Journeys of the Dragon Rider

Since almost all role-playing games must feature at least one dragon in order to stay true to the genre, it has become quite obvious over the years that the winged creatures are never up to any good, especially if there's a castle nearby. Using their size, intelligence and the useful ability to spit fire at will, dragons are always causing havoc left and right, at least until a band of brave adventurers decides to end their reign.

Journeys of a Dragon Rider is an action-adventure game that puts the beasts into an entirely different context, making them useful and obedient, for a change. Thus, your purpose throughout the game is to make use of the dragon's abilities and defend your own kingdom against other dragons, by fighting them up in the sky and frying as many of them as you can along the way.

To start off with, you must first learn how to properly handle the reptile, especially since the controls are not very friendly with beginners. Because you have to steer using your mouse, it may be a bit difficult to get accustomed to the gameplay in the beginning, although it quickly becomes natural and very responsive after a while.

To make matters more interesting, most of the missions require you to battle other dragons up in the sky, which is extremely exciting. However, because the attacks are rather slow and everything moves very quickly, these battles can take a long time to finish, especially in the beginning when you are not familiar with the handling. The battles can involve a large number of dragons at once, which is quite a sight to behold.

Graphically, the dragons themselves look very good and the animations are more than decent, as are the castles and various other constructions spread across the land. It is rather annoying, on the other hand, that the maps are very small and crowded, even if they project the illusion of being open to exploration. Thus, you will always be bumping into invisible walls get tangled in the buildings, since their hitbox are significantly larger than the actual constructions.

The originality is what makes Journeys of the Dragon Rider a title worthy of a try, although it quickly gets repetitive and rather boring, due to the barren landscapes and annoying controls. The fireballs barely have an effect on the environment, since they tend to evaporate as soon as they hit the ground.