Back in the days when the arcade scene was ruled by sprites and the occasional vector graphic, one game stood out like the monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It was Dragon's Lair. The game was an interactive cartoon that ran on a laser-disc-based arcade system and featured high-quality hand-drawn animation by cartoonist Don Bluth. You were put in control of the hapless Dirk the Daring, a surprisingly uncoordinated hero who was charged with rescuing Princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe. The game's impressive visuals and loopy humor made it an engaging experience, despite its simplistic gameplay, which was based on trial and error, and the game was soon elevated to classic status. Nearly two decades after Dragon's Lair was released, the game is getting a new lease on life, courtesy of a new developer, Dragonstone, which is composed of members from the original team, including Bluth himself. Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair will offer a new take on the original game by blending elements from the original game with new gameplay that, as the title implies, is fully 3D. We had a chance to check out the Xbox version of the game to see how the updated classic is coming together.
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