How To Train Your Dragon, the movie tie in release from Activision, picks up right where the film lets off. Now that sounds like it would be all exciting but sadly the video game goes in an entirely different direction then the film making the game feel like it has less of a tie in to the film then it does just a basic idea of the characters in a basic run of the mill game that might not be as challenging for some players as they would like.

First off the game, in a nutshell, is Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess mixed with Mortal Kombat (yeah, I know, I’m old school). In story mode you can choose between Hiccup or Astrid. Your mission is to train your dragon so that you and your dragon can compete against other riders and their dragons. Not exactly how I saw the happily ever after part in the film turning out but I guess, hey, their Vikings. So you wander the town tackling chicken and sheep and collecting food and herbs to prep your dragon. Your dragon must sleep and eat to ready itself for battle. Walking around the village you bump into numerous people and at first the game is 100% percent how to; icons popping up over peoples heads, short instructional segments, lit landmarks to show you were to go. Honestly the process took so long and it was so repetitive that I soon became bored with it and took a break. The game just isn’t fun.

Dragon training is a bit different. You do some practice melee’s against other dragons that are extremely easy to defeat. Combo’s light up showing you which buttons to press to deal massive blows. It was entertaining for a few minutes. Inside the ring against other players or the computer is a whole other story. I was reminded of the days when I would ditch school and hang out at the donut shop by my house and play King of Fighters which had over a dozen buttons you could hit to make combinations and just pressing them all randomly and hoping I would win. This is how I felt playing How To Train Your Dragon. Fly, breath fire, swing your tail, pounce, load up energy blasts, swipe your claws. This platform of game playing would have been cool back in 1990 when this style was new and relevant but I just found it boring. Even being able to add strengths and attacks to your dragon seemed to arduous and pointless considering how unexciting the game was and how out of touch it was with the film. To up your dragons power you do mini-games which are decent but repetative after enough game play.

Graphics are sub par. If you’ve played the Harry Potter series or Twilight Princess, that’s about as good as it gets. I understand, this is a game that Activision was looking to market to kids young enough to squeeze into the age demographic for the film on both spectrums but the overall product isn’t a story product that has the strength to keep kids or adults coming back for more adventure, there just isn’t any.