Dragon's Lair

released on Dec 29, 1990

A port of Dragon's Lair

Dragon's Lair is a side-scrolling platform game based on the laserdisc game of the same name released for the Nintendo Entertainment System and developed by the MotiveTime group. Plotwise, the game is identical to the original. The game is a side-scroller with the character walking slowly. Dirk can walk, crawl, or jump forward, and he has an array of weapons that he can discover and use to dispose of enemies. The controller layout is reversed from other mainstream NES titles, with Select functioning as the Pause-button while Start is used for the Candle object (which helps reveal hidden weapons). Also, B is used for jumping, and A for attacking (the input of the A & B buttons is almost always the opposite in similar NES games). Two different versions were released later, first for the Famicom, with major improvements on playability and speed, and a second one for PAL regions, expanding upon the Famicom version with new enemies and cutscenes.


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I mean, it's more of a game than the real thing, but is that really a good thing?

As one could imagine, the original Dragon’s Lair was not only very influential and unique for the time that it came out, but it was also incredibly successful as well. So naturally, just like any greedy corporation when they hear opportunity knocking at the door, they decided to take advantage of it by making lots and lots of ports. However, given how the game was basically a playable Don Bluth film, it would be impossible to port the game onto the home consoles at the time, at least, in its original form. So, when somebody had the “brilliant” idea of “porting” the original Dragon’s Lair to the NES, not only did they get a completely different developer and publisher for the game (which is always a great sign), but they made it into a completely different game. And thus, we were then given the mangled corpse known as Dragon’s Lair for the NES.

Before trying this game out, I had known about this game, specifically from AVGN, and from what I had seen of it, it had looked pretty rough, while also looking to be a complete struggle to even attempt to try to play. Nevertheless, just like with every game I play, I tried to go in with an open mind, and what a surprise, I fucking hated it. Sure, I will give them a tiny morsel of credit for at least trying to make a new game in this series for the NES, but this is basically the textbook example of how not to bring your successful arcade game to a home system.

The story is the exact same as the original game, MOVING ON, the graphics are… definitely graphics, but I will give them this, they did put in a lot of effort to the animations, which look pretty good (but that creates a whole new slew of problems that I will get to later), the music is some of the most generic beeps and boops that I have ever heard come from a game on this system, the control is…………………….deep breath, we’ll get there, and the gameplay is unique compared to the original, but about as unique as an NES platformer can be, and the way you play makes it unbearable to trudge through… which I didn’t do, because I actually care about my mental health.

The game is a 2D side-scrolling cinematic platformer, where you traverse through the Dragon’s Lair, defeating plenty of enemies, avoiding dangerous obstacles, finding items and weapons to help you take out the many threats you will face, and take on several bosses along the way. It is all pretty standard stuff for an NES game, yes, and it is an understandable way of bringing a game like Dragon’s Lair to the NES, even though it doesn’t work out here in the slightest. Sure, there are all the gameplay issues that we will get to in a second, but one of the big reasons why a game like this just doesn’t work for the Dragon’s Lair series is because of its complete lack of identity.

When you went into an arcade and saw Dragon’s Lair, it looked completely unique compared to everything else that was there due to the animation and art style. Sure, it didn’t have that much gameplay, but the animation and art style was ultimately what drew you into it in the first place, and it undeniably kept the game’s legacy alive because of that. However, whenever this series was put onto the NES, it completely lost that aspect of its appeal, and thus, lost its soul. Now it is just yet another NES game to throw back into the bargain bin, having practically nothing to make it stand out amongst other games on the system, and thus, losing all semblance of quality. I know, it’s a little extreme to say that, but whenever you think of Dragon’s Lair, the animation is the first thing you think about, no question, so when that is removed, we kind of have a big problem here.

And speaking of having a big problem here, there is the matter of… sigh... the gameplay. Just like with the original Dragon’s Lair, this game is REALLY HARD, where it throws a lot at you to try to kill you, such as tough enemies, tiny enemies to chip away your health, traps a plenty, and instant kill obstacles. What doesn’t help matters is, just like with the original game, you mainly die in one hit (even though there is a health bar, so yeah, fuck all of the devs), and yes, they do give you plenty of lives to use so that you don’t immediately get a game over, but given how fast you can die even from just starting the level, the lives may as well not be there at all.

But undeniably, the biggest issue with this entire game, and the biggest issue with the gameplay, would be the control and movement of your character. You move UNBELIEVABLY slow, which could help with dealing with the challenges up ahead in theory, but your sprite is also ridiculously huge, making trying to move through tight corridors and obstacles almost impossible without dying, as well as making you a giant target for all of the projectiles that will be flying towards you. But not only do you move way too slowly, but you also do EVERYTHING ELSE way too slowly! Just the simple act of crouching, jumping, attacking, everything feels like it takes a billion years to execute, and by the time you even press the button to do one of these actions, you are already dead. It makes things much more difficult in the worst way possible.

Overall, this is without a doubt the worst way to bring an arcade series to a home console, and one of the worst NES games that I have ever played in my life. Just stick with the original games, don’t even think about trying this one out, because it is not worth it whatsoever. And what’s even worse is that this isn’t the only time they tried to not only bring Dragon’s Lair to a home system, but also tried to make it into a platformer. But hey, those other platformers can’t be as bad as this one was… right? Please?

Game #238

It has neat ideas that are poorly executed mostly due to the slow and clunky controls. I will say, I'm kind of a masochist so I've played my handful of games from this franchise and this has to be one of the worst. (They're all terrible games)

Big sprite animation on NES, but at what cost.