When it comes to family-friendly titles and games for the younger gaming audience runs too, Outright Games has been leading the charge over the past few years.
From their Ice Age games to Ben 10 and even various PAW Patrol titles, my 2 youngest gamers can not get enough from this company. So when my daughter told me they had a How to Train Your Dragon world coming out, I knew I had to review it.
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms is a 3D platformer based on the cartoon with the same title on both Hulu and Peacock, The Nine Realms. In the game, the story follows a dragon named Thunder who needs to find his missing family and save the kingdoms.
If your kids are looking for a story, they are best off watching the animated series. For this game, I must say that the gameplay is front and center. You start the game playing as Thunder but as you play, you can unlock and play as three other dragons which are Plowhorn, Wu & Wei, and Feathers.
Each world in the game has a different theme like fire or ice and is made up of a few levels each ending in a boss fight. The level design and core gameplay are pretty basic to ensure kids can enjoy it with it mostly consisting of moving through the level, fighting enemy dragons, dodging hazards, and solving some switch puzzles.
After you unlock the other dragons, you can switch to them whenever you want although you don’t really have to in most cases. Each world usually has certain things that only one of the dragons can break so you’ll usually be fine using whichever dragon that is. If you take damage while fighting though you will have to switch to another in order to let that one heal as that is how healing is handled in this game.
As you progress through the game you build up the currency, which is crystals. And luckily, these can be found any and everywhere. Then you can use these crystals to level up each dragon improving their stats and unlocking new moves. I found this a nice surprise that this game had a system in place like this. The combat doesn’t take any skill and you can really just button-mash your way to victory in pretty much every fight.
The visuals in the game are colorful and very kid friendly but also somewhat generic looking. The voice acting and music are serviceable but nothing really special when it comes down to it. Trophy hunters will find 26 trophies to collect including a Platinum that is very easy to earn.
I will admit for the price of the game, I was hoping for some higher-end graphics, but for a kids’ game, it is very playable. I also found the fighting to be on the very novice side of gaming, I think even in Minecraft there are more challenging fights, and that is saying something. However, my 2 youngest enjoyed the game so much they are always wanting on it now. So for the price, I have to state it is worth it.
DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of The Nine Realms is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch right now for $49.99.
This review was written based on a digital review copy of DreamWorks Dragons: Legends of the Nine Realms for the PC provided by Outright Games.
