Known as “Dragon’s Lair 3D: Return to the Lair” in North America, this fully-3D action adventure is a reimagining of Don Bluth‘s classic laserdisc arcade game, Dragon’s Lair. And it works brilliantly well. Dragon’s Lair 3D was published for the GameCube by THQ in Europe, and Encore, Inc. in North America, in 2002. It was also released for PlayStation 2, Windows and XBox.

Dragon’s Lair 3D was developed by Dragonstone Software, who did a great job of transposing the 2D animated original into more modern 3D. They managed to keep the tone and style of the original, while at the same time modernising the gameplay to make it an actual world that you can explore, with real-time combat and a camera that you can fully control.

You once again play as the hapless Dirk the Daring, who is on a mission to rescue his kidnapped girlfriend, Daphne, from Singe the dragon, and to also defeat the evil wizard, Mordroc, while he’s at it.

Death comes relatively easily to Dirk, because one wrong move and he’s toast. Thankfully, Dragon’s lair 3D provides a health bar and unlimited continues, so the gameplay isn’t quite as unforgiving as the original. In this, death just takes you back to the start of that particular section, allowing you to try different things to solve the various puzzles.

Like the original game, Dragon’s Lair 3D is pretty much a series of minigames, tied together by a central storyline, and the aim is to survive all the traps and tricks that the game throws at you. In this, though, Dirk is an agile, fully-controllable character who can run, climb, roll, fight, target enemies and hang from platforms and climb up them. There are lots of nods to the original arcade game, and even some sections that mirror what happened in the original. Knowing the original arcade game does actually help in places, too.

Some of the platforming sections can be a little frustrating (especially when you have to stand on small, moving platforms), but a lot of the puzzles are simple to grasp and fairly clever in their construction. Camera controls are very good too. Overall the gameplay is solid, varied, easy to grasp, and fun.

Dragon’s Lair 3D uses a combination of colourfully-lit 3D environments and cel-shaded 3D characters, and it has to be said that it looks superb. It retains the cartoony look of the original, while at the same time giving the game a more modern feel. The intro sequence highlights this, when the iconic castle in the opening shot (drawn in 2D – from the original arcade game), turns into a 3D model with a poof of magic.

Dragon’s Lair 3D may be “old” now, but it’s a game still well worth playing today. If you’re a fan of fantasy action games, I highly recommend checking it out.

More: Dragon’s Lair 3D on Wikipedia