RKMBs Forums .::Robegories::. Games and Tech Dragon's Lair 3d: Return to the Lair

Saw the topic and decided to give my review and some spoilers :)

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Went and bought this today when it hit our Electronics Boutique, because I'm a big fan of Don Bluth and his animation (that, and have you seen the selection of Xbox games? SUCK). For those who don't know - he drew the original Dragon's Lair, Space Ace, the animation for the movies "American Tail", "Secret of Nihm", "Anastacia", "The Land Before Time", "Titan A.E.", the cartoon segment in "Xanadu", etc....his team came from Disney years ago working on projects like "Fox and the Hound", "Robin Hood", "The Rescuers", "Winnie the Pooh"and "Sleeping Beauty". It's usually always animals. Anyway, about the game...

The game is very true to the original. They took what rooms they had from the original game and made them "3d" - and added about 200 more. There are some animation segments that are right out of Dragon's Lair. The openings, the same sentences, all that stuff. I thought at first it WAS the original - just modernized. After playing about 8 hours I got to the dragon's lair, saved the princess, beat the dragon, finished the game..or so I thought. It took a weird turn and you realize you haven't even begun.

The gameplay is tough.....The distance is hard to judge when jumping and fighting enemies. But you do get full control of Dirk this time, fighting with his sword, jumping, climbing, rolling, and some special attacks. The musical score is pretty decent. They brought back the entire original team - save for the girl who voiced "Daphne", but the replacement is close. They wanted to make you feel like you were controlling a cartoon movie. And they got *pretty* close.

The part I found lacking is, sadly, the animation. I got it in hopes he had done some cartoons for the cut scenes...when the cut scenes are mostly CGI or whatever now. There are some animated stills, but the only cartoon I have found so far is in the opening. Haven't got to the end yet so there may be some later. The current characters almost look like cartoon cut-outs. I really don't know how to describe it. Paper Mario meets Lara, maybe. The colors are nice...and you can play this on HDT and Dobly Digital. The facial expressions are a little off...coulda used a little more work.

I have it on Xbox...so I don't know if this will all be included on all the other platforms, like it's been promised to. There are 3 "History Of" options at the beginning where you are treated to a DVD style interview with the team and creators, and see some of the original game's animation.

There are some mazes that are pretty tough....some of them with short time limits...so I wouldn't recommend this game to small kids or blast'em-up players. You're gonna die. A LOT. The plus side of this is that you aren't given just 3 lives this time, it's limitless. For Rob, they did put the dying scene with the skeleton everytime you get axed, but it's CGI too...not nearly as graphic

It's a good game, and will most likely keep you occupied for hours. No headache yet like when playing GAUNTLET. Wait til the price drops. Nothing worth missing a meal over.
Anyways...I got controller/hand burn. Hope this helps :)

Man, I remember the original game... and wasting lost of money in it...

Any links to pictures of the new version?

for the official site,
http://www.dragonslair3d.com

There are some kewl shots of the graphics and animations on the game page, a message forum for when you get stuck, things like that.

Wait for the price to drop, or just rent it. Since I finished it and wrote my last post on it, I have had no interest to pick it up and play it again. More or less just something to add to the collection.