Dragon’s Lair Review
| Game Name: | Dragon's Lair |
| Platforms: | Xbox Live Marketplace |
| Publisher(s): | Microsoft Studios |
| Developer(s): | Digital Leisure |
| Genre(s): | Adventure |
| Release Date: | May 18th, 2012 |
| ESRB Rating: | E 10+ |
Dragon’s Lair, one of the most beloved arcade games of all time can now be enjoyed from the comfort of your couch. This fully arcade authentic version is fully playable with Kinect or the Xbox 360 controller so you can really show how well you wield Dirk’s sword. Included with this ultimate edition are bonus Avatar items, Gamerpics and even a full watch feature to sit back and enjoy Don Bluth’s stunning animation. In Dragon’s Lair, you play the heroic Dirk the Daring, a valiant knight on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon! Find your way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. Lead on adventurer.
If you remember this arcade game from pumping quarters into it then it’s time to relive your childhood with the classic! This features the original arcade mode where the scenes change every time you die and the game moves on, or you can play the game in the same scene until you get it right. It is a very simple game and easy to play, you pick the right move for Dirk to do or hit the action button. However, Dragon’s Lair now features the Kinect enabled part of the game. This means you can play on the controller or full body motion and control Dirk.
Dragon’s Lair is truly a one of a kind with amazing animation and great sense of humor as well. The game does features achievements and secret achievements. The 2 secret achievements are:” Bumbling Knight” and “One More Quarter”. To get these are very simple. First for “Bumbling Knight” just die 5 times in a row, but when doing this make sure you pick the wrong move and not just do nothing, otherwise it will not unlock. Secondly for “One More Quarter” just go into options and turn Arcade Monitor to “On” and start the game and it will unlock.
The difficultly from easy to hard is very little change, just a few more moves here and there, it mostly focuses on the timing of the moves. After playing it you really get the hang of the timing. The new XBLA version of Dragon’s Lair has a “move guide” this has arrows or the action button pop up on screen to let you know what to do. If you are truly a Dragon’s Lair king try the game with the guide turned off like the original game!
This is a gem to have released on XBLA, it was one of the games that changed gaming for us. It sits in our hearts and last time we got to play it was on 3DO THEN on DVD. Now we get a great verision of the game with the feature to just sit back and watch the animation without even having to play. Here’s hoping they decide to release Dragon’s Lair II – Time Warp on XBLA.
Game 2 Gamer’s Final Score 3 / 5
Frustration Level 
Replay Value: Low
I actually have this game on DVD, and you play using your DVD remote. Response to movements isn’t as great as it could be. Might depend on the DVD player. I’d like to have the XBLA version. Tried the demo, and it’s exactly like my DVD version. Thanks for the contest!
Twitter: @PriusGuy2004
I remember playing this game for the first time on a Philips CD-i or a Panasonic 3DO, I can’t remember which one because I was a kid and didn’t know that console I was playing with, but I do remember that this game really caught my attention since it was unique in it’s genre – A Disney-esque style of Drawing a-la-Sword in the Stone and a Difficulty that depended on reflexes and memory are thing you don’t forget.
It would be really cool to play the XBLA version and see this game with more “mature” eyes. I hope I don’t die that much.
twitter: @vdh360