10 Hopeless Video Game Protagonists

Dragon’s Lair is an oft-forgotten series that features a central character brimming with personality. Co-created by Don Bluth, the man behind movies such as The Rescuers and The Land Before Time, the series had a great deal of animation pedigree behind it. Barring one misguided 3D venture on the Playstation 2, Xbox and Gamecube, each game in the series features gorgeous, silky-smooth 2D animation depicting all manner of exciting derring-do.

Starring Dirk the Daring, the stories follow the valiant yet clumsy knight as he rescues Daphne, the damsel in distress, from all sorts of evils from dragons to wizards. Players do this by watching a series of FMV’s that effectively form a movie, pressing directions or buttons on their controller to react to the action on-screen. Think quick-time events before those words became so dirty.

The greatest joy that often came from these titles was watching the hugely imaginative, violent and exaggerated death scenes that were played if Dirk didn’t pull off a move in time. Serving as something of a punching bag, Bluth used this opportunity and expressive medium to make the hero suffer a thousand comically grotesque deaths that meant even when players were losing, they were winning.