One movie that really captured my imagination with dragons was “How to Train a Dragon.” I loved how they had different types of dragons and how thought out they were. Although the game that came out based on that movie didn’t let us raise and breed dragons Backflip Studios feels that void in all dragon lovers’ hearts. Dragonvale is a delightful game full of color, wonderful animations and dragons that is sure to keep the kids and even adults will find this cute title worth diving into.

The Premise

Dragonvale is similar in structure to other “zoo” style games. You start off with more or less an empty “park” (which in this case is a floating island) and you build habitats and raise animals to fill those habitats. Each habitat gains money from visitors which is then spent on buying crops, more habitats, clearing rocks or trees from the island, decorations for the island or more eggs.

Farms are built to raise food for the dragons and like with any “farming” game each “crop” takes a certain amount of time and money to grow it. Feeding the dragons allows them to raise in level and to grow from a baby to a teen and then an adult. The food required at each stage steadily increases where a baby only requires 5 food per meal an adult will require 160 food per meal.

Raising Your Own Dragon

Raising the dragons is one of the more awesome features to this game in my opinion because you get to see your dragon as a baby then it changes again at the teen and adult levels. I love to see what my dragon will look like when it is grown up but personally I think they are just adorable as babies. Unlike other “zoo” style games the dragons are beautifully animated. You will see them walking or flying around their habitat and sometimes even blowing out fire, plants or rocks depending on their type. Seeing the dragons animated adds a little more personality to the game than just having them stand there and maybe change pose every 30 secs.

Another great feature to raising the dragons is breeding them. At the start of your modest park you can buy an egg to hatch from one of 3 types of dragons: plant, fire, or earth. When you get a breeding cave you can start to mix them to see what you will get, like breeding a fire dragon with a plant dragon will yield a flower dragon. HINT: if you look at the eggs menu and scroll past the starting 3 types of dragons you will see more dragons with 2 different banners. These banners are the combination to breeding that particular dragon or you could just spend gems (the game’s freemium currency) to buy the dragon but where is the fun in that?

On top of having the habitats for the dragons to run around in and the breeding cave you also get to have a coliseum. This is where dragons can compete to win trophies. My initial understanding of this feature from the description on iTunes was that I could have my dragons fight but that is not true. Once the coliseum is built you will have the opportunity to select one dragon to compete in it for a trophy. The type of dragon you select will determine the type of game so if the coliseum is filled with water then you will want to select a water dragon but if you don’t have a water dragon you could use a plant dragon instead. I won a silver trophy in water with one of my plant dragons.

There is also the problem of running out of space on your floating island. In the beginning of the game the island is overrun by rocks, trees and bushes so it is up to your handy wizard cleaning crew to extract this unwanted landscape to make room for all the awesome habitats you will want to build. I worked hard to clear as much of this foliage as possible but I still have some large rocks to go. These rocks cost a whopping $10,000 to have them removed. This is not in my budget at the moment since I am working on getting a second floating island which costs $75,000.

With such limited space it is nice to know that if you place a structure down and want to move it there is no penalty of time or money. This makes real estate management very easy. I always hate it in other games that make me pay to move something or it takes forever before it opens up again. I do so much rearranging of my buildings and decorations to accommodate for the new ones that this feature is a life saver.

Wrap up

Backflip Studios has done a terrific job bringing dragon raising to the free iPhone games market and it is evident that there was a lot of love poured into this title. With its colorful world and addictive dragon raising it is a very easy to recommend Dragonvale to anyone that has a passing interest in “zoo” style games or dragons in general.

• Title: Dragonvale
• By: Backflip Studios
• Age: 4+
• Device: iPhone 3gs and newer, iPod Touch 2nd gen and later, iPad
• iOS: 4.1 or later

Hero Project is another recent game by the people over at Glu games. Similar to Eternity Warriors, Hero Project is a free iphone game that that does have additional costs to purchase certain items and powers in the game. This game is a mix of different types of free-to-play iPhone games that actually pulls everything together with a cohesive and offbeat story.

In Hero Project the player is a new recruit at an X-men-esque super hero academy. Through various missions the veteran super heroes at the academy will show the player the ropes but before the player’s new hero can save the world he or she must first under go lots of training.

Saving the World One Mission at a Time

Upon wondering around the 3-level academy players will run into a few NPC heroes and some terminals that all have missions ready for the undertaking. One of the NPC heroes even offers Co-Op missions that the player can take with their friends computer-controlled avatar.

Missions are handled in a few different ways. There are combat missions that are actually turn-based fights Final Fantasy style and then there are missions that are time-based that don’t require any direct action from the player other than waiting out a time limit similar to other popular MMO games on the iPhone like iMobsters.

Missions themselves are broken down into two different categories: story and side quests. Story missions will have an orange-red background and can only be completed once. Side quests will have a blue background and can be repeated as necessary to advance to the next level and unlock the next set of story missions.

If you take the time to read the flavor text you will notice that this game actually has a story that progresses as the story missions are completed. This makes Hero Project stand out from other free iPhone games. The story helps to give the player purpose and a feeling of progression through the super hero academy.

Similar to other games of this nature Hero Project gives the player 100 energy and each mission that is accepted costs a small amount of that energy. Energy does recharge over time but in the later levels it doesn’t recharge quick enough to do all the missions available. This forces players to purchase an energy pack through an In-App purchase or just wait out the recharge time. Energy can also be won in the daily lottery when the player logs in to play the game.

Laying the Smack Down

Combat in Hero’s Project was a pleasant surprise. Although the other missions require the player to wait out a set amount of time, combat missions allow the player to directly fight a group of thugs or clowns. The player will have a set of powers at the bottom of the screen and each has its own recharge time and stamina cost; stamina being the magic points of the game.

The fights are turn based in the sense that each attack has a cool down timer. Once the attack is charged the player can select it and then select their target. Sometimes you can get off 2 attacks before the enemy can take their turn with creative manipulation of the cool down timer. The player can also manipulate how quickly their powers recharge by pumping experience points into the Speed category on the stats menu.

Other stats the player can put experience points in are Melee, Power, Stamina, Health, and Luck. Each of these stats has a direct affect on combat and how you want to develop your character will determine which of these gets the boost. Each “level up” gives the player 10 points to distribute. Any type of hero can be created whether the player wants to be super fast, super strong, or just plain super lucky.

In the beginning of the game there are just a few powers to choose from which makes customizing your hero seem limited. Once the player gets a few levels under their belt they can acquire new powers and even pay to level up their current powers.

Hero Project does limit how many powers the player can have active during combat making it a little more strategic and fun to pick the powers you want to use and trying out different combos. Other factors to remember with selecting which powers to take is that the stronger the power the longer the recharge time and the more stamina it is going to consume.

Picking Out the Tights

One thing this game did a better job with than Eternity Warriors is that it does have more options for customizing your character. The first few options the player gets is just to pick whether they want to be a male or female, and the skin and hair color. The good news is that although the starting options are pretty sparse there is at least a nice selection of costume pieces to buy from capes to belts in a wide variety of colors. This game covers all the super hero outfit staples.

One major difference that players will notice is that all of the equipment that offers any kind of bonus is strictly purchased with Hero Credits–the game’s freemium currency. All other equipment that can be purchased with coins are just for cosmetic changes. Hero Project relies more on its stat leveling and power selection to handle combat and allows players to buy pretty much whatever they want while still being effective. The downside is that players like myself will stick with the stat enhancing gear they can buy with the few Hero Credits the game gives new players. You don’t have to match to kick butt, right?

Even Heroes Need to Get Paid Too

The player is awarded coins after completing each mission and can use those coins to purchase or upgrade powers, buy new costume pieces, or items such as health or stamina vials from the store.

Another way to earn coins is by growing crystals in the lab. This is where the game takes a farming approach. In the research lab the player can purchase tubes that they can incubate the crystals. The tubes are just holding cells and are unlocked with the player’s level.

There are different types of crystals that can be grown and they each have different growth cycles along with higher yields based on the longer it takes the crystal to grow. This is a system that seems to fit in the game and can earn the player a lot of coins.

The Freemium Hook

As with any freemium game there is a currency that can only be obtained from purchasing them with real money through In-App purchases or downloading certain Apps. That currency for this game is Hero Credits. Hero Credits allow the player to buy costume pieces that offer stat bonuses, certain powers and the ability to fully upgrade the powers. This is the hook as powers can only be upgraded to a certain point with coins and then after that it requires the freemium currency.

Wrap Up

Hero Project is a decent game on its own and a pretty good free iPhone game. The ability to create a generic super hero is fun and the actual story is refreshing. Hero Project oozes character from its script writing to the colorful characters.

I did have a problem with how restricted the game is for those of us that don’t want to purchase additional Hero Credits. This limitation will more than likely put a lot of gamers off but I am guessing that Glu will keep enough around to make the game profitable.

Another issue that bugged me was the fact that a lot of the times the buttons wouldn’t read my touch. This happens almost every time when I am trying to select a mission and accept it. Again, not a game breaker just an annoying quark to overlook.

As far as super hero rpg games go this is one of the better ones. Will it get boring after a while, probably but it really depends on how much you are into the source material. I personally found Eternity Warriors held my attention longer but that was because of how much fun I had slaying hordes of monsters. Hero Project is a bit slower, but it does offer more content and some wit for those that can appreciate it.

• Title: Hero Project
• By: Glue Games Inc
• Age: 9+
• Device: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
• iOS: 4.1 or later

Eternity Warriors is one of the recent free iPhone games released by Glu games who are more recognized as the creators of the highly popular Gun Bros. game. Right after launching the game the similarities to Glu’s more popular Gun Bros. is evident and because of this similarity Eternity Warriors has received negative reaction among some of the iPhone gamers. In spite of this first reaction from gamers, Eternity Warriors is still one of the best free iPhone games on the market.

Gameplay

The objective of Eternity Warriors is simply to survive wave after wave of demons. To be specific there are about 300 waves that you must survive all broken down into 30 wave chunks called Onslaughts. Clearing one of these Onslaughts will award you with souls and a gem. Clearing a wave without getting hit will award you with even more souls and give you the Perfect Wave identifier on the wave number. This is sort of like the Angry Birds star system that will have perfectionists replaying previous levels to get all perfect waves.

As you hack and slash your way through each of these waves you gain experience points which is used to level up your character. Gaining a level is only awarded with the ability to unlock weapons and armor for purchase and a small health boost. There are no stats to manage or skill trees to worry about. Roaming around the game’s seemingly single arena-like environment you will encounter piles of bones that hide health vials and exploding tree-like structures to help cull the horde.

Along for the ride is a computer controlled buddy, again similar to Gun Bros., that can be replaced with your Facebook or Game Center friends’ character. Using your friend’s characters doesn’t allow them to take full control over them but seeing how Gun Bros. finally did get multiplayer I don’t see why Eternity Warriors wouldn’t.

Each day you use your friend’s character you get coins and they get rewards too. Also, each day you come back to play the game you are awarded with coins and as the consecutive day count rises so does the coin reward. The developers have perfected their marketing strategy of enticing customers to visit their product often.

Combat

Each weapon purchased has its own special skill that once the special move meter is full you can unleash with a press of a button. The skills range from sending out a shockwave to stealing health from surrounding enemies.

You do get to have 2 different sets of weapons equipped at one time. One slot is reserved for the faster dual wielding weapons while the other slot is for the slower but more powerful 2 handed weapon category. Any given time in combat you have access to 2 different special skills plus the game’s regular and heavy attacks.

Attacks can be stringed together to create huge combos which in turn increase the souls multiplier for the session, not to mention its very satisfying. To cash in on the gained souls you must either die or quit and return to the map.

Currency

Souls are the game’s way of gathering and growing deposits of gold coins. After hacking your way through the many waves you earn souls from the dispatched demons. These souls are then used at the Forge in hearths. There are 6 hearths each with their own time limit on how long it takes the souls deposited to turn into gold coins. Each hearth also has a different yield amount with the Instant hearth giving only 100% gold and the highest hearth clocking in at 48 hours yielding 400% gold coin return.

Gems are the game’s other currency of the typical Freemium variety. Gems are awarded by either downloading a variety of free or paid apps, completing an Onslaught, watching a daily video, or just out right buying them from the In-App packs. Gems are an important part of the game because all of the highest level armor and weapons can only be purchased with this type of currency. It is easy to see that to buy the top weapon you will have to spend an additional $65 on this free iPhone game and that is not including the top armor set.

Gear

In the Shop you can purchase a nice selection of weapons and different pieces of armor. Weapons, as mentioned earlier, come in 2 categories: dual wield or 2 handed. Armor comes in 3 categories: head, chest and legs. As you level up you unlock higher level gear to purchase and with each new piece of equipment comes a very high price tag. Luckily by using the hearth system you can gain 100,000 gold fairly quickly but you will need a lot of gems if you want to unlock the game’s best weapons and armor.

Weapons that are purchased can also be mastered similar to other games like Infinity Blade; though not as in-depth as the perennial App Store game. Each weapon has 3 levels of mastery a bronze, silver and gold. With each new level comes a bonus to experience gained while using that weapon. This system does add a little more replay value for those perfectionists that want to level up each weapon before moving on to the next piece.

There are also items that can be purchased that range from health vials to invincibility shields. Thankfully the majority of the items can be purchased with gold coins which is good because I can imagine that later in the game if you haven’t spent the money to purchase the gem packs to get the best gear you may have some issue slaying the rushing monsters.

Art and Sound

The game has a “World of Warcraft“ feel to it because of the cartoony and vibrant graphics. This is one area that some gamers have criticized Eternity Warriors because it looks very similar to Gun Bros. but with swords. The characters are nice a big as well as the monsters making their detail easy to see. The various effects from the swing of your sword and activating special skills also looks cool. The screen shakes when you land big hits and the corners turn red when you are low on health too. These nice little touches make Eternity Warriors a treat to look at while splitting a zombie in half.

The game’s sound has the typical epic fantasy themed music that fits really well with the setting. The sound effects on the other hand could have been a little beefier especially when your sword hits and enemy. There isn’t an option in the game menu to play your own music but if you exit the app and then start up your own tunes you can re-enter the app and just turn off the game’s music. I typically don’t listen to the sound of iPhone games just because I want to conserve as much battery life as I can while I am away from my charger.

Wrap Up

I have enjoyed my time with Eternity Warriors in spite of its high price tag on gems and the obvious goal to make you purchase the In-App packs. The controls are very smooth and responsive. Also, hacking at countless enemies with no care in the world is an absolute blast. If Glu adds content regularly like they have Gun Bros. and a real-time multiplayer they would have a really good game on their hands. I highly recommend this title for anyone looking to scratch that action RPG itch.

• Title: Eternity Warriors
• By: Glu Games Inc
• Age: 9+
• Device: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad
• iOS: 3.0 or later