Dragon’s Lair HD

By Alex Arbizo . July 19, 2006 . 10:14am

Dragon’s Lair is the adventure of Dirk the Daring, a hero on a quest to save Princess Daphne from Singe the Dragon. It is your job to guide him through the cursed castle, and help him battle monsters and wizards to save the maiden fair. You may be thinking to yourself, “self, this sounds familiar”, well that’s because this version is Digital Leisure’s High Definition spin of a classic game. Dragon’s Lair HD was Dragon’s Lair directly transferred to HD, making it 100% true to the original. DLHD allows you to play both the home and the original arcade versions of Dirk the Daring’s adventure, circa 1983, re-mastered in a crisp, high definition format and 5.1 surround sound.

Dragon’s Lair does not follow conventional video game flow. It plays like an animated movie, during which Dirk is faced with numerous challenges. It is up to the player to press the direction keys at the right moment to dash through a doorway, avoid a trap or swing Dirk’s sword. The scenes do not always follow the same order, and are sometimes mirrored and the keys must be pressed accordingly (i.e. a room in which the correct key order is left, left, right, would be mirrored so you would press right, right, left). The object of the game is to rescue Princess Daphne from Singe the Dragon.

Because it is unlike any modern game, it takes a little while to get the rhythm of DL. This version includes an advanced mode and an easy mode. The easy mode gives players a larger window of time for each keystroke. This allows users who are new to Dragon’s Lair to get the concept and the timing down.

The DVD comes with 9 different formats of the actual game, a low, medium and high quality resolution at 3 different aspect ratios.

Type	Resolution	Aspect Ratio
Anamorphic	1440×1080	4:3
Full Screen	1280×1024	5:4
Widescreen	1920×1080	16:9

There is a noticeable difference in picture quality going from low to high, though many users will probably also notice a decrease in performance, depending on your system. Do not sacrifice performance for quality; DL is not exactly forgiving when it comes to mistakes due to lag. Also, if you are able to utilize the 5.1 surround sound, you will notice more audible clues on where to direct Dirk.

+ Pros: Very sharp video and audio. This version has all the classic elements that made the original so popular. Watching the reactions, and the suspense of what you will find in the next room, are what drew people in the first time.

- Cons: Under the default settings, the game plays directly from the DVD. I recommend copying the files to the hard drive (one of the menu options) for best performance. At the best quality these files are over 1.5GB for one type at maximum quality. Not very much replay value, you will not see anything new playing the game through a second time.

Overall: Not a whole lot too it. It would have been better with more to do, perhaps including the sequels in as well or even Space Ace (same developer/type of game). Because of the nature of the game, one installment of the series does not offer the amount of content gamers expect these days.