Dragon's Lair (Switch)

So where's the movie?

So I'm a huge fan of Don Bluth's movies like Secret of Nimh, Land Before Time and An American Tail. And the Dragon's Lair game have interested me for a while, but it wasn't until now I actually got it with the Trilogy HD version for Switch. Around $20 it was decent enough for three games, or more like 3 mini-movies. Basically you are Dirk the Daring that tries to get through the castle where the dragon have kidnapped Princess Daphne. The game doesn't tell you this so you pretty much must watch the commercial for it (thankfully included in the extras menu).  How do you play? As the scene plays out you need to react with the correct action either move or use your sword to avoid or destroy the danger in the room. Fairly simple concept and you can customize how you play the game, either making it look like a arcade cabinet with a screen protector over it, give yourself different amounts of life and/or have the rooms entirely randomized after you die or play it in a straight line. You will fight pitfalls, undead skeletons and other denizens of the castle until you reach the inner sanctum and you fight the dragon to get the key to unlock the glass bubble that have trapped Daphne. It's pretty much trails and errors unless you use the guide (which frankly, I did) cause it blips what you should do, but it isn't always clear if we are supposed to go up or at the side so the guide is rather good in that way. It of course limits a bit what you can see on the screen (even once in the treasure chamber blending into the background so I missed the mark), but if you wanna play through it that's recommended until you learnt every part. Or you can just watch it like a movie in the extras menu, since the player won't have time to appreciate the gorgeous art while playing, but this is a game where you would be better of watching a decently good player just go through it.

There's nothing really more to talk about since it's hardly a game, really, but it's nice to look at. The last thing in the extras menu is the interview with Don Bluth and two other producers on how they came to create this game and projects that was scrapped and even some bits about the Steven Spielburg cooperation that Bluth had which made them create movies that toppled Disney as the animation company in the later half of the 80's (until the Little Mermaid that is). The voice acting in the game is a bit rough, but since it was the animators giving the voice it's kinda understandable. Otherwise if you like the animation and find it interesting go for it.

Wait, you said Daphne was based on some Playboy-magazines?