Dragonvale

Mobile gaming is something I rarely discuss because I feel a lot games on the market are fads. They are in the moment games that barely last two weeks. Despite the addiction I might initially receive as I play games such Angry Birds, Temple Run, or Fruit Ninja, I often find myself deleting the games within a week or two and never looking back. I was on the search for a game that I could stick with, and I wouldn't mind paying five dollars if I could play it for even two months without getting bored.

With that in mind, in January, a friend of mine told me about this really fun game he had been playing since the school year started last September, called Dragonvale. Let it be known that I was, and still am interested on mythical creatures in mythology so I found it interesting that a game about Dragons had made it on to mobile devices, since my initial assumption was that it was a HD game where you hack and slash dragons. Upon viewing it in the Google Play Store, I saw that it was a cartoon-y child's game where you have a dragon park and your goal is to get a lot of visitors to view your park, while expanding it to hold more dragons to draw a bigger crowd. I questioned how long I would even play this free game. An hour, a day, surely not past a week. I was never a big fan of real time strategy games and I didn't think this would be an exception. I felt that I would get tired of the waiting and just delete the game out of lack of patience, but to this day six months later, I still play Dragonvale.

The game is similar to most other real time strategy games in the sense that you start with virtually nothing. No dragons, no habitats, just a single floating island and a teleportation portal that brings the visitors to your island. The "wizard" who is your little helper in the game as you start off shows you how to create a habitat and hatch dragons. They then start to explain the in game currency which is gold and their premium currency which is gems. Like most RTS games, you are given small amount of premium currency to use. The game eventually leaves you to your own devices within a couple of minutes, but they offer a list of goals you can accomplish so it gives you a sense of direction. Between the goals and the tutorial, you will achieve a good feel for the game and some of what it has to offer.

Dragonvale is based on a level system and you gain experience by hatching dragons of different types, building habitats, and buying decorations for your park. I know of many players who go to great extents to make their parks looks aesthetically appealing so that they get more visitors. Although it may feel a little bit slow at first in terms of obtaining gold and hatching and breeding dragons, everything will fall into place when you unlock the breeding cave. This leads to Dragonvales's most important concept, breeding.

Dragon breeding is probably one the most important concepts the game has to offer, and it adds an addictive factor to it, as well as a new depth to the game. The game has what I like to call eight basic types of dragons: Plant, Earth, Fire, Lightning, Cold, Air, Water, and Metal. These types can be bred with each other to make new types of dragons called hybrid dragons such as the Moss Dragon, Frostfire, Current, Dodo, and Chrome Dragon to name a few. There are more things to the game then just breeding dragons. The game also offers a Dragon Track where you can race your dragons up against the CPU, as well as a coliseum where you can let one of your dragons compete for 24 hours with the CPU.  These little things are enjoyable, and add to the game's addictiveness.

The main factor for me that makes me want to continue playing Dragonvale is that the company, Backflip Studios, stays constantly involved with the game. They are constantly adding new dragons and new features to the game that make it enjoyable to play. And they do not push their premium features like buying gems or food down your throat, unlike other gaming studios and companies have done for mobile games. Recently, Backflip Studios has added new features to their menus, Gemstone islands, and the addition of four new dragons. Dragonvale also provides the option to obtain gems without having to pay through their gemstone dragons, as well as the bouts in the Coliseum.  Dragonvale is a fantastic and addictive Real Time Strategy game regardless of what age you are and the fact that the creating company constantly add free features practically daily makes the entire experience much more enjoyable.