Released in 2002 by Dragonstone Software for Xbox, GameCube, PlayStation 2, and PC, Dragon's Lair 3D: Return to the Lair is a third-person action-adventure platformer adapting Cinematronics' landmark 1983 laserdisc arcade game into a fully three-dimensional environment. Players control Dirk the Daring as he fights his way through the castle of the evil wizard Mordroc in an effort to rescue Princess Daphne from the dragon Singe. The game revisits characters and locations familiar from the arcade original while introducing new rooms, enemies, and puzzles. To preserve the visual identity of its source material, the game employs cel shading to emulate the hand-drawn aesthetic of the original. Don Bluth, the animator and director behind the arcade game's distinctive cartoon sequences, returned to contribute two newly produced animated cutscenes for the game's opening and closing.
