14 DAY TRIAL // Nintendo's DS is a very spoiled handheld lately, as more and more developers and publishers are announcing their support for it this year. Who blames them, the DS is a gold mine. Anyway, as it turns out, Digital Leisure has also announced a title for the platform, working on the improved version of the 1983 Dragon's Lair from Cinematronics. The game is said to place players in the shoes of a valiant knight, in a fantasy setting.
The game's description in short:
As a valiant knight, players embark on a quest to rescue the fair princess from the clutches of an evil dragon, in this fantasy-adventure title called Dragon's Lair. Gamers control the actions of a daring adventurer, finding his way through the castle of a dark wizard, who has enchanted it with treacherous monsters and obstacles. In the mysterious caverns below the castle, the odyssey continues against the awesome forces that oppose the gamers' efforts to reach the Dragon's Lair.
As you can imagine, the much-improved DS version will sport an array of features, trying to build on the original at the same time. Basically, the gameplay will remain the same. Listed below is a breakdown of features specific to the DS version of Dragon's Lair (all of which are controlled from a settings menu), as the official report informs:
￭ Dual Screen (book-style) full-screen action
￭ Single Screen (top-down) full-screen action
￭ D-Pad & Touch screen support (in both Dual Screen & Single Screen modes)
￭ Voice Recognition
￭ Rumble Pak Support
￭ Arcade & Home modes: This feature allows you to switch between the Arcade and Home versions of the game (Arcade default). The differences between the two are that the latter includes the additional sequences that were not in the original Arcade game.
￭ Game Statistics: Displays your lives and overall score
￭ Lives: Choose between unlimited, standard 5 lives or sudden death single life mode
￭ Difficulty: Easy or Hard. The Hard option complicates things by adding additional moves in certain sequences and mixes up the scenes for less linear stage progression. Timing of moves is also affected - achieve higher scores
￭ Visual Move Guide On/Off: Toggle this option on to bring up a visual clue that shows whether you entered the right move or not. A red circle means you entered the wrong move or your timing is off, a green one lets you know you did it right.
￭ Watch mode (learning mode - video mode): All game scenes without deaths - all game scenes with deaths scenes, in addition to an option where the player can choose to watch a specific scene
That's about it for now. Unfortunately, I couldn't get my hands on a release date or anything else related to this DS installment of Dragon's Lair, but do check with the Internet and see what the PS3 port is all about. I hear it's on Blu-ray already! Don't mix it with Factor 5's Lair.