Dragon's Lair

The Good
If I'm to be completely honest, I didn't actually like anything at all about this game. I loved it in my mind, until I tried it. I read a review which, much like this one, didn't have much good to say about this game, but I loved the pictures of it, and in my head this seemed like a good game.

I really wanted it to be a grand adventure, with smooth animations and atmospheric castle-interiors. I imagined a game where you could actually control Dirk in a way much like the old Prince of Persia, which was actually also converted to NES.

In my mind, Dragon's Lair was not only playable, it was magical.

The Bad
What happened was I tried the game. I consider it one of my luckiest days when I got to borrow this game from a friend. Not because the game was good, but because it saved me the shame and sorrow of having bought it myself.

This stinking pile of crap is utterly unenjoyable on every level there is. Fist of all, Dirk is virtually uncontrollable, since the game is so painfully slow. With all those big sprites flooding the small screen, things move slower than a 90-year old stuck in barrel of tar. Even the first screen takes forever to get through since the controls are so imprecise and you move so slowly you will die lots of times, even if you know exactly what to do and how to do it. And what happens the second you get to the second screen? Well, some prisoners starts chucking bombs at you for no apparent reason. Shouldn't they be happy and rejoice at the sight of a possible rescuer?

If you get through this game, you have not only the patience of an angel, you really can't have even the tiniest shred of life. If you do, you will find millions of frustrating things you'd rather do than play this awful excuse for a game.

This is just as horrible to play as the previous installments of this series. Avoid it, for the sake of your sanity.

The Bottom Line
Extremely difficult and far from worth the trouble. This game is just as bad (although not nearly as good looking) as the previous games in the series.