N-Philes

Dragon's Lair 3D

Posted by Archived.

I can remember the first time I ever played a videogame was at the Primary Years Daycare Center when I was about, let's say, five to six years of age. Our "teachers" pitched in and bought all the little children an aged original Nintendo system along with about twenty games or so. Among these were such classics as Super Mario Bros., Contra, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Arcade Game. Now, the strict rules of our daycare dictated that each of us got to play through one Game Over before passing it on. In my zest to test out every game that was offered to us, I picked up a little diddy called Dragon's Lair for my first trial run. It seemed simple enough, rescue a princess in a castle. As my luck would have it, I stumbled onto what I called for the last ten years, "The Hardest Game...Ever." I couldn't even get into the castle to begin the game. There was an obstacle involving a bridge and an alligator, and for some strange reason, I couldn't make the jump. Many other kids tried, but nary a one made it inside the Dragon's Lair. It was relegated to the end of the box that we called "Stupid Games" along with Back to the Future Parts Two and Three. It wasn't until quite recently (actually the port of the NES version coming to the GBC) that I actually discovered the true nature of the game. As I understand it, it was actually a point-and-click type game, so most likely I could've pointed to a switch on the drawbridge and gotten inside the castle. Dragon's Lair was the first full-animation laser disc game released all the way back in 1983. In fact, there are only three arcade games on display at the Smithsonian: Pong, Pac-Man, and Dragon's Lair. Almost twenty years later, Dragon's Lair finds its way into the wonderful world of 3D gaming in Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair.

Story

The beautiful and scantily clad (one of the reasons this game earned a Teen rating) Princess Daphne has been kidnapped by the evil wizard, Mordroc, and it's up to you, as Dirk the Daring to brave the monstrously huge castle and reclaim your lovely lady. The only problem is that Modroc has cast an evil spell or virtually everything, books, statues; you name it, making a pure devil of a time to finally get to him. Sure, the idea of one man alone in a castle going after a beautiful princess has been beaten into the ground (cough cough Zelda cough cough Castlevania cough cough Mario) but when did the original Dragon's Lair come out? Oh yeah, that's right, 1983. That makes the story totally cutting edge.

Gameplay

Dragon's Lair 3D taps into the classic theme of "one man against the world." You're just Dirk, alone in quite possibly the most gigantic of all 3D games. You know how most 3D games of this day and age make you repeat the same level over and over again? Super Mario Sunshine only had eight levels (counting Dolphic Town), and you repeated them over and over again. I'm not a big fan of repetition of level designs. Luckily, once you are done with an area in Dragon's Lair 3D, you will never see it again. That's quite impressive when you consider the game has over 43 areas (major levels) and 250 rooms within that. You simply go from point A to point B, and that takes away from the "exploration" factor that most people have come to expect from 3D games. You can go around and collect treasures in hidden locations, if you so choose, which I'll probably go and do on the second go around. I can't do it anymore, because all the doors behind me are locked. Yeah, that's right kids, no backtracking. There's no asking yourself, "Have I been here before?" because you haven't.

At the onset of the game, all you're given is a sword, an amulet that Princess Daphne tells you hints through, and absolutely no clue where to go. Dragon's Lair 3D, like its predecessor, depends heavily on what I like to call "wicked hard puzzles." Some puzzles aren't necessarily wicked hard, but the game itself is very much so. The first room I ran into, this huge bookcase slid from across the room and slapped me in the face. Books fly out of the bookcases and sneak up on you. Staircases lose steps as you run up them. Walls in rooms are quickly built, so sometimes you have to make a mad dash to make it through the ever-shrinking hole. And then a big bookcase flew out of nowhere and dashed my hopes. The overused "Statues" awaking thing is a tad overdone, but it never feels tired. While some may call this game "cheap" by causing you to die so quickly, you immediately restart where you died. You don't have to play the whole section over again. One time I was locked in this hideous fire puzzle where I turned to ash if I came anywhere near the flames. It was right at the beginning, and the door behind me had locked, so I was stuck. I spent about an hour and somewhere around 75 lives trying to figure out the puzzle. I knew there was a solution and I finally figured it out. I must say it was one of the crowning achievements of my life. Okay, maybe not, but each and every time I solved a particularly difficult puzzle, I felt a grand sense of accomplishment.

Dragon's Lair 3D borrows a little from Zelda with B-targeting, but it's actually easier to just hack and slash your way through the game. Unlike most games, you are always attacked in multiple pairs of enemies, so it would behoove you to attack everybody and not commit to one single weird pig animated thingy. Later on, you get the awesome power of the Crossbow, which can be used for shooting things from afar. I was playing Hitman 2 with my cousin and noticed the main character could climb ladders with a pistol in each hand. Alas, Dirk the Daring is not a specially programmed killing machine. He has to sheathe his sword first. With a lot of games I've played, the player has to stop to pull out a weapon. Dirk can unsheathe his sword on the run. If you think that's unimportant, well, try being in the middle of a huge battle and having to risk getting hit again so you can pull out your sword.

Visuals

In the style of the laserdisc game, Dragonstone Software opted for cel-shading in this roaring adventure. Because of Wind Waker, I was eager to see just how cel-shading played out on the ‘Cube, and I must say, I am a believer. Cel-shading is the most beautiful concept ever realized. It's sleek. It's smooth. It's gorgeous. The cel-shading, disproportionate walls that mammoth Dirk, and a gloomy purple sky lingering in the window, all creating a dark, forboding mood and help add to the idea that you're living a cartoon.

The brilliance of the game comes from the little things that I used to enjoy back in the day. Most games typically have the "waiting animation," where if you don't do anything, the character just kind of yawns and sits there patiently. When I was five, I used to live in a happy world where I would just waste five minutes watching Sonic just tapping his foot. Nowadays, we take that for granted and couldn't care less. While stopping to check my instruction manual, I was startled to hear an, "Aieee!" from the television. I barely caught it, but Dirk was goofing off and was checking the sharpness of his sword. It was one of those absolute moments of pure genius and I applaud it.

All of the enemies are also cel-shaded, and, once again, I must reiterate that it is truly a sight to behold. Each and every enemy is crystal clear with nary a jaggie in sight. After living with poor anti-aliasing, horrible draw-distances, and dull coloration, a game like Dragon's Lair 3D is definitely a sight for sore eyes.

Audio

I don't know if the score was modified from the original game, but it is absolutely amazing. It has that perfect feeling of danger, mystery, magic, and all-around medieval coolness. It really feels like I'm stuck in the middle of a great, epic cartoon. I cannot describe in words how melodious the score is. A nice touch is you can hear Princess Daphne (I'm assuming through the amulet) cry out every time Dirk gets hurt. I don't know precisely what Dragonstone was going for, probably some psychic connection through the amulet, but it's just yet another little thing that contributes to the overall product.

This game gets an N-Philes score of A.

I must say that Dragon's Lair 3D is quite possibly one of the best games of this generation. It has everything that I could possibly want all bundled up in one nice little package: an epic quest, beautiful graphics, great music, and puzzles around every turn. It brings me back to a time when games were simple, where you could just go straight on through the game, get stuck in places, but ultimately prevail. In my mind, it is the first game to truly take the great 2D gaming of old and transfer it successfully into 3D. It truly is that marvelous.

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