Dragon's Lair is understandably famous, being as it was an arcade hit combining twitch reflexes with the animation of Don Bluth. It was also out before I was born, so I've never actually played it, being aware of it in the at way you discover things through cultural osmosis.
And it's been re-released, and since it was on GOG, I grabbed it. Felt like it was one of those things that I really should have played before I dared call myself a gamer.
So, what's the game? Basically, it's a film through which you navigate with the power of Quick Time Events. (The capitals are required there.) You're going to watch a bit of action and have to respond to a button prompt on screen in order to save your hero, Dirk the Daring from a hideous death, as well as rescue Princess Daphne.
If you get it wrong, Dirk suffers that horrible death, being eaten, electrocuted, strangled, drowned, smashed, fried and a significant number more. So, make sure you get that hair-trigger sorted.
There's on-screen prompts that match to your control system, but there is also a prompt from a particular element on the screen that your action will involve, such as a bit of floor or hanging rope. Or your sword for a fighting move. You can probably play best by unfocusing you eyes and just going with the flashes.
Which is the massive problem with this. The appeal from a gaming point of view is the fact you have to either have very good reflexes, or the desire to memorise long sequences of button presses that you then repeat half a dozen times till you get it right.
(It's even worse in the second game, where the sequences between continue points gets longer. I got annoyed. Rage quit a couple of times.) But when you're doing that, you're not really watching the screen to enjoy what could be quite an entertaining scene. Shame really, because it's Don Bluth. As always, he's making excellent cartoons. Although Daphne is just a bit too weirdly porny.
While I found myself stumped a fair few times, a determined nature and laser(disc)-like focus got me through DL and DL2 in about half an hour each. I've not had a go at Space Ace yet, but I would expect it is similar. No great replay value I expect, unless you want to flip between the random version or home. I'd honestly suggest you go watch a Let's Play instead of grabbing it, unless you're really desperate or it's on a good sale.
Tagged: Game Visual novel 2D Hard difficulty PC