Dragon’s Lair (Blu-ray/Interactive Animation Video Game)
Picture:
A- Sound: B+ Extras: B- Main Program: B-
As Dirk
the hero must enter the Dragon's Lair
to rescue the Princess Daphne from the evil Dragon. But challenges awaits Dirk, not only in battle
but cunning puzzles, broken bridges, falling objects, and the occasional electrical
shocks... and that's just for starters! How
will Dirk survive and get through the castle, solve the puzzles, defeat a huge
Dragon, much less rescue the Princess?
This was an amazing arcade game when it first came out 25 years ago, it
looked like animation, BUT requires the viewer's interaction and occasional
guidance to help the hero Dirk get the happy ending. Based on the age old tales of the adventuring
knight defeating the dragon and rescuing the princess, it's drawing and style
reminds old cartoons such as Sword in
the Stone and Secret of NIMH, as
well as semi-cult favorite Titan A.E. Playing through the game is by telling Dirk
when to move or to do a certain action within a given time period or else
certain doom awaits him. But even if you
don't figure out the puzzle, and Dirk loses, he does it dramatic and
comical. And some how electricity exist in a medieval story,
shocking our hero more than once.... Fortunately both player
and Dirk have a number of lives to use up just in case he didn't make it in
time.
An early classic arcade game, but was considered cool for its animation/video
game (I can't believe I am old enough remember it). It was awesome in it's time when compared to
8-bit graphics video games of the time. With original animation the music, sounds and
voices are will make you wish you can just sit back and watch the story. But it is a mix blend of story telling and
role-playing, it requires the viewers to have an active role in the story
telling. With either the simple command of move or action, unlike any game
consol, controlling it is not complex, but the puzzles and timing however make
it difficult and challenging to solve the chain of commands, but then the fun
part of the game was figuring out what to push and when, and the
reward is moving on the storyline and getting to the next scene and getting
closer to defeating the dragon and saving the princess.
A lot of it game WILL be learning from failure, Dirk's death, of when to move
or do something, so you have to be patient if you want get through the game...
and it is worth it. But even if this
type of game isn't for you, it is one of those video games that is
good played with a group either in just watching or trying to
figure out along with you the answer to the puzzle.
The 1080p
1.78 X 1 image looks like a reframed variant that was likely made at 1.33 X 1
and looks very good for its age, with fine color and detail, considering the oversimplified
animation style. A clean up was
obviously done considering its age. As
for the sound, the Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is very active and surprisingly so, as
much that you will wish it were DTS. It
just makes its letter grade. Extras
include all new Blu-ray exclusive including the first Blu-ray Java
picture-in-picture piece for the 19 minutes of the game, longer (22 minutes) Time Capsule compiling vault footage of
the makers discussing the production they hoped was groundbreaking, the option
to watch the game as a film and a brief restoration comparison section showing
the work done to fix and save this.
It will
be interesting to see how this holds up in a few years as Version 1.1
technology and more interactive games come to Blu-ray software. Especially feature films. In the meantime, you can play this on a PS3
or regular Blu-ray player and those interested should check it out.
- Ricky Chiang
