How To Train Your Dragon (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

While PIXAR are still the undisputed champions of the full length CGI movie, Dreamworks are surely a close second now with a huge array of hits such as Monsters vs. Aliens and, of course, Shrek. Like Disney's films, most will eventually end up as tie-in games on the child-friendly DS and, unfortunately, most of them are awful. This is generally due to the unrealistic schedules that force many developers to pour new sound and visuals into an existing engine often creating an underwhelming gaming experience. Fortunately Activision have called upon the talents of Griptonite Games this time around but what have they done with the license?

Gameplay

Activision's latest not only lets you select your player (Hiccup or Astrid) but also 'edit' your dragon changing things like scales, wings and even the tail. The game's hub is based on an overhead view of the island of Berk with your character relatively free to wander around looking for friends, family and, most important, dragons. The first thing you do is locate your father and then you'll quickly enter battle mode or rather training. It's important you master this section as it dominates the game and proficiency at using the correct moves to attack against your opponent is the only way to succeed in the battle arenas. As with games like Pokemon, there are turn based and success is rewarded with coins and metal. The coins allow you to buy essential supplies whilst the metal can be forged into powerful armor allowing for more intensive battles. It's then a case of travelling around the island battling and collecting as you go and although we'd love to say that there were many more layers to the game, that's pretty much it.

Controls

Let's see now: RPG, Adventure, Battling... this has to be a stylus driven game, doesn't it? Well generally yes, but you will be required to use the D-Pad for a rather frantic 'top-down' shooter.

Graphics

The visuals aren't too bad at all and most of your time will be spent in 3D arenas with a variety of dragons battling it out. This is fairly good modeling for the DS and the dragons themselves have been well designed and rendered. Less pleasing is the dragon customization, which is not nearly as adaptable as it could have been given the game's 3D engine. Sadly this seems to be where the game's designers have focused their attentions and the rest of the game is given over to simple dialogue screens or, worse still, a kind of bland overhead map which covers the 'adventure' side of things.

Sound

While the soundtrack is very pleasant, it's the speech which really stands out here and the developers have devoted a lot of the cart's space to some well-delivered voice acting. Not every line of dialogue is spoken but there's certainly enough to bring the characters to life.

Dual screen

If you've played any of the PRG/Adventure/Battle based games already on the market you'll know that this is a mix between tapping map locations and using your brains and strategy in order to outwit your opponent. Apart from dragon wrangling, you have to play a handful of mini-games such as tracking a moving target to perform a deadly 'super move' or pouring molten metal into a mold.

Final comments

How To Train Your Dragon was never going to work as a platformer or one of the many other game genres which developers seem to pull out of the bag when a movie license comes along. One direction we don't see them go for much is the battle/RPG. This game is effectively the Pokemon formula, but with dragons. To be fair though this actually works in its favor, and the battles mixed with some interesting mini-games will keep fans of the movie occupied for some time. It's still not without its problems; the visuals in the adventure sequences are a little bland, but overall Griptonite have done a fine job here and, for that reason alone, it's definitely worth a look.

Pro: Great Voice Work and Nice Looking 3D Models.
Con: Poor Adventure Sections.
Final score: 7.3

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