Dragon's Lair 3

"They've finally ruined my all time favorite game !"

I've been an avid... no, scratch that, HARDCORE Dragon's Lair fan since the mid 80's. Until now, the most horrible rendition that I remember was for the Colecovision Adam computer, loaded via cassette tape. Horrible graphics and control, but this one dips even lower.

Graphics/Gameplay: The graphics are exactly the same as the Xbox/GameCube/PS2 version of Dragon's Lair 3D. "Well that game had some pretty darn nifty graphics" you say? Well, sure they were for a free-roaming 3-D rendered game. However, all the developer did for this version was digitally record someone playing DL3D, briefly paused the action as close as they could to certain 'decision points' where you must press Up, Down, Left, Right, or the Enter or (Sword) button. "Well that sounds very much like the gameplay action of the original arcade game, right?" WRONG! All you are doing is watching some schmuck play DL3D worse than you would even play it yourself. Even when Dirk kills an enemy, the power-ups from DL3D appear and they are sometimes collected. Not that they do you any good, because you aren't playing DL3D. Let me repeat. The gameplay is like watching a DVD your friend recorded of him(or her)self having played through DL3D. Every 5-20 seconds, your buddy pauses the pre-recorded video, you both roll a 5-sided die, and if your number matches his, he un-pauses it and lets you see another 5-20 seconds of his pre-recorded 'conquest' of the game. If they don't match, he hits the 'chapter back' button and you watch the last scene over again & now you have a 1-in-4 chance to continue. Once you memorize the 1-in-5 chance button presses, there really is no gameplay per se.

DVD Extras: History / Making Of / Image Gallery / Music Video???
This is the only thing that saves this version from being a 1 on the rating scale. However, all of these extras are on the DL3D game, so if you haven't seen these documentary pieces, but DL3D for a console instead. Oh, and by the way, the Extras would have bumped this DVD-Video game up to a 3 or possibly a 4, but just the fact that they made such a horrible song and music video for the game brought it back down to a 2.

The original Dragon's Lair Arcade Game (including all of the deaths was approximately 45-55 minutes of digital video. Heck, they can cram 3 or 4 20 minute cartoons (with chapter menus) longer than that onto Game Boy Advance carts nowadays. Digital video with chapter selection is all the technology the developer needs to make a perfect version on something as simple as the GameBoy Advance. Until Digital Leisure finally comes out with an handheld 'Arcade Perfect' port of the original Dragon's Lair (or sequels or spinoffs) for the GBA, DS or the PSP, I won't be buying any more Dragon's Lair games. This one finally ruined the Dragon's Lair mystique for me.
Thanks, Digital Leisure!

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 05/10/05