Blazing Dragons (video game)

Blazing Dragons is a point-and-click adventure video game developed by the Illusions Gaming Company and published by Crystal Dynamics for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. It is based on the television series of the same name. In a twist on the legend of King Arthur, the player controls Flicker, a dragon who lives in Camelhot castle and is in love with Princess Flame, but is not eligible to ask for her hand in marriage because he is not a knight. However, the King has announced a dragon tournament, where the winner will not only win the princess, but also become the new king.

The humour in the game is heavily influenced by Monty Python. The voice cast is headed by Terry Jones, Cheech Marin and Harry Shearer, along with supporting performances from veteran voice actors such as Jim Cummings, Jeff Bennett, Kath Soucie, Jess Harnell, Gregg Berger, and Charlie Adler.

Gameplay
As a young Flicker, the player must collect various objects and interact with an eccentric cast of dragon and human characters in order to solve puzzles. The player's overall quest is to become a dragon knight to compete in the grand tournament and win the heart of Princess Flame. However, the player discovers an evil human plot to take over the kingdom by kidnapping the princess.

As is the case with many other graphic adventure games, the player can never die in the game or reach a point in the game where a puzzle cannot be solved.

Plot
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 whom shall be married to Flame and become the new king. A young inventor named Flicker wishes to marry King All-Fire's daughter Flame, but he is rejected due to lack of knighthood. While rescuing King All-Fire's knights from their investigation of Black Dragon, he finds this Black Dragon is a mechanical dragon, then sabotages it. Sir Loungealot takes Flicker as a squire, but takes credit for Flicker's victory on the Black Dragon, prompting Flame to leave the castle, only to be kidnapped by Sir George and Mervin. The King's Chancellor is secretly working for Sir George and steals Flicker's invention so Sir George can build a more powerful mechanical dragon. To prevent the King from noticing Flame's absence, Flicker has the court jester Trivet impersonate her.

Flicker infiltrates Castle Grim disguised as Sir George, releases Flame and gets the new mechanical dragon destroyed. By the time Flicker returns to Camelhot, his deception is exposed and Flicker has to rescue the King's knights to earn his respect. The next day, Flicker proves his worth at the Cave of Dilemma gaining his knighthood in time for the dragon tournament. Flicker makes it to the final, defeating Sir Loungealot, but then Sir George and Mervin invade with a newer Black Dragon. Flicker destroys the mechanical dragon once again. Mervin accidentally causes Sir George to fuse with the Black Dragon, transforming into the Black Dragon III. Sir George swallows Flicker, Mervin and King All-Fire, but Flicker cuts off the machine's power supply, causing the machine to be destroyed, reverting Sir George back to his human form and the machine lands on the Chancellor. King All-Fire asks Flicker to marry his daughter as he secretly always wanted him to, before he gained knighthood. Flicker happily accepts the request.

Development
The game was first announced under the title "Dragons of the Square Table" and was slated for a late 1995 release. The release date was pushed back a year, possibly so as to coincide with the debut of the Blazing Dragons TV series.

Reception
Electronic Gaming Monthly's four reviewers gave the PlayStation version an 8 out of 10, praising the "side-splitting" humor, and the challenging puzzles, while commenting that the built-in hint feature opens the game up to players of all skill levels. GamePro's Scary Larry commented positively on the animation and the voice acting's exaggerated accents, but found the puzzles too difficult and said the game is too similar to Discworld to appeal to anyone who did not enjoy that game. Next Generation reviewed it roughly six months later, with the reviewer remarking that "for the most part the game is enjoyable." He particularly praised Cheech Marin and Harry Shearer's acting, and said that though the frequent load times make it out-of-place on consoles, it is virtually the only option available on consoles for enthusiasts of graphic adventure games.

Reviewing the Saturn version, GameSpot commented, "It's not particularly impressive in any respect, but the game is fun, with a lot of fairly obscure puzzles to solve, oddball characters to meet, and plenty of bad jokes to go around." Rob Allsetter of Sega Saturn Magazine panned the game, saying the humor, the plot, the interface, the graphics, and the acting are all awful.