Just because a game is hard doesn't mean it's bad, but this game takes it to new levels of frustration
So the first thing you will notice as the game begins is that the graphics in this game look really nice for their time, the character animations are nice and smooth, and it has good music, but savor those moments, the game goes way down after this. Dirk moves so incredibly slow like as if he has super glue on his feet, his jump is extremely delayed and looks as if he is jumping in zero gravity, and when you turn him around he does some sort of twirl it seems that eaves you vulnerable to attacks. Speaking of the attacks, like the rest of the controls they are really delayed, but for some reason they really broke up the control scheme, the A button is attack, the B button is jump, Start uses a candle that is needed in one of the levels, and Select pauses the game, you can also duck but unlike many games in order to stand up you have to press up on the D-pad. The gameplay is beyond frustrating, with such delayed and messed up controls, you will find it impossible to get pass even the first screen, BECAUSE YOU DIE IN ONE HIT! Yes everything kills you in one hit, and I do mean anything, the dragon, the holes, a puff of smoke, a door, I haven't even scratched the surface as to how many things can kill you, even in Silver Surfer you could beat at least one stage. Now lets move on to the obstacles such as swinging hammers, moving doors, and moving platforms, all of these things have some of the most erratic patterns in a game ever, I never really found a pattern for any of these things and always seemed to kill you before you have time to react, now when you jump onto a moving platform, it will either move and you have to move with it otherwise you die or it stops the moment you land on it, making your jumps even more complicated.
I really don't know what else to say, this is just plainly horrible and one of the worse NES games ever made, it could have been an instant classic, but it's as worthless as the GBA port of Sonic the Hedgehog. Please save your frustration and sanity by not playing this game, just go get Dragon's Lair 3D for the Xbox.