Dragon's Lair scores 7/10 in the verdict of The Games Market editorial team.
Once Upon a Time
Dragon’s Lair and the Era of Laser Games
by Simon Larocca·September 11, 2023
Nominating Dragon’s Lair means dredging up conflicting memories, made of
laughter, joysticks strangled with the fury of Marge Simpson toward
Bart, and many clinking coins spent to get past that damned bridge.
Non there is no player who did not have a better baptism of fire during their first approach to the Laser Games: the bridge at the beginning of Dragon’s Lair, the title that started the tragicomic epic of Sir Dirk the Daring, a name that says it all and is the harbinger of incredible adventures, as challenging as they are fun.
Parted
from the brilliant mind of a certain Don Bluth,
a director and animator I would dare to call legendary (does An American Tail and
the Invisible Dragon Elliott ring a bell, right?), Dragon’s Lair saw the
light in 1983, effectively marking
the beginning of the era of laser games.
In short, these are video games in which timing, speed, and reflexes rule supreme: at the moment you get the exact timing right for pressing a button or moving the joystick to make the hero move correctly, swing the weapon, or make him jump, the game will continue by showing you the next scene, and so on. I’ll mention a couple of them, which we may talk about in the future, such as Space Ace, with its distinctly science-fiction setting, and that Ninja Hayate, which has a special place in my heart.
Dragon’s Lair, as with almost all games of this genre, is basically presented as an interactive cartoon,
in which our playthrough will be all the longer the more skilled we are at
understanding the mechanisms and dynamics used to avoid traps, defeat monsters,
and save the beautiful Daphne from the terrible dragon.
Prima I mentioned a bridge:
the fearless Dirk will have to cross it to enter the dragon’s castle and begin
the very dangerous quest, and here the game immediately makes us understand in the most
direct and frustrating way possible how things will go if we do not learn to
play: a plank breaks and we will have to be very good at avoiding falling
into the monster’s jaws in the moat and ending our game after barely
three full seconds.
Not bad, right? Yet it is
precisely this that makes lasergames so fascinating, Love and Hate travel
on the same track and you will feel like learning to memorize traps and
hazards so as to face them in the best way and overcome them with the right timing
in interaction. If I remember correctly, it took me a few hours and about ten thousand
lira, but I’m rounding down. A lot, to be honest.
The
game has had many incarnations over time and was released on multiple platforms,
becoming a must for all those who wanted to try something new and engaging: it was the years when Dungeons and Dragons was starting to become popular even overseas and, as a result, Fantasy was experiencing a true
rebirth.
Spare a couple of words also for the
damsel to be saved, the damsel in distress
as they say in the jargon: Dapne, the forbidden dream of every video game
enthusiast of the era, is splendidly animated and, in her role as princess
to be saved, steals the scene in the few moments in which she appears, a concentration of
sensuality and beauty that matches her courage and combative spirit behind
her angelic face and overflowing pin-up voluptuous body.
Dirk embodies the perfect prototype of the spotless hero, with a few fears, certainly, but these are mitigated by his bold nature, as his name suggests, and the desire to accomplish feats worthy of becoming legend: a characteristic, perhaps the most famous characteristic of Dragon’s Lair is the enormous variety of possible deaths into which the hero can stumble, one more entertaining than the last.
Irony and dumb gags in that sense tone down the effect
of the violence present in the game, but everything feels lighthearted and eager to have fun
without the gray clouds of censorship and fake respectability.
7
Pro
The essence of laser tag: the adventures of Sir Dirk will captivate you forever
Superb animation and inspired settings: it’s worth learning to play to see them all
Gags and deaths bordering on the absurd, which will make you swear and split your sides laughing at the same time
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
Simon Larocca
Mi chiamo Simon Larocca, e sono un videogiocatore, collezionista e amante della cultura pop in tutte le sue forme. Vado al cinema ogni volta che posso, leggo da quando porto gli occhiali, quindi da sempre, e ho la passione per lo storytelling in tutte le sue forme, così dirompente da farla diventare una professione. Ma come direbbe Doc di Ritorno al Futuro, non ci sarebbe presente se non si guardasse al passato con rispetto e ammirazione, ed è il Simon bambino di più di trent’anni fa, anno più anno meno.
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