Dropping dreams in the dragon’s lair

July 31 2012 at 03:30pm
By Independent

Belfast - KINGDOM HEARTS: DREAM DROP DISTANCE NINTENDO 3DS

RATING: 7.5/10

As unlikely mash-ups go, Final Fantasy meets Disney was probably a very long shot but Kingdom Hearts has made it to its 10th anniversary with a reimagined version for 3DS.

Dream Drop Distance is a little bewildering as ever, a complex layer of systems like those of Final Fantasy with the added difficulty of tracking the frenzied real-time battles on a small screen.

But exploring the gorgeous worlds linked to the likes of Tron: Legacy and Pinocchio has undeniable charm, at least until the most annoying new 'feature' - forcing you to switch between playable characters every 15 minutes - spoils your momentum.

DRAGON'S LAIR X360

RATING: 5/10

Gamers as long in the tooth as me may recall the mild fuss surrounding the original Dragon's Lair in the early 1980s, as a brave knight tried to rescue a princess.

At a time when games consisted of crudely drawn splodges of pixels, DL employed beautifully animated graphics loaded from laserdisc (like an early DVD, look it up, kids).

Fully recreated here, it's cruelly exposed as a one-trick pony relying on perfect memory of the exquisite timing required for button prompts in between cut-scenes. - Belfast Telegraph

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