Dirk the Daring makes the transition to 3D with all the grace and elegance of... well, Dirk the Daring. Dragon's Lair 3D has the feel of one of "those games." The kind from this generation where it all works functionally and there's a clear amount of love put into it, but lacking any polish. Combat is extremely clunky, every enemy is programmed to stun lock you, jump inputs are often a suggestion, and audio bugs from huge differences in volume to sounds playing randomly in the background fill nearly every moment of the experience. In a very unintentional way, these flaws keep a lot of the "spirit" of the original FMV game alive. It's frustrating and often unclear what you did wrong or what was actually meant to happen.
All that said, it still works as an action-platformer. For the parts that work, there's a decent amount of charm in Dirk's character and animation, the environments are simple but vibrantly colored, and the cel-shaded graphics hold up decently (with the exception of Daphne, who appears to be made of 6 thick black lines fighting with each other for dominance). It's not the most compelling game in the world, and it gets very aggravating in the back-half when they start adding "new" content that goes beyond the ending of the original game, but there's a decent little adventure here led by one of gaming's more endearing heroes.
All that said, it still works as an action-platformer. For the parts that work, there's a decent amount of charm in Dirk's character and animation, the environments are simple but vibrantly colored, and the cel-shaded graphics hold up decently (with the exception of Daphne, who appears to be made of 6 thick black lines fighting with each other for dominance). It's not the most compelling game in the world, and it gets very aggravating in the back-half when they start adding "new" content that goes beyond the ending of the original game, but there's a decent little adventure here led by one of gaming's more endearing heroes.