CD-i

Dragon's Lair

First and foremost, once you enter the castle, the stages occur in random order, which is awesome. It means that even if you're not skilled at the game, you'll still get to see a lot of the scenes. I also appreciate how you're NOT penalized for entering moves prematurely, which makes the game quite a bit easier. High scores are saved by the CD-i system. On the downside, when you lose a life you have to sit through an irritating "score screen" that prints numbers and letters one at a time along with some harsh sound effects. Also, you can't continue after losing your three lives. But despite these issues, I still prefer this version over the others I've played.

This version of the laserdisc arcade classic is without a doubt the best version of any platform. Everything from the arcade has been directly ported over. All the scenes and music are here! Another thing that makes DL so good is the fine control of Dirk which allows players to choose his movies with ease. On the downside, the CD access time is a nuisance breaking you away from the game too long.

It's nice to see old games come back, but it's usually more fun if the game is updated for a new generation - as Atari did with Tempest 2000. If you're a fan of Dirk, though, this game is yours; it's made just for you.

There's not enough incentive here to play this game just to see the new scenes or the great graphics. Unless you're a Dirk die-hard, you'll find that Dragon's Lair may just be too much adventure to handle.