DreamWorks Dragons Dawn of New Riders video game is available to buy now in the UK on Nintendo Switch™, Xbox One™, PlayStation® 4, PC and Steam®. We are delighted to be able to review this fabulous game on Nintendo Switch this half term!
This video game is timed with the release of the new How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World movie, which is showing in cinemas right now. But the game features an entirely new story set in the Dragons universe, and while you play as all new characters made for the game, it features many well-known characters from the film such as Hiccup and Toothless.
Check out the trailer here:
The game is aimed at five to twelve-year-olds and it is a one player game where the player switches between two characters to solve puzzles. There is no co-operation functionality to speak of. In order for both of my children to play this game together, they decided to each to have one Switch joy-con controller and they had the teamwork to move in sync! It works well for them to avoid one person missing out.
Both of my children are fans of How to Train Your Dragon and has followed the storyline since the first movie. If you are like to play video games, you will probably know that there are quite a few spin-off video games from the movie. The story in this game centres on Havenholme, an island dragon sanctuary created by Hiccup and Toothless off the coast of Berk that was attacked and burned down at the beginning of the campaign.
The player plays either between Scribbler (human) or Patch (dragon) in the game but not together. Scribbler is a scholar who cannot remember his past while Patch is a unique breed of dragon, a “chimeragon”. Scribbler awakes after the ambush to find his memory is wiped and has a baby dragon named Patch at his feet. Along the way, Scribbler joins up with Hiccup, Toothless, Astrid, and other characters fans will recognize from the series on his quest to rebuild Havenholme and recover his lost memories.
The game starts off with the player free to explore the island, gather materials, unlock hidden chests, beat up any evil enemies/dragons they meet, reveal the strange truth about Patch’s origin and why the villain, Eir, will stop at nothing to recapture him. In the story, it takes Patch a while to grow up before Scribbler can ride on him but luckily it didn’t too long in actual playtime (around 2 hours). My children were so excited when they were allowed to ride on him as this enables them to do many more tasks.
In the game, you can switch between the two characters and this is essential to combine their unique abilities in order to solve puzzles, free captured dragons and defeat Eir from carrying out her evil plans. We still have plenty more quests to play in this game and look forward to rebuilding the island. Our first impression of the game is that it’s fun to play, especially with the flying elements. The graphics are great and the core gameplay is quite challenging. This game will appeal to young children or fans who love How To Train A Dragon. It is available to buy now on good retailers and Amazon (Nintendo Switch™, Xbox One™ & PlayStation® 4).
Disclosure: We received the Nintendo Switch sample code for the purposes of writing this review, however, all thoughts and opinions remain our own. Images used with permission.
