PlayStation

Blazing Dragons

Usually, I didn't like text adventures, but I gotta tell you, Blazing Dragons was entertaining enough to garner my praise. Everything is done right in this game. The graphics are well drawn and highly detailed, the voice acting is impeccable and most of all, the dialogue is hilarious. Time and time again I found myself laughing my arse off. There are corny jokes here and there, but the quest is so well designed and the game is so fun, you don't even care. A miracle.

If you like the point-and-click adventure, Blazing Dragons is at the top of the list in this category. I usually don't have the patience to finish one of these games, but I finished this one. The puzzles are difficult but obvious. The humor is ever-present and the laughter is non-stop. My only complaint is that the game was a bit short. Also, don't read the hints in the back of the booklet until you are completely stuck, because they are a bit too revealing. On the whole, this is good fun for the whole family. We enjoyed putting our minds together to find the solutions to the puzzles. We all know that the days of gathering around the fire have been replaced with gathering around the Playstation, and this game is worth the gather.

Overall, the game is pretty intuitive with a built-in hint feature (the Information Booth). This game seems to be geared toward all skill levels due to it's wit and hints. I'm a big fan of these types from way back and I like the twist of dragons as the central characters and the whole Camelot pun. The access time is it's only drawback, but it isn't a real problem. A great time for adventurers.

Illusions Gaming developed a video game based on the cartoon, titled, appropriately enough, Blazing Dragons. It features the same animators and same voice actors as the series, most notably Terry Jones himself, Cheech Marin, and Harry Shearer. It was released for Playstation and Sega Saturn in 1996.

Blazing Dragons was originally released in 1996 for the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation (the latter of which is being reviewed here). For those who are unfamiliar with the game, the adventure is based on the little known cartoon series that aired at the time, focusing on the adventures of the Knights of the Round Table and the land of Camelot, except with a twist — all the protagonists are dragons and the villains are human. With Terry Jones (comic children's author and star of acclaimed British TV series Monty Python), behind the creation of the characters, you can expect plenty of madcap antics and lashings of humour for good measure. Despite my reservations that such comic subject matter would work as a basis for an adventure game, it manages to pull it off with enough Pythonesque humour to live up to its star billing.

For all of you out there who want a classic adventure title for your PlayStation or PlayStation 2 console, pick up Blazing Dragons. The rest of you would probably get a kick out of it too, but it might be hard to pick up how the interface is structured at first. Some might be turned off by how short this game is; but since it doesn't take a hundred hours to complete, you might be more inclined to play it more than once. This is a solid adventure title from the same people who published the Gex titles, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a cheap laugh. You cynical folk who laugh at nothing but the misfortune of others might wanna steer clear of it, though.

Like the best cartoons, Blazing Dragons is suitable for kids of all ages, but is really intended for audiences capable of catching the sometimes-subtle, sometimes-risque humor (most of which is delivered in the British lilt of Terry Jones' superb voice-overs). Console video games have, over time, brought excitement, challenge, some genuine scares, and even something like intuition to the screen. Perhaps titles like Blazing Dragons will expand the possibilities of console games even further. Or, put another way: And now for something completely different.