Enter The Blu-ray Dragon

By Thomas Machuca

The first time I can remember hearing about the “game” Dragon’s Lair was at University. I study a games course and in one of my classes the lecturer spoke of the “game” Dragon’s Lair that he played when he was young.

He spoke quite highly of his experiences yet he also touched on the obvious downsides of such a “game” if released today.

By now you must be wandering why I keep writing “game” with quotations. The reason for this is that Dragon’s Lair, while being a game in essence, can be described more accurately as an interactive movie. 

In the game you play as Dirk the Daring, and are on a quest to rescue the Fair Princess Daphne who has been kidnapped and is being held captive by Singe the Evil Dragon. 

To do this you must survive a perilous journey and defeat all your adversaries. Same old story...

The method in which you play this game is that at certain times throughout the short clips you watch - these make up the full game - you must use the directional buttons for and your sword to progress through the entire clip. So there's only five control inputs for the whole game? Sure is.

It's a classic 'twitch' reflex game. Something happens on screen, like a bat comes and tries to kick you in the throat, and you have to push down to duck underneath it. Fail to do so, and it's light out.

So if you do not succeed in pressing the correct button that corresponds to the right action at the exact time - and the timing is quite important - the clip will end at that point and a death sequence relating to the situation will be displayed at which point the clip will start over again for you to try once more.

Not much in terms of gameplay, but it is a nostalgic look at the way we used to play games. So, if you are looking for another game to play which relies heavily on high-quality gameplay and plenty of it (which most good games do nowadays)… you may want to keep looking.

Also, if you know what you are doing when playing, you can finish the game in around 20 minutes. This is something that most gamers do not look for when deciding whether or not to purchase a game.

Before I tell you about some of the issues I had with the game, you should know that Blu-ray supports a function called Blu-ray Disc Java and that different Blu-ray players will play this format differently because variances are an issue inherent with the design of BD-J.

That being said, Dragon’s Lair is the first title to make full use of BD-J. I used my faithful Playstation 3 to play Dragon’s Lair and the issues which I will talk about next are mostly related Blu-ray Disc Java, rather than any coding glitches in the game.

First glitch I noticed was with the DVD menu; the background did not show up in some parts. The main glitch was when I first started playing; when Dirk died, instead of restarting again it would randomly jump to another clip until it fixed itself when you 'passed' a few stages.

Another problem was with the on screen displays. The manual states that you should see things appearing on the lower right corner of the screen to help you know what’s happening, but these were not present. It also states that you should be able to pause and resume the game, but if you pause the game it automatically resumes shortly after.

There is an option to have five lives in the game but this also didn't work.

Those were the issues I noticed when playing on my Playstation 3, and they make it sound like Dragon's Lair is a real turd burger, but this isn't quite the case. Keep in mind that firmware updates are available for most Blu-ray devices now and that when this game is released Down Under these issues will be mostly resolved.

Furthermore, Dragon’s Lair isn't trying to be the next Half-Life, and what it offers (certain) players is more than just a game. Dragon’s Lair was released in 1983 on what was known as a "laserdisc". Back in the early '80s, games weren't much more graphically complex than Pac-Man. Understandably, Dragon's Lair blew everyone away - it was a game that looked as nice as a full motion animated movie.

This game was before my time unfortunately, but for those whose time it was - like my lecturer - they may find Dragon’s Lair on Blu-ray absolutely awesome, particularly for the nostalgia. The video quality is superb - full HD 1080p - and they have even thrown in 5.1 Surround Sound (they probably didn’t have to although I’m not complaining).

I found that watching all the special features, for example the interviews with the creators, made me appreciate the game a lot more and not just write it off as a crappy cartoon with rudimentary inputs. In all, there are several special features included on the Bluy-ray disc and they are all quite interesting and add an extra layer of, um, interest.

In the end, I personally enjoyed myself and found the whole experience rewarding. Although that being said, I had to play the game, where as games columnist for this website, Sandra, could only play it for 5 minutes as she found it incredibly annoying having to repeat scenes over and over again with sometimes no indication on what needed to be pressed.

My final verdict kind of depends on who you are: a modern day game fanatic, or as a nostalgic gamer who experienced the joy of the '80s gaming scene? If you belong the latter group, Dragon’s Lair on Blu-ray will be a must-have.

Game: Dragon's Lair
System: Blu-ray (PS3)
Players: 1
Online: No
Developer: Digital Leisure
Distributor: Digital Leisure

Rating: 70%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)