Dragon's Lair was quite the attraction back in the day. I have fond memories of it personally. Not that I ever actually played it in the arcades, cause I never did until many years after it came out. It was far too expensive to play, and all the older kids/adults would never let someone as young as myself get near it (I was 6 at the time). No, my fond memory is the fact that is was such a draw in the arcade, I could finally get onto the Star Wars machine I (still) love so much.

The game was a real dichotomy of sorts. It was essentially a huge laser disc player, and offered little interaction save for what you could accomplish with a remote control (This will later come in handy). But it also offered animation by Don Bluth and graphics unlike anything we'd ever seen before.

Back when just about every game used low-res sprites this game was a fully realized cartoon. It was a landmark when it was released, and while it can't compete with anything today in the traditional gameplay sense, don't think that means it's not worth picking up.

For people that consider themselves students of video game history (like myself), or just a fan of the old arcade scene, this one is well worth the purchase. When I popped the disc into my Blu-ray player (PS3) it became an impromptu history lesson, as my girlfriend had never heard of the game before. So not only did we enjoy the game together, but I was able to see how someone would view it for the 1st time.

This one is a hard sell to those that don't remember it. The game is pretty limited on what you can do, which in a way should make it easier to play. You tap in one of four directions or swing your sword depending on what flashes on the screen. However the game is damn difficult and really rewards doing sections over and over to memorize the patterns (great for the arcade owner where each try costs you).

The game moves along like so. Dirk the Daring encounters some threat, and you must react quickly and follow along with the fast on-screen cues. Succeed and Dirk lives to move on, if not... well you know. What was amazing was how much of the game I was able to go through right away, all these memories came back and it was like I had been playing the game for years.

The game lends itself well to Blu-ray or a TV remote, since you're really only using the arrows and the enter button. Likewise the PS3 controller makes sense since you're using the d-pad and the X button. The Blu-ray version of the game (like the DVD version before it) doesn't play exactly like the original game, the spec really isn't there to do exactly what it needs. But it gets the job done very well. Think of it as quasi-emulated.

The animation looks great and was supposedly restored and re-transferred in 1080p. It didn't look 1080p nice, there was still some noticeable grain here and there. Nothing that took away from the game but it's worth mentioning. Also, it seems that the menu structure and authoring were simply modified from the old DVD, since the menu's aren't dynamic and had audio and video jumps between menu sets. It's really only something a DVD author would recognize, but after seeing the smooth menu on the Blu-ray discs it's a little disconcerting.

All in all, I'd call this a buy. 7 out of 10 (for those that know what they're getting) everyone else will probably call it a 4 or 5. People coming in fresh might be a little disappointed.

Comments (1)

Name

Email

Website

Title

Comment

smaller | bigger

Subscribe via email (registered users only)

Add Comment