Guess what? Dragon’s Lair is now celebrating its illustrious 25th anniversary (it hit arcades in June 1983), and to commemorate the occasion Digital Leisure is offering a week-long 25% discount on all Dragon’s Lair titles from its website (all DVD, Blu-ray and HD PC DVD copies sold during this period will be signed by the game’s creators as well) and has even put together an extra-special giveaway. Between now and June 27th, you can enter for a chance to win a beautiful giclee print of Dragon’s Lair‘s opening castle scene autographed by the game’s creators, Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, John Pomeroy and Rick Dyer. The artwork is valued at $500!
Last but not least, Digital Leisure is also offering a limited quantity of 50 autographed movie-style posters. At $80 they are quite pricey, but remember, they are extremely limited edition and signed by the four masterminds that brought Dragon’s Lair into this world.
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Dragon’s Lair came out the year of my birth – 1983 – and was at the height of its popularity during my youth, and as such it was one of the first arcade games I fondly remember playing. Actually, to be honest, I spent more time watching others play it because it was just too damn difficult and I didn’t have enough quarters to continuously pump into it.
Almost immediately after Dragon’s Lair hit, Space Ace, another Don Bluth-animated arcade game, came along, but for one reason or another it just never caught on to nearly the same extent. So much so that none of the arcades in my area ever even brought it in, and thusly I’d never been able to play it. Thanks to Digital Leisure’s continued efforts to keep these old classics from dying out, however, I’ve finally been able to play Space Ace after all these years — on Blu-ray sporting gloriously restored High Definition visuals at that – and it doesn’t disappoint one bit.
As you’re reading this, Space Ace on Blu-ray should be hitting retail shelves, or at least shipping out. I’ve been enjoying an early review copy here for the past week or so and can tell you without equivocation that it’s absolutely fantastic!
Space Ace’s Blu-ray debut follows up on last year’s excellent Dragon’s Lair remastering on Sony’s triumphant new HD disc format (read my DL Blu-ray review here), and overall the material on display is very similar, from the interesting developer interviews and picture-in-picture commentary to the progression reel video that shows how the visual quality has improved over the years and numerous platforms it’s appeared on. And boy have they even improved. Don Bluth’s impeccable animations are truly a sight to behold in their newly HD-remastered form. The crisp video quality, the endearing art, the vibrant colors. Man, it’s all so beautiful.
The game itself is also in the same mold of Dragon’s Lair – it’s basically an interactive movie in which you press the appropriate direction or action button on your remote with the proper timing in order to guide the protagonist past on-screen hazards and continue to the next scene — only in Space Ace Dirk is replaced by the handsomely chiseled hero Ace (and his youthful and quite dorky alter-ego Dexter), Princess Daphne is replaced as the damsel in distress by redhead hottie Kimberly, the dragon Singe gives way to Borf as one of the best villain’s in gaming history, and the fantasy setting is replaced by a lighthearted sci-fi motif.
Compared to Dragon’s Lair, though, I must say that Space Ace does have a more pronounced game-like feel to it. The scenes flow together much smoother, the scenes are more complex and the pacing is infinitely quicker. Those elements combined with a full-length musical score give Space Ace a far greater sense of continuity and cohesion.
However, the rapid-fire pacing in particular, coupled with the typical trial-and-error style of this genre, does ratchet up the difficulty to new heights. Yep, that’s right, folks. Space Ace is MUCH harder than Dragon’s Lair. So much so that Rick Dyer even admits in the commentary that the increased difficulty and pacing is probably what led to Space Ace’s lack of comparative success when it originally came out. Fortunately, this Blu-ray version does at least offer options to ease the pain a bit. There are three difficulty settings and an option to turn on visual move indicators that help out by causing elements in a scene to blink as a hint as to what button you need to press. If all else fails and you give up on completing the story on your own abilities, you can always elect to wimp out and watch the animation like a movie.
And that’s ultimately what makes Space Ace so great. If you want to endure the hardships of beating the game on your own – like a true hardcore gamer — you’ll come out in the end with a sense of pride and satisfaction knowing you just finished what has to be one of the hardest games ever created. But at the same time, you can skip the aggravations, relax and simply treat the disc as a movie. It works both ways. Whether you choose to interact or watch, Space Ace is yet another spectacular Blu-ray showcase from Digital Leisure.
Pros:
+ HD-remastered animations are absolutely gorgeous
+ Excellent musical score
+ Smoother scene transitions and an overall greater sense of continuity
+ Loaded with fantastic bonus features, including brief playable demo scenes from Dragon’s Lair and the upcoming BD version of Dragon’s Lair II (which I wasn’t able to squeeze into the review text but deserved mention)
Cons:
– Rapid pacing and high difficulty can be excruciatingly frustrating
Game Info:
Platform: Blu-ray/PS3
Publisher: Digital Leisure
Developer: Digital Leisure
Release Date: 4/8/08
Genre: Interactive Animation
Players: 1
Following up on last year’s Blu-ray and HD DVD remakes of Dragon’s Lair, Digital Leisure is now set to release an HD-remastered Space Ace to the two rival disc formats, both of which will hit retail on April 8th. Both versions will share much of the same content — full-length picture-in-picture commentary, interviews, 1080p visuals, 5.1 surround sound, etc. — however, the HD DVD version will feature internet-based functionality as part of an exclusive “Leisure Online” mode. Not quite sure I get why this content is only on the waning HD DVD, especially with Blu-ray recently beginning to assert itself as the dominant format, but it’s no biggie.
Trailer, screenshots, box art and feature lists after the break.
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The Blu-ray disc includes the following special features:
– Interviews with game creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman & Rick Dyer
– Picture in Picture video commentary from the creators
– Viewing Mode Option: Widescreen (16:9) or Anamorphic (4:3) video playback
– Watch Mode – Watch Don Bluth’s stunning animation without playing
– Subtitled: English, French, Spanish, Italian and German
The HD DVD includes the following special features:
– “Leisure Online” – A unique online player experience that includes “Head 2 Head” gaming – an incredible first for the HD DVD format.
– Interviews with game creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman & Rick Dyer
– Picture in Picture video commentary from the creators
– Viewing Mode Option: Widescreen (16:9) or Anamorphic (4:3) video playback
– Watch Mode – Watch Don Bluth’s stunning animation without playing
– Subtitled: English, French, Spanish, Italian and German
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Following a successful HD-remastered Blu-ray re-release of Dragon’s Lair, Digital Leisure has now announced release details regarding the upcoming HD DVD version (trailer below). Dirk the Daring’s classic arcade adventure will be available in HD DVD format for standalone players and the Xbox 360 add-on drive on August 15th, featuring full 1080p HD video, interviews with Dragon’s Lair creators Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Rick Dyer, and full length video commentary.
“I’m amazed at the high definition video.” says Don Bluth, one of the original creators of Dragon’s Lair. “Finally, the game looks as good as it did on film. And, the 5.1 audio sounds even better than original. Now whether you have Blu-ray or HD DVD you can enjoy this terrific, high definition version of Dragon’s Lair.”
Digital Leisure will also be releasing Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp in HD DVD (and Blu-ray) format later on down the road. We’ll keep you posted as additional info comes along.
Back when it hit the arcades in the early 80’s, Dragon’s Lair was probably the most ambitious and innovative game of its time, blowing away arcade-goers with its unprecedented Disney-quality animation that put all the surrounding sprite-based games to shame. Dragon’s Lair, which actually isn’t so much a true videogame but rather an interactive animated short film, still holds quite an influence over the industry to this day, and Digital Leisure seems determined to keep it that way, once again resurrecting the laserdisc classic for a HD-remastered Blu-ray format release.
For those who have never played or heard of it before, Dragon’s Lair is an animated adventure starring Dirk the Daring, a valiant, albeit quite clumsy, knight on a quest to save Princess Daphne from an evil dragon inside a monster-infested, trap-laden castle. Rather than directly controlling Dirk on this perilous quest, however, you watch the adventure unfold like a cartoon animation and interact with key scenes using the Up, Down, Left, Right and Enter (X) buttons of your PS3 controller or Blu-ray remote to dictate the outcome, which either has Dirk narrowly surviving the hazard at hand or meeting his untimely demise in a vast array of death animations.
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It sounds pretty easy, but trust me, it is incredibly challenging, and in this day and age its trial-and-error mechanics will likely become tedious to the mainstream audience hopped up on too much Gears of War and Grand Theft Auto. Again though, Dragon’s Lair is really more of an interactive movie than a game, so to critique its “gameplay” in comparison to modern-day productions would be completely missing the point.Powered by Blu-ray Java technology, this latest release of Dragon’s Lair irons out many of the annoying mid-animation pauses that plagued previous versions, and consequently it runs as smooth as it ever has – though certain scene transitions still seem a bit abrupt and disjointed. Now fully remastered in 1080p HD, Don Bluth’s masterful animations have never looked more stunning. The animations are elegant and fluid, the characters are charming, the colors are vibrant, and now the image quality is super clean and sharp – it truly is a work of art. Dragon’s Lair has never sounded better either thanks to the introduction of 5.1 surround sound for the first time ever!
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Like any DVD-type release, Dragon’s Lair Blu-ray is filled to the brim with bonus features and options that ultimately make this title the collector’s showpiece that it is. The full-length video commentary and creator interviews with Don Bluth, Gary Goldman and Rick Dyer stand out the most for sure, as trio chats about the game all while being floored at how beautiful it now looks in HD. Another excellent extra is a slick Time Capsule video that shows a progression reel of how Dragon’s Lair has changed over its countless platform re-releases, providing a split-screen view of the final scene with side-by-side shots comparing the new HD-quality video to the Amiga, Deluxe Pack PC, 20th Anniversary, Laserdisc and DVD versions – it’s shocking to see how blurry, pixilated and downright ugly Dragon’s Lair used to look. Other features that round out the disc are a watch option for viewing selected scenes or the entire game without having to interact with it, optional scene interaction indicators (and various other play options), and trailers for Dragon’s Lair and the upcoming Blu-ray releases of Dragon’s Lair II: Time Warp and Space Ace.
Taken strictly as a game, Dragon’s Lair is a love it or hate it type of experience, but as an overall form of entertainment there still isn’t anything quite like this on the market. Loaded with special features and gorgeously revamped high definition visuals, Dragon’s Lair Blu-ray is a timeless work of art and a must-have collector’s item for all Blu-ray-equipped gamers. I can’t wait to see how Dragon’s Lair II and Space Ace look in HD next!
Pros:
+ New HD art is amazing
+ Great bonus features
+ High nostalgia value
Cons:
– Extremely difficult
– A lot of trial and error
Game Info:
Platform: PS3, Blu-ray
Publisher: Digital Leisure
Developer: Digital Leisure
Release Date: 4/9/07
Genre: Interactive Animation
Players: 1