0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - Blazing Dragons

         

Blazing Dragons is a point and click adventure game developed by Illusions Gaming Company and published by Crystal Dynamics. The game is based on the TV show of the same name and is an alternative take on the legend of King Arthur.

The game released on the 3^rd of October 1996 in North America, with a European release coming in November of the same year for the Playstation. In addition to the Playstation release the game also released on the Sega Saturn in October of 1996.

 

Notable people who worked on this title, Darren Bartlett who as the Creative Director for the game also worked as Project Director on 2007 release Hellgate London. In 2011 he was the Project Director for Dragon Age II, and the following year he was the Vice President of Production on Mass Effect 3. His most recent credit was for 2015’s Evolve when he worked as Project Director.

Matthew Seymour who worked as a Producer and Designer on Blazing Dragons, went on to work on Top Spin in 2003. He worked as Senior Producer on Amped 3 in 2005, before heading back to the Top Spin series in 2008 for Top Spin 3. He was the Vice-President for Product Development on the 2012 released Family Guy: Back to the Multiverse.

Russell Lingo who worked as the Lead Animator on Blazing Dragons worked as an Artist on the 2004 released Pitfall The Lost Expedition. More recently he worked on the Donkey Kong Country series, first in 2010 with Donkey Kong Country Returns, three year later for Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D. And finally in 2014 for Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze.

As you would expect from a point and click adventure game you as the player takes control of a young dragon inventor called flicker and must collect various objects and interact with the variety of dragons and humans that inhabit the game world in order to solve puzzles.

The players overall aim is to get Flicker to become a Dragon Knight in order to compete in the Grand Tournament and win the heart of Princess Flame. Like several other adventure games there is not player death in the game, and at no point can the game reach a point where a puzzle cannot be solved.

 

Like other games in the Point and Click genre the player does not directly control the main protagonist but rather directs them to points of interest around the current location they are in. When moving the cursor around the screen several icons will appear, these icons will cause Flicker to perform specific actions.

For example the eyeball icon will make flicker look at an object, there is a grabbing hand icon that also appears as well as a talk icon, this appears as a small head who’s mouth is moving, these icons can be cycled through by pressing either the L1 or R1 shoulder buttons, when you arrive at your desired action you press the X button to use the action.

 

Items that you picked up can be moved to the top left of the screen using the D-Pad. At the top of the screen is a small image of a sack which is your inventory. You can also grab certain items and use them then and these rather than placing them in your inventory and use them to interact with another item or object on the screen. For example in one of the very early moments of the game Flicker can take a broom and attack it to a turning cup holder to clean the dishes faster.

You can bring up your inventory be moving the cursor over the sack at the top left of the screen, this brings up a sack shaped screen with all of the items you have picked up. From here you can take out items by grabbing them, items are needed to complete puzzles in the game, to access your inventory the Triangle button is used.

 

The game features a small world map which allows the player to navigate to the various locations available. A walking foot icon appears on the map, this icon will start in the current location you are in, moving the icon with the D-Pad and pressing X button will move Flicker to that location.

The game also features three mini games the first is called Cat-a-pult, in this mini game Flicker must launcats from a catapult at guard that appear in the windows of a fort. You can move the catapult from left to right using the direction buttons on the D-Pad, launching a cat is done with the X button, holding the button in will do a charged shot. The two other games are Rabbid Rabbits and Thumb Wrestling.

The evil Sir George and his wizard companion Mervin are plotting to conquer the Kingdom of Camelhot and exterminate the dragons. After Sir George’s failed siege against Camelhot, he declares his ally, the Black Dragon to win an upcoming Dragon Tournament.

the winner of the tournament shall be married to Flame and become the new king of Camelhot. A young inventor named Flicker wishes to marry King All-Fire’s daughter Flame, but he is rejected due to the fact he does not have a knighthood and is and ridiculed by the knights of the square table.

Critic reviews for Blazing Dragons were pretty good, the game received several review scores in the 80s with one reaching the high 80s. at the other end of the scale the Playstation version of the game did not score below an above average 66.

As usual though we will start with the best, which comes from French publication Consoles News. The Magazine publication saying, if you love adventure games and crazy humour, Blazing Dragons is the one for you, the reviewer saying they personally loved the game.

GameFan Magazine were the next highest scoring review with a good 82 review score. The review is not someone who normally likes text adventures, but found Blazing Dragons entertaining. The reviewer finding everything is done right in the game, with well drawn graphics and highly detailed as well. They also found the voice acting to be impeccable and most of all the dialogue is hilarious.

Gamezilla are next up with a one point lower review score of 81, the reviewer finding that if you like point-and-click adventure games, Blazing Dragons is at the top of the list in this category. The reviewer finding that they don’t usually have the patience for this type of game, however they were able to finish Blazing Dragon thanks to puzzles that are difficult but obvious and the ever present humour. The only major complaint that the review had was the game was a bit short.

Next up we find a batch of 80 rated reviews, the first of these comes from Electronic Gaming Monthly (EGM) with the reviewer finding the game to be pretty intuitive, with a built in hint feature, with the game seeming to be geared towards all skill levels due to it’s wit and hints.

The reviewer liked the twist of Dragons as the central characters as well as the whole Camelot pun. The only issue the review had was the access time, but it isn’t a real problem. The reviewer concluded by saying it is a great time for adventurers.

Next up and also rating the game at an 80 is Tap-Repeatedly/Four Fat Chicks, the reviewer finding the game to be easy enough to complete without a walkthrough. But at the same time puzzling enough to give a real sense of accomplishment for completing it without a walkthrough. Concluding they said it all boils down to a fine time on the Playstation.

Adventure Gamers are next up with the final 80 rated review, this review came well after the games release date, with the review written in July of 2005. the reviewer had reservations that the conversion for cartoon to video game would work well for an Adventure game. Despite the reviewers reservations though, the reviewer found that they have been able to pull it off, with enough of the Pythonesque humour to live up to it’s star billing.

For the next review we head to Germany and the publication Mega Fun, who rated the game at a decent 77. The reviewer finding that the puzzles could have been a little more trickier, the review also had some issues with reloading disturbing the speech, resulting in text that can not be understood. Even with these issues the review still called Blazing Dragons high-caliber and a game that belongs in every collection.

GameCola.net were next up with another late review, this one coming in 2004, the review saying for anyone that wants a classic adventure title for your Playstation or Playstation 2 console, then pick up Blazing Dragons, the rest of you would probably get a kick out of it too.

The reviewer did say that it may be hard to pick up now, with how the interface is structured and some may be turned off by how short the game is. But since it doesn’t take a hundred hours to complete, you may be more inclined to play through it more than once. Concluding the reviewer said, this is a solid adventure from the people who published the Gex titles, and I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a cheap laugh.

Back to Germany for the penultimate review, this time from the publication Video Games, the reviewer finding the game by its smaller size a lighter game and leaves a thinner impression. The reviewer also had issues with the German translation from it’s original English.

The reviewer found the tough decision between Discworld and Blazing Dragons, with the reviewer falling on the side of Discworld, unless you already own it and are looking for more then pick this up. Concluding the review said had the game had mouse support it would have been even better.

GameSpot is the games final review, with the reviewer scoring the game at an above average 66. The review finding the game like the best cartoon is suitable for kids of all ages, but it is really intended for an audience capable of catching the sometimes subtle, and sometimes risqué humor, most of which is deilivered by the British lilt of Terry Jones superb voice overs.

To conclude the review said, over time, brought excitement, challenge, some genuine scares, and even something like intuition to the screen. Perhaps titles like Blazing Dragons will expand the possibilities of console games even further. Or, put another way: And now for something completely different.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com, eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to, I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, Ebay has now been dropped unless the game is unavailable at other retailers.

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where if you are looking to trade In your copy of Blazing Dragons you will get $7 from Gamedude. If on the other hand you are looking to buy a copy from Gamedude you will be looking at an outlay of $15.

Moving on to Retrogames.co.uk we don’t find the Playstation version of the game available or even listed, we do have find the Sega Saturn version of the game, with one copy currently available. This copy is missing the front paper inlay but is otherwise in excellent condition and is priced at £25.

Next up is eStarland.com where we do find the Playstation version of the game listed, but at the time of writing is currently out of stock. When in stock the game has a usual price of between $7.12 and $12.95. Also listed is the Sega Saturn version of the game, with one copy currently available, this copy comes with a missing manual and is priced at $11.03.

 

Lastly we head over to Amazon.com where we find a modest supply of the game available, with a large number of the first page of listings being incomplete or disc only copies. We do find a good condition copy for $13.98 but this copy does not state it’s completeness.

Another copy in good condition, this copy states that it comes with the original artwork but not mention of the case and manual, this copy is priced at $14.98 and comes with free shipping. A copy in very good condition is available for $18.99, this listing says the case shows minimal wear but does not mention that the covers and manual are included.

The first copy we find that is complete with disc, case, manual and covers is priced at $26.44, this copy is in good overall condition. Another complete copy, this one in very good condition can be picked up for $29.58. Another couple of copies are priced around the $30 mark, the final two used copies on offer are both like new copies, these are available for $49.07. There is also one new copy of the game available, this copy which is priced at $69.99 with a $3.99 shipping fee, bringing the total to $73.98 once the shipping fee has been added in.

Written by

P J Gibbon