Topic: Dragon's Lair First Impressions

If you've bought it, whats it like, also whats the gameplay like

Video is fairly fuzzy, something to be expected with the compression used. So far the gameplay is solid, but I've only played about 30 minutes of it so far. I'll have a review up in the next day or so.

I downloaded it. It plays exactly like the arcade. It has two difficulty modes easy and hard. It has 2 gameplay modes Home and arcade. Home modes presents the scenes in order and has the deleted drawbridge scence. Arcade mode is random just like it was in the arcade. The control is spot-on and better then playing with a PC keyboard in my opinion. The graphics are good but have some graininess but otherwise looks good. The sound is good and includes all the voices, sound effects and the entire opening from the arcade. If you like the arcade version of Dragon's Lair you can't go wrong with this version. Great job by Digital Leisure.

Now can we get Dragon's Lair 2: Time Warp?

I agree. The controls have been great in both modes. Even the "dink" sound when the input the moves is authentic to the arcade version. It's so funny how I can still remember these moves and I haven't played this game in 10 years.

I played Dragon's Lair and Space Ace on a PC collection and died over and over because the keyboard was just not responsive enough. The DSi control scheme is a much better fit. Another nice feature is the bottom screen records your score and gives you the name of the scene your on(crypt keepers, smithee, elevator etc.). That was a feature not included in the arcade.

I think the last version of Dragon's Lair I played was the sluggish 3DO version. The control wasn't too good and felt off on many levels. Timing just didn't feel right. This DSi version has been sharp so far, and I agree, the score and scene name are nice.

What exactly do you do in dragon's lair?

It is an animated cartoon based game. As each scene it started you will be prompted to move up, down, left, right, or use your sword in each scenario. The goal is to memorize the correct pattern for each room to survive. I hope this helps because its hard to explain.

Here is Levi Buchanan's take
http://ds.ign.com/articles/105/1056855p1.html

I wish I had more points on my DSi... XP

Basically, you watch a cartoon about a knight being killed in a death trap, and you need to push the right button at the right time to make him perform the action required to survive.

Here's a video of a guy playing the Sega CD version, it's the easiest way to explain.
[youtube:nnmsgo_4RIY]

Does this game have continue points, or do you have to beat the entire thing with the lives you're given? Also, what's easy mode like?

Yes the game does have continues, infinite lives, and easy mode is a little more forgiving with entering the commands it seems. The good news is the DSi ware version looks better than the Sega CD version above . Basically with home mode you can practice a room over and over till you memorise the pattern its not randomly picked.

I think it's worth the 800 points. Fun arcade game.

Though my only real complaint is that I wish they didn't need to compress the video and audio so much. It can look really poor sometimes, but that's Nintendo's fault really. It's amazing they got all this video in the 20MB limit.

Yeah I'm having fun with it. Getting my butt kicked though. I'm using 5 lives on easy and my high score is 23,236 so far. I alternate between arcade and home.

I never played this back in the day, and never watched anyone play it. It was always at the arcades but it was ignored, I assume because it was so much more expensive then the other games.

How many blocks is it?

@WAIW

127 blocks

same as rayman lol

I'm enjoying this a lot too. Can be creepy and funny at times but it's very replayable. My high-score is close to PopeReal's, I believe. Persistence really does pay off. Some of the rooms really irritate me though but it's all part of the fun.

I found the Mudmen room to be the hardest and Singe's layer was actually pretty easy. Home Mode makes this game much easier than the arcade version ever was. And I agree it does have a dark sense of humor to it.

Yeah, I have no idea what to do in the Mudmen area. I actually got the first timing right and the camera changed and I moved backwards a bit but it was all happening so fast I didn't know what to do next.

If I remember correctly after you jump over the first geyser you must hit (R) immediatly with no delay. Its a pretty long scene if I remember but you only had to use your sword one time. I think it was (S) Sword, Up, Up, Left, Right, Up, Up , Up if I remember correctly but the timing had to be perfect on some of the moves.