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.

As a child of the eighties, I have a special nostalgic attachment to Dragon’s Lair. This sword cuts both ways, though. I am decidedly less tolerant of a bad port. The iPhone edition of Dragon’s Lair is excellent, bested only by the Blu-ray edition (which looks insane). Including both the arcade original and home version gives me two ways to play through the game. And I will play through it both ways repeatedly, too, because Dragon’s Lair joins Space Ace as a rare permanent fixture on my iPhone.

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.

Overall, this CD-i edition is a pretty decent version of Dragon's Lair, though it is by no means perfect. The gameplay is very shallow, but to my surprise I enjoyed it more than I thought. If you don't mind trial & error based gameplay and have unlimited patience you may even call this game a classic. But that's a leap too far for me ...

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.

Timing is everything in this translation of the arcade classic. The graphics are excellent with hardly noticeable access time. However, you must have precise timing skills to pass the stages. Fans of the game will like this one.

Unfortunately, the gameplay never lived up to the graphics. The joystick and sword button affected the action, but you never really felt in control. This version of Dragon's Lair is the best I've seen for a console. The graphics, which are easily the best aspect of the game, fill the entire TV screen and are only slightly pixelated. Even if you don't like the gameplay, you have to appreciate the entertaining full motion video. The cinematic sound is also excellent. Control is relatively good (by Dragon's Lair standards). Whenever you make a move an audible tone lets you know if you've made a correct or incorrect choice. Granted, you'll have to discover most of the correct moves through trial and error. The worst thing about this game is that it's completely linear; the rooms always appear in the same order. A little randomization would have gone a long way to enhance the replay value. As it is, you'll probably not want to play it for a long time after you finish it.

It plays exactly like the arcade original. If you liked the coin-op, you'll probably like this new CD-ROM version. But if you didn't, this won't change your mind.

Frustration abounds in this CD version of the arcade classic. You have to have pinpoint accuracy to be able to survive this one and believe me, it will definitely make you very angry! Still, graphically the game is very well done.

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.

I noticed that all the death scenes are intact, which is good considering they tend to be abbreviated in other versions. And it's always cool to see our hero disintegrate into bones after using your last life. There are unlimited continues, but they do set you back a few rooms. I found it interesting that the instruction manual includes instructions for literally EVERY ROOM. All in all, Dragon's Lair on the Sega CD is quite decent - as long as you haven't played it on any other systems.

I know Dragon's Lair is one of the more famous FMV games around, but the competition was so fierce on the Sega CD that this port should have gotten an upgrade. At the very least, it should have included some options to adjust the difficulty, more music should have been added, and the controls shouldn't have been so challenging. FMV games walk a fine line in that they usually get panned for being too hard or too easy, and while Dragon's Lair is over in under an hour (depending on how many times you die), it's just a frustrating journey to the princess. This is one dragon I won't be slaying again anytime soon.

It's the stuff that Disney blockbusters are made of - hardly surprising since Dragon's Lair's creator Don Bluth worked as a Disney animator for some years before setting up his own studio. It all sounds - and indeed looks - like so much fun, the problems only beginning when you actually try to play the thing.

You either love or hate this full motion video arcade game. I remember when I first saw Dragon's Lair in an arcade in 1983. Nobody could play it, but I couldn't take my eyes off the gorgeous animated graphics. It's basically an interactive cartoon where you need to make the right movements at exact times. Don Bluth's animation is sensational, and the audio track is also impressive. This 3DO version provides the cleanest video I've seen on a console system, but unfortunately, this is also a very difficult version. The game provides little or no room for error, no audio feedback, and few clues as to what you should do next. As a result, it's mainly a matter of trial and error, which can be frustrating to say the least. In addition, the rooms are in a fixed order, and using continues requires you to repeat some of the areas you have already been through. Only die-hard fans will want to bother with this.