How To Train Your Dragon

In How to Train Your Dragon, the player becomes a Viking hero (Hiccup or Astrid) from the Island of Berk and attempts to become the ultimate dragon trainer. Players explore the island, interacting with other Vikings and collecting food and other items in order to care for the dragon. On entering the dragon's den the player can check on the dragon's attributes and must take action to ensure that the dragon is in peak fitness and prepared for battle, for example, through collecting more food if the dragon is hungry. In this area players can also customise their dragons to tailor its specific appearance and abilities.

The principal focus of the game is to train the dragon to improve its speed and power and then to battle it in the arena. The game can be played as either single or multi-player: in the latter, the players battle their dragons against each other. The better the player takes the best care of their dragon, the better their chance o]f winning.

James (nine) enjoyed playing How to Train Your Dragon and particularly liked the mini-games; dragon fighting tournaments and customising his dragons. He also liked the fact that there were some short cut scenes from the movie in the game, which added to his overall enjoyment. James liked playing How to Train Your Dragon in multi-player mode as you are able to chose your character and fighting against your friend is always more fun!

However, the appeal of this game was short-lived and it was soon cast aside. Whilst James really enjoyed the fighting he quickly tired of the fact that he had to put time and effort into look after his dragon's welfare. From his point of view, there are numerous other Wii fighting games available that offer all of the fun and none of the hard work! I am sure that other children may enjoy having to take care of their virtual dragon and therefore find this game more appealing but it wasn't a firm favourite with my son -  although I did feel that it legitimised our repeated refusal to let James have a pet of his own!

How to Train Your Dragon is available for Wii, Nintendo DS and PS3 from Amazon:

How To Train Your Dragon (Wii)
How To Train Your Dragon (Nintendo DS)
How To Train Your Dragon (PS3)