In addition to the game there are a few special features on the disc. The best and most exciting for nostalgia buffs are the original 1980s news broadcasts featuring interviews with Don Bluth, Rick Dyer and a behind the scenes look at the making of the game. The other special features are trailers to more DVD games, including Bluth and Dyers’ additional team-ups for Dragon’s Lair II: Timewarp and Space Ace. The one bonus feature that does disappoint is a mode where you can watch the game animation playthrough without having to actually play the game. Unfortunately they don’t show all of the animation. All they present are the victories, but none of the fatalities, which is some of the best animation in the game.
The biggest shortcoming of the DVD game isn’t from the gameplay, but the DVD format. On the laserdisc arcade version, when you made your move and the laserdisc advanced to the outcome, there was a fraction of a second blackout while the system moved to the proper spot on the disc. When you chapter skip on a DVD the image freezes momentarily then when it finds the proper spot on the disc it skips a couple of frames before playing again. This causes the game to stutter throughout the play, and in some DVD players it skips over the portion of the disc that would register your next move. Of the three DVD players tested, Panasonic, Sony and Toshiba, only the Panasonic allowed a complete playthrough.
Regardless of its limitations, the Dragon’s Lair DVD game is a must have for any nostalgic classic video game lover, and a great introduction for newbies to the most cinematic video game ever created. As soon as you start playing your mind will take you back to a time when you first discovered a video game could cost a whopping 50 cents, and was so good that they could get away with it.
Parents Tips
The original Dragon’s Lair predates the ESRB, but the DVD version was assigned a rating with the now defunct K-A Kids to Adults rating, which has been replaced with E for Everyone. However this is a bit of a misleading rating, as the game features some pretty gruesome deaths for Dirk, which is enhanced by gurgling and screaming, followed by a decomposing Dirk fading into a pile of bones. This content might be too extreme for younger, more sensitive gamers, so be sure to check it out first before letting the kiddies play.
