Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

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This BluRay version is INCREDIBLE. I have read some of the reviews that people have posted so far, but I find they are quite innacurate.

First of all, it LOOKS amazing. It is crystal clear, and in widescreen format. I don't have a surround sound set up, but it sounds great through stereo. It DOES have the little BEEP and BOOP sounds to let you know if you did the right action, just like the arcade.

Secondly, the concerns of the first reviewers are pretty inaccurate, because their complaints can be fixed by adjusting the 6 or 7 settings that can completely change the gameplay experience. I haven't gone through all of them, but here is what I have found so far:

HOME vs ARCADE: I haven't gone in depth yet, but when I had it on Arcade mode, it didn't start at the moat/drawbridge scene. On Home mode it DOES start there, which is how I'm used to it, so that is how I have it set. I assume that there are other differences in scene order, although aside from the beginning scene, the scenes are random.

EASY vs HARD I starded the game on easy, and it seems like you don't really have to bother that much with timing, and it is more forgiving with mistakes. Hard is VERY time specific, and you can't really make many mistakes before hitting the right button, just like the original. Fantastic. I'm getting my butt kicked. :)

SIGNALS You have an option to turn on visual clues. Haven't bothered with this yet.

There are some other settings like unlimited lives verses 5 lives, and other stuff I don't remember at the moment, but basically they drastically change the playing experience. You can tweak it to be exactly like the Arcade, or maybe taylor it more to the version you like best.

Somebody claimed that the game was not true to the arcade version because if you failed a level, it just skipped it and you never would get to try it again. Well that reviewer jumped the gun because although it skips it right after you die, you eventually must come back to all the levels you died on, and it will NOT let you pass the second time until you finally get them right. This is true when it is on HOME mode at least, but I haven't played it on ARCADE mode enough to know how it handles failed levels.

The timing between clips is great on my PS3. About 95% of the time there is no pauses or anything, but usually, on the scenes where you make a mistake, there is a slight, split second pause before the death scene.

This is the best version of the game available. It made my whole week better just being able to play it in all of it's glory.

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Would you like to see a cartoon character die in dozens of comically gruesome ways, again and again? Then this is for you!

Are you a fan of former Disney animator Don Bluth ("The Secret of NIMH," and "Pete's Dragon" are most illustrative of his style)? Then this is a must-have!

Are you looking for a cutting-edge game with retro roots to play on your Playstation 3 console? OK, give this a try -but be careful. If you're under the age of 30 or so, you're unlikely to put up with this old style of game.

This game was a revolution back in 1983 when it launched in arcades. It was simply stunning to see branching digital video in this pseudo-interactive form back then. The novelty wore off quickly when the game's high price and limited replay value came through, though. At fifty cents a play, it was a better deal to watch someone else suffer through the trial-and-error gameplay while you watched the beautiful video.

The game has never looked better. This edition is leaps and bounds over any other edition yet released, and there have been dozens, including platforms you'd never think would work, such as the black-and-white Macintosh on multiple floppy diskettes, the GameBoy Color, and the low-color, screen-door graphics of the Sega CD. Even the original LaserDisc and deluxe DVD editions are trumped here.

Controls are fast and responsive, and the gameplay is true to the original The original scene selection order has been preserved and the controller timing feels accurate to me. You can play with your Blu-Ray remote or a Playstation 3 controller if you're on that system.

Sadly, while it's beautiful and is the best version of the game yet, it's not perfect. The menu items don't work properly on the Playstation 3, which is the most popular BD player at this writing. When you select the "5 lives" option, the machine conveniently forgets this and you have 1 life forever, as if your arcade machine were set on FREE PLAY. That's not a bad thing from my perspective, but it would be interesting for people to simulate just how annoying a quarter-snatcher the arcade version was. The disc seems to request access to the internet, so there's a possibility this could be patched, but I have a feeling this disc will remain as-is unless they do another publication run.

There are ARCADE and HOME options so you can choose to see the shorter clips as originally presented, or as seen in home versions (like the playable drawbridge scene at the beginning). Since there is no effective limit on your lives, you just play until you finish or can no longer take any more. Each scene is presented at least once (sometimes flipped left-to-right) and you can't get to the ending unless you have beaten them all. Pauses to access the disc are imperceptible, much faster than any prior home version running off an optical disc.

The extras are nicely done. There's a "watch" mode in which you can see the solution for each of the screens, as well as the MANY different ways your hero can die. From what I can tell, it's the only way to see the animation where Dirk crumbles to bones, because of the "5 lives" bug above.

There are some interviews and a commentary track with 3 of the game's creators looking bored. I only glanced at the opening, but turned it off when I felt that I could read Don Bluth's mind. He seemed to be thinking "I'm tired of this 25-year-old ****, give me my check so I can go home." Good for the sake of completeness, but I doubt you'd watch it again and again.

There's a lovely clip showing the endgame with graphics from the rasterized Amiga version, the early PC version, the deluxe PC version, the original LaserDisc version, the DVD version, and this new HD version. Each one is added as a stripe on the screen until you see them all side-by-side. The comparison is stunning. When you looked at the fisheyed monitor in the 1983 arcade, you had no idea the game could ever look this good.

Finally, there are some previews of similar games that are coming soon, namely Space Ace and Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp. In my opinion, they're completely non-essential because they're so much more annoying. They're so much more annoying because there's a lot more speech in them, which means you get to hear the same silly dialogue again and again and AGAIN! Perhaps they'll be bundled into a value package with a fixed version of this disc in a few years. Given the publisher's penchant for reissuing this content, I think that's a pretty sure bet.

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Don't believe the reviews about this not working with PS3. I played through the whole game last night and it was the best version i have ever played. It looks better than the arcade version. The detail and color in the backgrounds are astoundting. If you ever played this game in the arcade you will love this.

Adding to the awesome trasfer of the game (which includes all stages!!! even the flipped ones!!!!) you get come really cool interview and commentary videos. The coolset thing I found in any of the interviews is that Don Bluth is trying to get funding to do a 2D animated Dragons Lair feature film!!!

If you are reading this review just buy the game, you wont regret it.

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MAAAN!! I remember when I first bought the dvd version of Dragon's Lair, IT SUCKED!!!! The graphics were a little blurred, there wasn't too much special features, AND each time I did the wrong or correct move the game paused itself for 2 seconds. THAT GAVE ME HEADACHES!!!

BUT THIS VERSION!...it's the one I been looking for. There are many special features (including the "watch" mode), you can set the game in different ways (ex. arcade mode or home mode, hard or easy, infinite continues or 5 lives, and set a warning that will make you know that you did the right or wrong move), the game doesn't pause when you make the wrong or correct move. Also, the graphics are remastered and so the sound.

NOW!! The bad rumors are truth. The game glitches every time you lose by sending you to a random stage, BUT THAT DOESN'T MATTER TO ME! because you still must pass every stage to get to the dragon, so it doesn't matter if the stages are random you still are playing the game as it should be. Besides, if you need more practice with the same stage you can press main menu to star again from the begining.

P.S: I don't know why some people say that this Blu-ray disc doesn't run on the Playstation 3. I been playing this game for several times on my Playstation.

Adios.

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Dragon's Lair (Blu-ray)

Outstanding conversion superior to the arcade original. Special features are satisfying.

There were many reviews suggesting buggs so I contacted digital leisure before I bought DL and they reassured me that with all the updates the PS3 would play without a gliche. At first my sound was dropping out but I discovered that by changing the PS3 sound output setting from bitstream to linear everything worked perfectly. Stunning picture and full 5.1 surround I could not be more satisfied with DL.

I bought my product new from Amazon and was gobsmacked when it arrived in just 4 working days from Texas to Australia! Must have been sent through the most efficient means possible.

People were paying $4000.00 for the DL arcade unit in the 80's and now you can play on a better screen and sound for chicken feed. Most highly recommended game ever made!