Dragon's Lair - Blu-ray review

10 May 2007 13:00 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Remember Dragon's Lair? Thought you might, and if you're old enough that you want reminding further, it’s the 80s arcade game that saw you running through a castle trying to avoid dragons, fires, and razor sharp pendulums.

24 years on and the game has made a surprise comeback on Blu-ray, taking advantage of the disc format's Java support and HD output.

Don Bluth, original creator of Dragon’s Lair has praised the makeover: “I’ve seen the newly restored footage and it just looks amazing” he said before getting even more excited by the added 5.1 surround sound to give as they say that "Wow!" factor all over again.

So why the hesitation? Well strangely enough video games have moved on somewhat since 1983 when this game first appeared, and so the idea of waiting for a cartoon to play out so you can hit the right button on your Blu-ray player's remote control at the right time isn't that appealing.

We want realism, we want Halo 3, we want action sequences that make our heart miss a beat.

Yes for a cartoon that is 24-years-old it looks very good, and it sounds equally as good as well, but then if the game play is awful, which it is by the way it is, then what's the point?

Verdict

We can sometimes (you've been warned) forgive people who buy those plug and play video consoles giving them the chance to re-live their childhood playing Golden Axe or Pacman one last time, but this is taking that nostalgia trip just one step to far.

Like most Blu-ray movies at the moment this is one to avoid.