Dragon's Lair III (game)

This article is about the 2005 game. For other meanings, see Dragon's Lair III.

Dragon's Lair III is a 2005 video game published in the DVD and PC CD-ROM formats by Digital Leisure, employing footage captured from Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair gameplay. It plays much like the original Dragon's Lair and subsequent laserdisc games, yet without specifically-made animation as it simply employs gameplay footage from the previously-released video game.

Gameplay

Players direct Dirk the Daring's movements through inputs of the remote control, with the only five possible commands being the directions left, right, up and down in addition to Sword action being activated by the remote's Enter command. Similar to the franchise's arcade games, a visual clue for the correct move is indicated by a yellow flash. Failure to select the correct move activates one of several pre-recorded Death Scenes.

Players can select between Easy and Hard difficulty. Easy selection shows when each input is required by displaying a yellow diamond and also granting the player unlimited continues. Hard selection disables the diamond display and grants a maximum of five lives to complete the game.

Dragon's Lair III features only 43 of the stages from Dragon's Lair 3D but retains all nine boss battles.

Bonus Content

Similar to the earlier releases of Dragon's Lair 3D, Dragon's Lair III includes several bonus features including the "20 Years of Dragon's Lair" featurette, "He's My Guy" music video, 35 audio tracks presented as a Jukebox, art galleries, character biographies, and other historical information on the franchise.

Also notable are the inclusion of five bonus levels accessible with codes granted after completing the game in either difficulty level. The bonus stages are titled "Chains," "Pitfall Floor," "Three Knights," "Coffin Trouble," and "Metal Madness."

Development

Originally, this pre-recorded, fully-scripted gameplay concept was intended to be included in Dragon’s Lair 3D as a "Classic Mode." In a 2000 interview with Next Generation Magazine Dragonstone president Steve Parsons stated: "We're going to be taking the exact licensed rooms like the Black Knight Room, the main hallway, and the puzzle room and instead of giving the player full control we'll give them access to scripted routines. What it all boils down to is the original Dragon's Lair, but in full 3D."