Now that I've totally and irrevocably embraced my iPad, I've become a bit obsessed with finding games that I can play while I sit on the couch "watching" my husband, Josh, play Call of Duty.
You know what I mean... games that don't require my full attention but that can keep me entertained while I applaud that last kill shot or raise a fist in anger at those campers that just led to his ultimate demise. I'm such a good wife after all...
My latest obsession has been this charming little game called Dragon Story. Being the queen of nerd, they had me at dragons, and the prospect of raising adorable little dragons of my own, well... how could I resist?
Dragon Story has a nice tutorial that will walk you through the general steps of taking care of your dragons. First you need to hatch your dragons. I started out with a cute little fire dragon named Char. I simply purchased the egg and then waited for it to hatch.... only a few seconds.
Next, we built Char's habitat a nice ember glowing pile of rocks certainly suitable for a toasty little fire dragon. Once that was ready, I tapped on his egg and placed him in his new home... and Voila! One adorable little red dragon to hug and squeeze and name him George... erm... Char. Although I could name him George if I wanted to.... you have the option of renaming any of your new friends.
Next it seemed that Char was lonely, so we hatched a forest dragon named Python, seriously I loved the detail they put into naming these little things... it gave them that much more personality. They weren't just fire dragon and forest dragon... they were Char and Python and I loved them!!
In order to help your dragons grow, you have to feed them. Fortunately you have farms that produce their food, always fruit by the way, my dragons are even vegetarians! How sweet is that?!
Producing food takes time, but not a ton if you're inclined to sit and wait and putz around your island for a bit, which I really appreciated. I've really had my fill of games that make you wait forever before you can do anything in an endless play to make you keep coming back for more. Not that there isn't your fair share of waiting in Dragon Story. As the levels progress, the game makes you wait longer and longer for dragons to hatch, buildings to finish construction, and trees and debris to clear.
Of course, for a few gold bars, you can speed up any wait. Naturally, being a free download, the game is funded by in-game purchases. Dragon Story offers up gold bars, in which you can buy fancy dragons, habitats, and decor as well as speed up practically anything you need to wait for.
Here's of course where a dragon loving girl can get in real trouble fast, since the dollar amount for gold seems pretty reasonable. 20 Gold bars for $.99. So far nothing has cost me more than 2 to 3 bars, so I could see myself making a purchase here and there just to keep the game going during those particular boring segments of watching Josh camp and snipe in COD.
Overall, I think Dragon Story is a darling little free app that is perfect for playing when you don't want to give your full attention to the game. Just a word of advice... before you give the game to your kids, make sure they can't make some inadvertent purchases... otherwise you might find yourself swimming in very cute, very expensive dragon babies!