February 18, 2001

When I was a wee lad (early 1980's), I would spend the summer school break at my Grandma's in the town of Fort Qu'appelle. There my sister Laura and I would stroll down to the local snack stand. Hamburgers, hotdogs, and fries were the munchies to die for, not to mention all those yummy sweets. Well in late summer, we would check out this tiny arcade in the back. On one particular day we would play one of the coolest arcade game's in history, Dragon's Lair. When we first saw the game, our jaws literally dropped to the floor.

In the Golden Age of Video Gaming of Pac-Man and Galaxian, Dragon's Lair was mind blowing. A fully animated adventure with beautiful music and sound effects. Created by Rick Dyer and Don Bluth, they who would hammer out for years the technology and art of creating the game. Released in June 1983, the heart of the arcade machine was a laserdisc player holding around 22 minutes of classical animation from Bluth and his animators. Never before had anyone seen a game like this, a beautiful fusion of art and science. The story is your typical "Knight must save the Princess from the evil Dragon" kinda routine. But we don't want no Disney! We want our action and that's what Lair is all about.

The control for this game was unlike anything before. A memorization, rhythm, "Choose Your Own Adventure" type of game play, hitting the right button at the right time where one didn't have complete control over the hero. Rather you controlled his reactions to the events unfolding on screen. When you saw a tentacle-attacking Dirk on screen, his sword would flash and you better hit the sword button or you're toast. It's this type of game play that inspired Yu Suzuki to place tiny, quick timed elements in Shenmue. The manual provided is detailed and well written to help you on your quest. The game includes a tutorial mode to help you get familiarized with the control structure, a very nice addition indeed. To date, the laserdisc series of games, ranging from Lair to it's sequel Dragon's Lair II: Time Warp and Space Ace, continue to be one of the biggest selling series, having been translated to every platform imaginable. And now we have the Gameboy Color!

Now nearly 20 years latter, the legend returns. First off, I'm sending big phat props to the wizards at Digital Eclipse and the rest of Lair's team for pulling off something unbelievable. Hey, I only expected the best from Digital Eclipse. They're responsible for the fantastic retro re-fittings into the GBC ranging from the killer Joust/Defender and Ghosts and Goblins adaptations. It becomes impressive when you're dealing with a ton of classical animation to fit on an 8-megabit cart.

Well they did it. Dragon's Lair is a technological feat and it looks and plays just like the original laserdisc game of course within the limitations of GBC technology.

Obviously they weren't able to have every single scene from the laserdisc on the cartridge due to space limitations but don't let that dishearten you hardcore fans, the vast majority is crammed in there. Sound is limited, consisting of small samples and midi music/sound effects. These limitations should not (and I repeat, should not) be an excuse for you not to pick up this cartridge. Believe me, you ain't seen anything like this at all on the GBC!

With titles like this, the Gameboy Color is becoming a very cool system to own. The last year has brought us Metal Gear Solid, Ghosts and Goblins, Bionic Commando, Tomb Raider, Rainbow 6 and a host of other fantastic titles. I hope Dragon's Lair and the titles above are wake up calls to all Gameboy Color developers that this is a wonderful machine to make "quality" games. The Gameboy may have been a limiting machine from a technological point of view (look at the "quality" of games during the Gameboy era). However, utilizing the true power of the GBC allows developers the extra power to develop great games and maybe the trend of tired crap will come to an end.

I'm playing Dragon's Lair on my GBC and its bringing back those happy childhood memories once again. I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd be playing the Lair handheld. If you've never played this game before, I suggest running down to your local software shop and picking up a copy. It is definitely one of the best Gameboy Color titles developed. I hope Digital Eclipse got the go ahead on Space Ace for the Gameboy Advanced. Dragon's Lair is a one of the last, fantastic GBC titles!

Rating

9 / 10