOL has on their site and software even though it's branded AOL. Same is true with CNN.
Ummm...
Ubi sucks. They butchered Pools of Radiance 2, and they've apparently butchered Dragons Lair 2 also.
I havent bought an Ubi game since PoR, nor do I plan on ever buying another Ubi game again. Ubi is #1 on my personal shit list of game producing companies.
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
On a related note, has anyone tried the DVD version of the Dragon's Lair game? Apparently you throw it on the dvd player and control it with the DVD remote control.
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.
. jhtml
Nope. I know at least Sega's Virtua Fighter is also on display. Here's from Sega's website:
The Virtua Fighter series has been recognized by the Smithsonian Institute for its contributions in the field of Art and Entertainment, and is on permanent display at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington D.C.
Here's a link to the source: http://www.sega.com/segascream/legacy/historyofvf
-- Kircle
Possibly even less interactive, and for God's sake, how much Don Bluth animation can our ecosystem possibly SUSTAIN? I may never stop throwing up. . .(/rant)
So, I bet I wouldn't have liked it anyway. :)
You are not the customer.
I thought the game was fun, then again, I remember pumping quarters into the original one as well. If not for that, I may not have played it to the end.
There are big bugs in the game, it can be awkward to control, and the sword fighting was easy, just boring after the first couple times.
But in all, it was a fun game - if not just to see Dirk die all sorts of ways!
Don Bluth's lifetime of work is some of my favorite stuff and it hurts a little every time I see one of his newer efforts flop. I've not played Dragon Lair 3D myself but general concensis among my friends seems to be on par with this review.
He and Gary Goldsmith's last theatrical animated feature, Titan A.E., also did less than expected at the box office. With such classics under his belt like "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers" (Bluth was a lead animator at Disney early in his career), "The Secret of N.I.M.H." and "An American Tail", here's hoping that he keeps the ball rolling and isn't discouraged.
His website can be reached at http://www.donbluth.com/
Dragon's Lair Neagativity Assailed
Pyongyang, February 12 (KCNA) -- The US conspiracy in criticizing 'Dragon's Lair 3D' clearly proves that the U.S. is making absurd pretexts for overtaking DPRK fun with nuclear force, if necessary. It is all the more ridiculous when beloved Dirk the Daring is used by US war-mongers to enhance negative feelings among the the world's gamers.
The US remains committed to "secret" plans to topple the DPRK and criticism of fun-loving video games is just but one transparent ploy in the war-mongers game of double-standards.
The US should "pull out" all troops from South Korea and engage in proper dialogue. Until the US video mongers offer DPRK a non-aggression treaty signed by all congress members, the so-called "nuclear issue" of "Dirk the Daring" will not be settled.
Anecdote about Kim Jong IlPyongyang, February 12 (KCNA) -- In 1988, General Secretary Kim Jong Il visited a factory where people were very cold and had little food. He saw that there were no video games and suggested that fifteen minutes of proper video gaming would strengthen deeply cherished feelings and love of the country.
Seeing no video games available, however, General Secretary Kim Jong Il stayed up for two straight nights in order to give his beloved workers proper fun. Finally, General Secretary Kim Jong Il called upon his Libyan friends to deliver three cases of counterfeit Mickey Mouse cups for the workers. Seeing the cups, the workers were very pleased and held a toast with empty cups to their dear leader with their new cups. General Secretary Kim Jong Il hoped that although the cups weren't video game they would understand the spirit of the video games and to be entertained and enlightened nonetheless.
I was in Best Buy the other day and they had a 3-pack DVD set of: Dragon's Lair, Space Ace and Dragon's Lair 2.
The box claimed they were playable on PS2 and XBOX and, I believe, a regular DVD player.
With the way the games were played, they should translate to DVD games without much of a hitch.
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
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.
I was really impressed by that game. It was one of the few games from the 80s that really captured my attention (and money). Ah, the memories.
What I *can't* understand is why they chose Pac-Man for the Smithsonian... why not Ms. Pac Man? I think it was a better game, personally. And it is the #1 collectible arcade machine in the world.
I've got a bad attitude and karma to burn. Go ahead. Mod me down.
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..
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.
Pong - Icon of early video gaming. Very worthy.
...
... 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.
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
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!!!
I would say(ask) the following questions to the reviewer:
1) Which Platform did you test?
2) The camera angles were easy with a mouse. I had no trouble at all especially with the follow camera feature on. It even had different follow modes like Zelda.
3) Daphne's voice can be turned off on the settings.
It's sounds more like if this reviewer spent a little more time getting familiar with the settings, they wouldn't be so negative on it.
I liked it, for what it was. A little hack&slash, a little coordinated movement. Nice graphics, and a clever music video at the end.
:) However, while they included a good number of scenes from the first Dragon's Lair, they included nothing from the second game, although they did include some characters from it, providing a little more depth to the story, not that DL was ever known as a "deep". But they TRIED to tell a story, just wish they did a better job at it. The second game would probably have been harder to put into 3D due to the dramatically different environments, but it was a more entertaining game than the first one, in my not so humble opinion.
It lacks in several regards though. First, its just too damn short. Probably spent 3 hours getting through it the first time. Total. Playing it the second time only took me two hours. Of course, you could finish the original in 15 minutes, so I suppose its an improvement.
One big issue of contention, their in-game movies use the bink format, and downloading a free bink player, you can play them fine outside of the game, but for some reason I can't figure out, the in-game player simply can't handle it. Of course, I'm ONLY on a 1.7ghz machine, so I'm sure there's a really really really good reason that a video playback can't exceed 4fps, but I digress.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
- It was released for all major modern gaming platforms at the same time: PlayStaion 2, Xbox, GameCube, and Windows. To my knowledge, this was the first game to do that. There was no sitting in front of my PC, anxiously waiting for GTA3.
- It includes Daphne. [/me bites fist] She's even cuter when rendered in cell-shaded 3D. I didn't know I could be so enchanted by a low-poly model.
Dragon's Lair 3D is sort of like a movie license. Movie license games tend to honk because they rely on the movie to sell the games, rather than gameplay. This game does not suffer from that problem because it ads huge elements to the original. For example, you get to use magic and stuff. Dirk slays the bad-ass dragon about half way through the game, and then there's more-- much more!Great effort was made to keep the original 1983 flavour as much as possible. The textures on the walls are taken directly from the backgrounds of the 1983 version, whenever appropriate. The characters look almost identical, due to the good use of their cell-shading tech.
It includes ALL the scenes from the 1983 classic, albeit in the new 3D form. For example, that scene where the knight stabs the floor to electrify the tiles is there, but you have to maneuver Dirk with more than one joystick movement per "blip", sorta like Max Payne. It's now a real jumping puzzle. Wow.
The voice acting is excellent. Better than most games out there, probably because it's not all that integral to gameplay and used sparsely. Dirk's little "Ghah!" sounds are still hilarious.
The control occasionally honks. (NB: I'm being PC-centric here) Most of the game, you can control Dirk easily with WASD and a mouse. However, there are points where you are expected to steer Dirk with a joystick. But, you don't have one configured, do you? This can seem really weird if you've been playing Quake for years. This would probably not be noticeable on one of the consoles.
I think that Dragon's Lair 3D is a great game for those are nostalgic for 1983, or those who are very young. But, if you're looking for a rival for Mario, look elsewhere (and let me know if you find anything).
In the small Putt-Putt arcade where I would frequent in the evenings of college, all my friends were totally into the fighting games. Mortal Kombat, Tekken, King of Fighters.. they played and mastered them all. Yet, I totally sucked at fighting games and couldn't remember the special moves to save my life.
So, when they were all pumping tokens into Street Fighter Turbo II GX Ultra I was pumping them into Dragons Lair 2. Sure, I knew it was just a fancy game of memory but I loved the Don Bluth visuals. After several months of pumping what must have been an ungodly amount of money into that machine, I had gotten so good that I could beat the game all the way through on a single token. Fifteen minutes of gaming on just 25 cents.
Then I took it a step further got good enough to beat it on a single token AND getting all the extra items. When that wasn't enough, I eventually had the entire game so memorized I could beat the whole thing on one token, getting all the extra items, never loosing a single life _AAAAND_ using only one hand. People would often come up to watch me play, their jaws gaping at how easy I made it look.
The best part was finishing the game on a single token and then watching as the next guy stepped up to try. They would always just start pounding on the stick like a frustrated ape.
It's been years since I played my beloved Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp but I sometimes wonder just how far I'd be able to get today.
Dont trust reviews. Think for yourself.
But that takes money, and, you know....effort.
The original Dragon's Lair game has been out on DVD for quite some time. To make the game work on your DVD player, you use the arrow buttons on your remote. Pretty ingenious to port this game to DVD, IMO.
Also, the Game 'Space Ace', the Half-Brother of Dragon's Lair, is on DVD as well.
Both of these games rock on DVD!!!
Dolemite
Save the World! Use a Quote!
Don't be so cynical. Wing Commander 2 will be in theaters soon... THEN we'll see who's laughing!
~D:
I was in my early teens when the original Dragon's Lair came out, and I remember after playing it once I came away unimpressed. Sure, it was cool to have a "cartoony" game at the time, but (IMO) the playability was awful.
;)
Hard to believe that a polygon-based game -- which you would think would be more responsive than a timing-based "choose your own adventure" type of video -- actually would be worse.
Maybe the developers needed to put more buxom female characters in the game. It seems to work for Eidos.