" Here is where this game gets flushed down the crapper "

   Title: Dragon’s Lair by Digital Leisure

   Format: DVD Video Game

   Reviewing Monkey: Simi N.

   The Hype: Relive the arcade experience with spectacular full screen full motion DVD Video.

      What This Monkey Thought...

   Graphics: By far the best part of this game. Good for those people out there who, like myself, are huge Don Bluth fans. Why? Because the characters in this game were created by Don Bluth and every scene was animated by the Don Bluth group, which makes for some very nice animation and cool characters. 5 out of 5.

   Sound: The sound is really very good. There is very little dialogue, but the music is fitting and the sound effects are very cool. And the way that the Main character reacts vocally to changing environments adds a nice level of comedy to the game. 4 ½ out of 5.

   Game Play: Here is where this game gets flushed down the crapper. Dragon’s Lair is a classic arcade game. It came out in 1983, and was a huge hit. It was later ported to the PC (where I first encountered it) and in both cases was an interesting and fun game. But the game lost damn near all playability in the transfer to DVD. The reason? Well there are many so lets just start at the beginning. The first thing that any player will notice is that the load times are ridiculous, not only are they long, but they will often times cut off a scene up to a full second before it is finished! And in this game, if you don’t see everything, you are dead. That coupled with the crappy control scheme, which prompts you to move your character before you see the danger and the escape route. What this does is take all the skill out of this game and make it a mere matter of memorization through repetition. 1 ½ out of 5.

   Level and Environment Designs: Very, very nice. The environments are perfect to convey a sort of creepy feeling, while keeping the overall lighthearted and fun feeling this game is all about. 4 ½ out of 5.

   Multiplayer: N/A

   Replayability: There isn't any. Well almost none, anyway. Replay value in the original came through it being challenging and loading quickly. But in this game it is all memorization and slow loads, not to mention the fact that with this DVD you don’t have to play the game to see the ending, as there is a function that lets you just watch the game the whole way through. ½ out of 5.

   Story/Dramatics: Very nice cute story. Kind of simple Dragon steals princess, you are a knight, you want some action, and duh you got to rescue the princess, simple but fun. 3 ½ out of 5.

   Instructions and Learning Curve: The learning curve as far as control is short, but because of the crappy loading you will often be frustrated at dying a million times in a row. You might think it is the fault of faulty controls, but don’t be fooled it is all the fault of the loading. 4 out of 5.

   Installation and Real System Requirements: On Regular DVD players this game requires a remote control (not too much to ask). On the Play station 2 this game requires either a remote control, or an actual controller. 5 out of 5.

   The Verdict:

       This game was cool both in the arcade and on the computer but falls way short on DVD. Really annoying game play and load times lean this towards not worth playing… at least in this format.

   The Good: Cool animation, nice sound, neat story, and a cool "history of" feature.

   The Bad: Control, game play, and load times what do you want?

   The Overall Ugly: Despite this game’s good features, the poor ones make it fall face first into a pile of feces. And that’s about how you will feel when playing it, too bad since it was originally such a cool game.

   What it's Worth: I would only buy this game if I found it for $5.00. If I paid more, I would feel a bit ripped off.