My family recently watched How to Train Your Dragon in theaters. The movie was awesome! Not only did it hold the boys’ attention for the entire flick, I was captivated, as well. Since then we’ve bought and hatched dragon eggs, colored dragon eggs for Easter, I bought the book the movie was based off of, and I’ve had the opportunity to review the game for XBox.
How to Train Your Dragon for XBox is for ages 10 and up. It’s a third person, action-adventure game. My oldest son loves to play it while I go to the gym. But both my husband and I have played the game, as well, to help him along. There are two modes to play in – Story and Arcade.
In Story Mode you are taking care of, creating/styling and training your own dragon as either Astrid or Hiccup. You have to learn the basics of dragon care as you feed it and give it treats to make it healthy for battle. When you train it, you learn codes to do cool moves. Characters in story mode help you along with what tasks to do next. For example, first I had to traipse all around the island of Berk collecting chickens, minerals and veggies. I looked in gardens, chased animals around field and even overturned stones to look for these things. Then I gave them to my dragon and made him rest. Once he was full I wandered around again and one of the characters told me I was ready to train my dragon, so that’s what I started doing next, doing combos to make him fight other dragons. There are over 100 unique dragon attacks that you can do!
In Arcade Mode you can play by yourself or with another player. Both my sons have played together, but usually my oldest plays by himself. You can choose from any of the main students to ride your dragons. Then you get to choose from at least 5 dragons to pit against his competitor. You choose 4 dragons at a time, though. The beginner dragon choices are the Night Fury, Gronkle, Monstrous Nightmare, Hideous Zippleback and Deadly Nadder. If there is no player 2, you get to choose which dragons to fight against. Right now we are on the easy level, but there are two more difficult levels to choose from. We get to use the dragon we are caring for from the Story Mode in the Arcade. And you can unlock more dragons during Story Mode to use during Arcade Mode. We haven’t unlocked any new ones yet … but we will!
KEY GAME FEATURES:
- Create Your Very Own Dragon – The “Create Your Dragon” feature allows players to customize six different types of dragons, providing virtually unending combinations of ways to modify your dragon’s appearance.
- Train your Dragon for Battle – “Level Up” your dragon’s speed, power, fire and other abilities through intense training to face the critical Viking challenge of becoming the ultimate dragon trainer. Then use your arsenal of trained dragons to battle friends in a variety of unique environments.
- Head-to-Head Multiplayer Mode – Arcade mode allows friends to select their dream team of four individually customized dragons or dragons chosen from the arcade roster, then jump in and battle against each other. In addition to Astrid and Hiccup, additional characters are playable in Multiplayer Mode including Tuffnut T., Ruffnut T., Fishlegs, and Snotlout.
- Mini-Games – Mini games include Ice Sculpting, Looping Race, Flying Sheppard, Memory Torch, and Puzzle Dragon. Excelling in Mini-Games earns players experience points toward leveling up your dragon, winning gold and other items to help care for dragons.
Game Preview:
Overall:
Compared to other XBox games, I find this one simple enough that even I can navigate it! My son catches on a lot quicker than I do with what to do and how to play these games. It’s almost too simple for my husband. I think the age rating is appropriate, although I personally don’t see any harm in letting someone as young as 7 play it. There has been no blood or gross graphics. The Story Mode is serene and the Arcade Mode has fighting and fire between dragons.
PURCHASING INFO:
I received the How to Train Your Dragon Game for XBox, but you can also purchase it for PS3, Wii and Nintendo DS. You can buy it at Target, Best Buy, Game Stop, Toys R Us and Amazon for between $29.99 and $49.99, depending on your system.
I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Game Review Network and received the game described above to facilitate my review.
Looks really cute…going to check it out at Amazon..thanks!