Dragon’s Lair Trilogy Coming to Nintendo Switch
I know, it seems like just a week ago I wrote about Dragon’s Lair coming to the PlayStation 4 (it was actually back in October of 2018). Well, now it appears that Digital Leisure have plans to release Dragon’s Lair Trilogy for the Nintendo Switch console. Hardcore cans know the problem with using the word “trilogy” here but for everyone else, let’s talk after the jump.
First, this is not really three Dragon’s Lair games as the third game in this “trilogy” is Space Ace - another full motion video game that used Laserdisc technology in the arcades. Considering a title such as “FMV Arcade Classic Trilogy” does not carry nearly as much weight as “Dragon’s Lair Trilogy” does with fans I can kind of see why it is named the way it is. Marketing sometimes takes over for common sense naming. After all, they are here to sell games, not be grammatically correct.
What you can expect in the box is going to be Space Ace, Dragon’s Lair 1, and Dragon’s Lair II: Timewarp. These were all three very well known Full Motion Video games in arcades back in the day. For decades companies have attempted to bring these games home in arcade perfect fashion. For decades those same companies failed in some form or another - most often graphically. Early attempts such as the Sega CD, and even 3DO
, version was a degradation in the graphic quality. With games known for their smooth animation and high quality sound, it kind of hurts to have grainy video.
Back in the day the CD-i version led the way as the best home port but even it had problems (namely not exactly cost efficient to own and that controller remote).
Digital Leisure has made these Dragons Lair, Dragon’s Lair II: Timewarp, and Space Ace
available as DVD games you can play on a regular DVD player via your remote as well.
This also not the first time this particular trilogy set was available on a Nintendo platform - it was previously available on the Nintendo Wii console and of course on PlayStation 4 as previously mentioned. Are we nearly at the same level of milking a franchise as Capcom did with Street Fighter II? At least they made additions to the new versions.
Still, for arcade purists, this is as close as you will probably be able to get without buying a cabinet for each game. The price is certainly cheaper (expected to be $19.95 according to Comicbook.com).
Dragon’s Lair Trilogy by Digital Leisure
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Genre: Arcade, Full Motion Video
Available January 17th 2019
Originally published on Retro Gaming Magazine.