This is one of my favorite video games of all time. The game came out in 1983 just when the video game age was beginning and rising fast, and on a sidenote one year after my birth year so that's cool; it's easy to see how this game was a phenomenon at the time and it's practically everywhere now, it was even one of the video games in the Palace Arcade from the show "Stanger Things".
It's understandable why this game blew the minds of gamers and even non gamers at the time as there really weren't any or many video games like this, the game truly was ahead of its time as it showed how much further video games can go and be. In fact, this game was the first or one of the first in starting the Visual Novel genre.
The animation is just superb as it of course is done by my favorite animation director Don Bluth whom to me is one of the kings of the animation genre. His animation his just so beautiful and fluid which not just matched Disney but even was ahead of it's time as the animation looks like it could easily be from the 90's decade.
There are just so many memorable visuals, I don't want to give away for anyone that hasn't played the game, and not giving the visuals away is part of the fun of the game as each are sweet surprises. The backgrounds are beautiful and lively, each of the scenes all create this crazy dangerous fantasy world the game takes place in.
The enemies are always cool looking as there is a great variety of them, as well as the human characters from you hero to Princess Daphne whom I can imagine a lot of gamers having a crush on, probably one of first video game characters to crush on; and yes, I admit I'm guilty of this because I am one of those gamers. But nothing to be ashamed about it's just human nature, natural attraction. Anyway, it's not hard to see why as she's sexy with that seductive black dress, and I love the color black. But she has a good persona despite only seeing a few scenes of it, where it's sort of this bubbly seductive personality.
I even like the story, ok it's more of an ongoing plot but video games at the time never had story. Really just a plot line just to help the game know what kind of game they were playing. Yeah, the plot is simplistic, it's the simply fantasy Fairy Tale where your basically the typical knight saving a princess from the forces of evil. Yeah, the classic damsel in distress plot but I don't mind it's really in the execution that makes it stand out.
It also makes sense they would go with this premise as the Fantasy genre in the 80's era was on the rise from films like "The Sword and the Sorcerer", "Conan the Barbarian", "Willow" etc. And TV shows like "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" which is of course the show is part of what drew me into this game; heck it would be cool if that show did a visual novel video game like this.
The game also has its tongue firmly on its cheek as it doesn't take itself too seriously, just the lively expressions on the faces of the characters, the ridiculous amount of trouble Dirk inadvertently gets into, but also seeing Dirk in pain can be a funny as we see him in more version of pain and death then Wille Coyote.
The gameplay is great and is no doubt on the hard side. But that just make the game all the more tense and exciting, and despite the difficulty it's actually easy by it's nature it just doesn't seem that way at first.
The game is really one based on reflex, timing, but also simply memorization and paying constant attention to the visual cues that come in the form of a brief light flash. Things can happen instantly, and you only have a microsecond to think and react. This was one of the unique things about the game at the time before it became common place in the Telltale games we have now, I really liked that because it was something that constantly kept you on your toes and really did give you the feel of life and death situations, because in reality their really much to any time to think, it's about taking immediate action to survive.
Yeah, you're probably going to die a lot in the game, which makes the game one based on perseverance and that's what makes the game an all the more satisfying experience as it's your skill alone that gets you further in the game, it's even possible to beat the game in just one sitting depending on how long you've played the game that is.
This lair is worth visiting as it's a vintage treasure.
Rating: 4 stars.
It's understandable why this game blew the minds of gamers and even non gamers at the time as there really weren't any or many video games like this, the game truly was ahead of its time as it showed how much further video games can go and be. In fact, this game was the first or one of the first in starting the Visual Novel genre.
The animation is just superb as it of course is done by my favorite animation director Don Bluth whom to me is one of the kings of the animation genre. His animation his just so beautiful and fluid which not just matched Disney but even was ahead of it's time as the animation looks like it could easily be from the 90's decade.
There are just so many memorable visuals, I don't want to give away for anyone that hasn't played the game, and not giving the visuals away is part of the fun of the game as each are sweet surprises. The backgrounds are beautiful and lively, each of the scenes all create this crazy dangerous fantasy world the game takes place in.
The enemies are always cool looking as there is a great variety of them, as well as the human characters from you hero to Princess Daphne whom I can imagine a lot of gamers having a crush on, probably one of first video game characters to crush on; and yes, I admit I'm guilty of this because I am one of those gamers. But nothing to be ashamed about it's just human nature, natural attraction. Anyway, it's not hard to see why as she's sexy with that seductive black dress, and I love the color black. But she has a good persona despite only seeing a few scenes of it, where it's sort of this bubbly seductive personality.
I even like the story, ok it's more of an ongoing plot but video games at the time never had story. Really just a plot line just to help the game know what kind of game they were playing. Yeah, the plot is simplistic, it's the simply fantasy Fairy Tale where your basically the typical knight saving a princess from the forces of evil. Yeah, the classic damsel in distress plot but I don't mind it's really in the execution that makes it stand out.
It also makes sense they would go with this premise as the Fantasy genre in the 80's era was on the rise from films like "The Sword and the Sorcerer", "Conan the Barbarian", "Willow" etc. And TV shows like "He-Man and the Masters of the Universe" which is of course the show is part of what drew me into this game; heck it would be cool if that show did a visual novel video game like this.
The game also has its tongue firmly on its cheek as it doesn't take itself too seriously, just the lively expressions on the faces of the characters, the ridiculous amount of trouble Dirk inadvertently gets into, but also seeing Dirk in pain can be a funny as we see him in more version of pain and death then Wille Coyote.
The gameplay is great and is no doubt on the hard side. But that just make the game all the more tense and exciting, and despite the difficulty it's actually easy by it's nature it just doesn't seem that way at first.
The game is really one based on reflex, timing, but also simply memorization and paying constant attention to the visual cues that come in the form of a brief light flash. Things can happen instantly, and you only have a microsecond to think and react. This was one of the unique things about the game at the time before it became common place in the Telltale games we have now, I really liked that because it was something that constantly kept you on your toes and really did give you the feel of life and death situations, because in reality their really much to any time to think, it's about taking immediate action to survive.
Yeah, you're probably going to die a lot in the game, which makes the game one based on perseverance and that's what makes the game an all the more satisfying experience as it's your skill alone that gets you further in the game, it's even possible to beat the game in just one sitting depending on how long you've played the game that is.
This lair is worth visiting as it's a vintage treasure.
Rating: 4 stars.