Play Dragon's Lair Online

Dragon’s Lair on Game Boy Color is basically the arcade classic squeezed into a tiny cartridge—and it’s still as brutal as ever. You play as Dirk the Daring, this hilariously awkward knight who somehow stumbles his way through a wizard’s nightmare castle to save Princess Daphne. The whole thing plays like an interactive cartoon where you’ve got to hit the right button at the exact right second, or Dirk gets roasted, squashed, or just plain embarrassed.

They managed to cram most of the original’s wild animations into the GBC version, though a few scenes got trimmed or replaced with MIDI sounds. Doesn’t matter much—you’ll be too busy sweating over timing your sword swings and dodging spike pits to notice. One wrong move and it’s back to the start of the scene. Good luck getting past that dragon without a few (dozen) tries.

If you’ve got the patience for old-school trial-and-error, this one’s a weirdly satisfying relic.