We are big fans of the How To Train Your Dragon movies in our house and as the boys are still relatively young at 6 and 9 they have pretty much grown up with the trilogy and where they once wanted the plastic figures and plush toys to reinact the adventures of Toothless and Hiccup, they now prefer to do so using computer games. So when I was asked if I wanted to check out DreamWorks’ Dragons: Dawn of New Riders for the switch or the Xbox the boys insisted that we did.
If you are not familiar with the How To Train Your Dragon films then I urge you to watch them, they are the kind of movies that although you watch them with your kids you will still absolutely love and become emotionally invested in as adult too.
The story line for anyone yet to watch it, follows “the unlikely friendship between an adolescent Viking and a fearsome Night Fury dragon and watches as it unfolds into an epic adventure spanning their lives. In the third and most recent movie, on which this particular game is set the chief and ruler of Berk alongside Astrid, Hiccup, has created a gloriously chaotic dragon utopia. When the sudden appearance of a female Light Fury coincides with the darkest threat their village has ever faced, Hiccup and Toothless must leave the only home they’ve known and journey to a hidden world thought only to exist in myth. As their true destines are revealed, dragon and rider will fight together—to the very ends of the Earth—to protect everything they’ve grown to treasure.
The boys were both so excited to have a go on the game that I was a little worried that it was going to be anti climatical and not live up to the movies at all but thankfully I was pleasantly surprised. The game itself is easy to understand and starts of with simple tasks that allow you to get used to the controls. You immediately meet two new characters from the final movie, Scribbler and a dragons egg that you have to watch hatch and become Patch, which is a sure fire way to keep fans engaged from the start. Once familiar with the game lay out and controllers you take to the skies in an epic battle to save Dragon-kind from Eir, a fiery new foe who is determined to control all Dragons to do her evil bidding. Alongside new friends Scribbler and Patch, players will discover exciting new locations and return to old haunts, meet familiar characters, and clash with fierce enemies in this all new action-adventure.
Both my boys have enjoyed playing this game and it is my 6 year olds game of choice when ever he gets screen time at the moment. He has also had friends over to play who have also loved trying out the new game and just like him have been delighted by the fact they can control Toothless as well as Hiccup.
Although the boys haven’t got too far in to the game yet they are loving it and have started to complete various tasks and listening to them work out what they need to do and which character they need to be in order to do is lovely as it reassures me that this game is helping them with problem solving skills as opposed to just being a mind numbing game of nonsense.
One of the things that I would point out for parents however is that there are lots of parts that need to be read and lots of speech between the characters which is great for confident readers but does mean that younger players may need some help so that they know what is going on, although my youngest has managed to figure it our even when I haven’t been in the room to read it all for him.
You can watch a clip of the video game below and see how cool it is for yourself.
The new video game is inspired by the DreamWorks Dragons franchise and available now on PlayStation® 4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch™ and can be bought as a physical game or a digital download which takes minutes from purchase to play.
If your children love How to Train A Dragon then you should check out these Dragon Ball toys but if they prefer the switch to real toys then maybe this review of the Gigantasaurus game written by my 7 year old would be better.
For more video game reviews check out Gigantosaurus and My Little Pony or for gaming related toys read our AmongUs review.
(We were sent a digital download of the game for review).