Dragon's Lair

Dirk The Daring Is Back!

Control the fate of Dirk the Daring in the long-awaited return of Dragon's Lair, now for Game Boy Color. The fair princess, Daphne has been seized by the evil dragon, Singe and only Dirk the Daring can rescue her from his clutches. On your quest, you must fight your way through the castle of the dark wizard who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters, traps and other obstacles. Lead on brave adventurer!

The power of the complete original arcade version of Dragon's Lair... now on Game Boy Color!

Control the fate of Dirk the Daring on his quest to rescue the fair princess Daphne

Stunning animation brings Dragon's Lair to life in the world's most amazing full-motion animated game

Source:

Back of box

Dirk the Daring dashes onto Game Boy Color in fabulous full-motion glory.

This was the thought that sizzled through many gamers' brain cells in 1983, when they saw the price of admission on Dragon's Lair's coin slot. After witnessing the intense laser disc-generated excitement which came from that 50 cents, hypnotized gamers quickly forgot about their budgets and immediately began to empty their pockets. When the quarters were gone, they'd push and shove to get a view of the colorful screen as luckier, perhaps wealthier, players helped Dirk the Daring rescue the fair princess Daphne from the evil dragon Singe.

What made the original Dragon's Lair arcade game so exciting was its originality. Basically an interactive cartoon, Dragon's Lair allowed players to watch pre-recorded animation sequences while directing Dirk's movements by moving the joystick or pressing the sword button at exactly the right time. If the correct sequence of moves was entered, Dirk would escape a dire situation safely. If a player pressed right instead of left, Dirk would endure a humorously painful demise. The end product was an addictive, engrossing game that seemed way ahead of its time.

The Dragon's Lair franchise has popped up on Nintendo systems before, including the original NES, the Super NES and the original Game Boy. Unfortunately, these were nothing more than average side-scrolling adventure games which completely failed to capture the spirit and excitement of Dirk's original adventure. At last, Digital Eclipse has managed to recreate the first Dragon's Lair game -- unique gameplay style, full-motion animation and all -- on Game Boy Color.

Fans of the Dragon's Lair series will immediately recognize the situations and hardships which Dirk must overcome. Every scene from the original game has been recreated in the Game Boy Color version, although many segments have been shortened due to memory limitations. For example, a sequence which once took eight moves to pass might only take five correct movements in the portable version of the game.

Dirk's movements are a bit choppy at times, but we're willing to cut the developers a little slack considering the monumental challenge of bringing the non-stop thrill ride of Dragon's Lair to Game Boy Color's 8-bit world.

Once you figure out how to overcome the monsters and traps which face Dirk throughout his adventure, you can play through the entire game in about 20 minutes. It takes much longer than that to learn the correct sequences of moves, though, and the action is instantly addictive. Dragon's Lair for Game Boy Color is so refreshingly ambitious and mercifully UN-side-scrolling that all game fans owe it to themselves to check it out. It may be a bit of a novelty act, but it's a blast from the past which is daringly different.

Dragon's Lair is compatible only with Game Boy Color.

Source:

Nintendo.com - Game Boy Color