Perfectly timed following the release of How to Train your Dragon part 3, Dreamworks has released Dragons, Dawn of New Riders game for consoles and PC.
Our family LOVES How to train your dragon. We’ve watched all the films, the series and even have the toys from Playmobile. It was a no-brainer, really, what to get the kids as a treat for half-term: We had some off days and some long drives planned and the Nintendo Switch was going to come in handy.
Read also: 7 reasons the Nintendo Switch is the MUST HAVE family gaming console.
The game is a perfect partner to the new film. It takes your through a brand-new story and on an adventure in the Dragon universe. While you play as all new characters made for the game, it features lots of old favourites from the films. Hiccup and friends take on the role supporting the mission. They are traders who will swap your loot for upgrade weapons and supplies.
In this action adventure game you take on the role of the daring pair, Scribbler and Patch, in heroic battles to save dragons and defeat the evil, Eir.
The goal is to free the entrapped dragons and help your new friend, Scribbler, remember details of how he got to the dragon island of Havenholme which is the only way you will be able to find the weaknesses of Eir and defeat this blue-haired evil.
The game is a mix of solving puzzles, exploring the island and flying to new places. There are battles and tools and supplies to collect to help in those battles.
The Dawn of New Rider is aimed at 5-12 year olds and fits my kids (6 and 10 yo) perfectly. It has kept the boys playing for many hours.
The graphics are good, but nothing spectacular. The kids like the flying, but this seems to give them a little more frustrations with the controls. Flying is one of the most fun in the game, but not featured enough.
It’s a single player game, so my kids swap: with the 6 year old doing a lot of the exploring, but passing on the controls for battles to the 10 year old. They find a great way to collaborate and play to each other’s strengths.
Although there are battles, these aren’t graphic at all. No blood shed is shown; the defeated enemy just disappears into a puff of smoke. Therefore, despite the PEGI rating of 7+, I feel it’s ok for the younger gamers too.
My biggest gripe about the game is that there is a lot of text in it, which needs to be read out loud for Max, who is 6 and just learning to read in school and Hugo, who is dyslexic and gets frustrated by how slowly he can read, when all he wants to do is play. I feel a voice-over would make it more enjoyable for the kids… and me, being called upon every 3-5 minutes to read something. Grrr!
Overall it’s a cute game that the kids really enjoy at the moment. They love the familiarity of the characters from the films and the style of exploration, puzzle solving that reminds them of their favourite game, Skylanders.
The Dragons Dawn of New Riders gets a thumbs up from Hugo (10) and Max (6).
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