When it comes to dragons, you can't do any better than the best-selling How to Train Your Dragon novels by Cressida Cowell. My daughter soon became enthralled with the entire franchise. So now, our house is filled with books, films, toys and the series is always on our continue watching list.
The franchise has so far has three feature films, five short films, a TV series collectively titled DreamWorks Dragons. As well as spinoff shows, DreamWorks Dragons, DreamWorks Dragons: Rescue Riders and DreamWorks Dragons: The Nine Realms. Unlike past entries in the franchise, The Nine Realms is set in the 21st century, specifically 1,300 years after the events of The Hidden World. The franchise has also generated video games, show, and of course, a lots of merchandise, toys and plushies. We were lucky enough to get a chance to play DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms for the very first time and my daughter was very excited to get exploring the world of dragons.
What is DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms?
In DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms you play as Thunder, the descendant of Toothless and Light Fury from How To Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World. After Thunder gets separated from his family, he sets out on a quest to find them through the hidden world. This consists of several realms: Bio Realm, Fire Realm, Ice Realm, Dark Valley and King's Realm. Each player will embark on an exciting quest as Thunder to find his family and protect the realms from a dangerous threat and become the ultimate hero.
How Do You Play the Game?
When players first begin the game, Thunder is their only playable character. However, as they advance through the game, players can unlock three more playable dragons. Aside from Thunder, as you play the game you'll be able to play as three other dragons: Plowhorn, Wu and Wei and Feathers. Each dragon has its elemental attack that can be used to get past the different barriers. This game consists of several realms: Bio Realm, Fire Realm, Ice Realm, Dark Valley and King's Realm each with different stages. To complete each level, players must dodge obstacles, activate switches, and slay enemy dragons.
One of the best parts about this game is the fact that you can level up your character as you play. You can increase speed, strength and intelligence. But to do this, you must collect different coloured crystals by battling other dragons. This allows players to give their dragons enhancements and new abilities increasing their overall power. Each dragon has a limited amount of life as players can run into environmental dangers or get attacked by their enemies. Unfortunately, there are no health items that you can collect. Instead, when a dragon is wounded, players have an option to swap with another dragon as their original character heals.
Is this Game Fun to Play?
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms has a fun general concept, and my daughter loves exploring the several realms: Bio Realm, Fire Realm, Ice Realm, Dark Valley and King's Realm. But, as with most games like this, there are a few things that can be improved.
It is obvious that the game has been designed to make it easier for children to play, but even then there's no challenge to anything. The game starts off fun, but then becomes repetitive. The graphics in DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms are quite generic, and would most definitely appeal to a young demographic. The point of view in the game was a big issue for us, because it just sat too far back from the action which made it easy to bump into walls. The controls also made it difficult when flying especially when you tried to manoeuvre away from enemies or even to land. It was troublesome to even get your dragon to aim at a target without leaving your dragon vulnerable to lose life or their power.
DreamWorks Dragon: Legends of the Nine Realms is a fantastic family friendly game. With a number of realms to explore, some interesting abilities to achieve this game will keep you interested for a some time. Even though this game may miss the mark for an older audience, for children its an ideal game to play as they can invest time and effort to level their character and battle their enemies. My daughter has only really started to get into gaming and especially 3D player platform games So this was a great place to start and with her love of dragons - it was the perfect match for her.
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms retails at £34.99 and available on Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Steam, Xbox One, and XBox Series X. You can get yours from most retailers these include Game, Smyths Toys, Argos and Amazon.
** We have been kindly gifted DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms from Outright Games but as always my words and opinions are my own. Images are subject to copyright, please seek permission before using.**
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