Reviewed: April 2, 2007
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
Digital Leisure

Developer
Digital Leisure

Released: April 9, 2007
Genre: Action
Players: 1

7
9
8
7
7.9

System Requirements

Dragon's Lair spawned a short-lived era of laserdisc games including the now-famous Space Ace, and countless others. Even after arcades started to vanish from the local malls, these laserdisc games persisted in their popularity, spilling over into the PC world in the form of chopped up versions on floppy and eventually CD-ROM’s. We saw a brief resurgence of these titles when DVD became a popular standard on the PC, and consoles like the Xbox and PS2 started using DVD’s, and once again, Digital Leisure is back to ride the coattails of the High Definition Generation with Dragon’s Lair on the Blu-ray high definition format.

The box boasts about a “high definition film transfer” as well as digitally remastered 5.1 audio. It all sounds good on the box, but just how much better can a 24 year old video game get? Here is what Don Bluth, the original creator has to say:

“I've seen the newly restored footage and it just looks amazing. It looks even better than I can remember. The visuals, the 5.1 surround sound audio, all I can say is ‘Wow!' Now a whole new generation can enjoy Dragon's Lair all over again.”

Yes, but just how demanding is this generation of video gamers, and how many times can Digital Leisure raid the Dragon's Lair before all the magic is gone? Since Dirk made the move from arcade to living room there have been a least a dozen variations of the original game on console, PC, Laserdisc, and DVD, and that doesn't even cover sequels and spin-offs. Most recently, we saw a new high-definition transfer of Dragon's Lair for the PC and today we get a stunning Blu-ray edition packed with bonus features, and what is easily the best audio and video transfer of the property to date.

The nature of the game was memorization. You only had five possible actions; up, down, left, right, and swing the sword. Even though the game prompted your next action with flashes of light overlaid on the colorful background art, these visual cues only allowed for about one second of error and you could never win by reflexes alone. Timing was critical, and if you got too confident and started pressing the joystick or button too soon you would also die. Only after several dozen (or was it hundreds) of tokens did you finally master the timing and find your "zone". Then you were unstoppable...you were "Dirk the Daring".

The gameplay is as simple (and boring) as it gets. You control Dirk, the hero, through dozens of animated action scenes. At critical points in the action you are given a small window of opportunity to interact with the game by moving with the D-pad or swinging your sword with the X button. You can also use the arrows and OK (or Enter) button on your remote control if you are playing on a Blu-ray DVD player. Act too soon or react to late and you get to witness one of the dozens of horrible, yet humorous death scenes.

The action scenes are randomized each time you start a new game, so you never know which one is coming next, and each scene is also duplicated with a mirror image of itself, thus doubling the game's length. If you manage to make it through all the various challenges you will reach the Dragon's Lair and the gorgeous (at least until she speaks) Princess Daphne. You then get to take place in one of the most creative animated battle scenes in video game history.

The biggest fault in the gameplay lies in the hardware we've been forced to play it on since 1983. When Dragon's Lair debuted it was being played on a 12" laserdisc on an industrial laserdisc player (Pioneer LD-V1000 or PR-7820) with amazing seek and random access times. In all previous home versions of Dragon's Lair there has been a significant delay as the computer or DVD player's laser tried to seek out the proper video track and play it. If you play each scene flawlessly, the movie plays out without a hiccup, but if you miss a move or sword swipe the game then has to load the appropriate death scene.

The Blu-ray version of Dragon's Lair offers the fastest seeks times since 1983 - nearly seamless but not quite. The game uses the new Blu-ray Disc Java or BD-J. This is an interactive platform supporting advanced content for Blu-ray Discs. BD-J coding allows control of the video, audio and overlays using Java code, which makes Dragon's Lair the most sophisticated Blu-ray title on the market. All Blu-ray Disc players are designed to play BD-J titles based on the Blu-ray Disc Association Specifications, so it will work with the PS3 or any standalone Blu-ray player. For the record, I did get some slightly faster seek times on the PlayStation 3 than I did while testing Dragon's Lair on a Philips BDP900/37 player.

Another major issue that has been cleaned up, for the most part, were some abrupt and clipped-off endings to several scenes. While a few of these remain in the Blu-ray version (like the final fireball hitting the door after the horse ride), many others have been fixed, creating a much more fluid gameplay experience.

Definitely worth mentioning, this is the first Dragon’s Lair since the 1983 laserdisc to feature ALL of the scenes from the original game including their mirrored forms as well as all the original sounds. In previous home versions there have always been some scenes removed for whatever reason. This game allows you to choose between the original arcade version or the home version as well as integrating those missing scenes like the initial walk across the drawbridge into the castle and the eyestalk creature battle.

Since the goal is no longer about taking all the tokens out of your pocket, Dragon’s Lair BD offers unlimited continues, so you can easily beat the game in one sitting without having to start from the beginning after you die. If you are old-school and want to relive the arcade experience you can opt for the classic Arcade mode that presents the scenes in their original order or Home mode to play the most complete version of the game.

This version of Dragon’s Lair does offer Easy and Hard skill modes as well as letting you choose between 5 Lives or Unlimited. Easy difficulty gives you larger “windows” of opportunity to enter the correct move while Hard recreates the rigid accuracy of the original arcade machine. And if you don’t feel like playing the game, you can simply “watch” the game play out (automatically) and learn what to do in the future.

One new feature for the BD version is a gold circle that appears in the lower right corner whenever an action is required. If you perform the correct action it will turn green and if you enter the wrong move or don't do it fast enough the circle turns red. One thing I do miss from the original arcade version is the strictness of the timing for a lot of commands. Now, if you know you are supposed to swing your sword you can just mash the X button until the indicator turns green.

Don Bluth is a masterful animator and you can really tell that a lot of time and care went into the creation of this game. The colors are rich and vibrant and the characters are delightful. Even the scarier creatures have a humorous side that makes this game great for kids of all ages.

New for the BD version is a running video commentary where you can watch the game play out in its entirety with a PIP window that has creators, Don Bluth, Rick Dyer, and Gary Goldman talking about each scene and the game in general. This is some really insightful stuff and a great addition to the aging franchise that will make this edition a hit with nostalgic video gamers everywhere. In addition to the commentary there are some other interviews as well as some interesting split-screen comparison that put the BD and 1983 versions side by side so you can see just how much better this game looks 24 years later.

With remastered HD video and stunning 5.1 surround sound, this is truly a work of art and a great memorial to a game that has become a timeless classic. Adults and kids alike won’t be able to resist the mesmerizing visuals and the memorizing gameplay of Dragon's Lair.