Dragon Mania Legends Review - Build a kingdom, breed dragons and destroy Vikings

Dragon Mania Legends is a city building styled Windows Phone game where you rebuild he kingdom of Dragolandia where you breed dragons and fight off neighboring Vikings and their dragons.

Dragon Mania Legends includes over one hundred species of dragons to discover and plenty of side missions to tackle. Combat sequences are turned based pitting your dragons against the Vikings. The game is available for low-memory Windows Phones, as well as Windows 8 devices, and after spending a few days with the game, Dragon Mania Legends is a fun way to pass the time.

Plenty of Guidance

One thing is for certain with Dragon Mania Legends, the game provides you with plenty of guidance as you play. A host of characters will guide you through the various tasks involved with game play from helping you with the combat sequences to breeding your dragons to creating new buildings in your city.

Even the new tasks or missions that become available as you play Dragon Mania Legends are very user friendly. The task list is pulled up from the control button in the lower left corner of the city view. New tasks will have an exclamation mark flashing besides the icon and they include missions such building kingdom structures, battling Vikings, breeding dragons and more. At the successful completion of a task you will be rewarded with a variety of items that include (but not always limited to) gold, gems and food.

Structures include farms where you grow and harvest to feed your dragons, dragon habitats to raise and house your dragons (cannot have them just wandering about) and temples to help train your dragons. New structures, renovating old, harvesting food for your dragons and training your dragons will cost you some gold that can be earned through combat or generated by your dragon stock. Some items and tasks will require gems that are also earned in battle and accomplishing various tasks. You do have in-app purchase opportunities to buy gold and gems (along with other items) but I have to say that earning gold and gems isn't very difficult with Dragon Mania. It won't take you long before you have a dozen gems and tens of thousands in gold.

Game Play

Game play is somewhat casually paced. You pick and choose your missions and manage your dragons as you see fit. Several tasks require time to complete but you can always speed up time by using gems.

Dragon Mania Legends has a few forms of currency that include gold and gems. These can be earned by completing missions, petting your dragons and through in-app purchases. You also have energy units that are required for battles. These units will replenish over time (about one unit per 15 minutes) or you can replenish things through in-app purchase.

I'm still not a big fan of requiring energy units to battle but Dragon Mania Legends has plenty of things to keep you busy as you wait for things to recharge.

Dragon Combat

Battles are turned based that pits your dragons against your Viking opponent's dragons. The battles involve up to three of your dragons and prior to the fight, you can pick/choose which dragons will be waging battle. You can enter battles by accepting missions from the task button or simply roam the islands to pick a fight. Battles are scored from one to three stars and can be re-played to increase your overall scoring.

Dragons specialize in specific, singular element (fire, wind, earth, etc.) with a few of the species being dual elemental dragons. You also have boss dragons that will become available that will produce more gold and help train the other dragons. Dragon eggs can be purchased using your gems and gold or you can breed your dragons to raise your own.

The mechanics of combat is simple. When it is your dragons turn to attack, tap/hold on the elemental symbol and drag it to the dragon you want to attack. Keep in mind that some dragons are more susceptible to certain elements than others. Green sword icons will appear beneath dragons where the attack will be the most effective. A red sword means the attack will not have much effect and a yellow sword will mean the attack is along the normal levels.

Once you've selected a dragon to attack, an attack strength meter will appear with an arrow that will move up the meter. Tap the screen before the arrow hits the red shaded portion of the meter. If the arrow makes it to the red shaded area, your attack will miss. If you tap the screen while the arrow is in the green shaded area, the attack strength will be perfect and inflict more damage.

You do have a dragon fury attack that will build as you do battle or you can activate it by spending your gems. The dragon fury attack will send you to another screen where you swipe at the enemy dragons as fast as you can for a few seconds. Those swipes translate into powerful attacks and more times than not, destroy the enemy dragons.

Life in the Kingdom

While dragon battles is a strong draw to the game, you also have to maintain and manage your Kingdom.

You'll need to make sure your farms are maintained to keep a strong supply of food on hand to help your dragons level up. All the structures can be upgraded to increase productivity or house more dragons. When not engaging in battle, you can train your dragons with target practice or through the Dragon Academy when you have earned a few scrolls (awarded through battle).

Again, each task requires time. The larger the task, the more time is needed. For example, planting the most basic crop will only take thirty seconds for the crops to be ready for harvest. Upgrading a habitat, on the other hand, will take five minutes. If you are the impatient type, you can spend a few gems to skip the wait and have things happen instantly.

Overall Impression

I have to admit, city builders aren't exactly my cup of tea but I did enjoy playing Dragon Mania Legends mainly for the dragon breeding and battles. Having to wait for things to build, grow or hatch does get a little tiring but on the plus side, Dragon Mania will generate toast notifications when things are done if you don't care to hang around the game and wait.

There is a bit of strategy to combat with the elemental influences. You do get the benefit of seeing what type of dragons you are about face off against but even then, these fights can be challenging.

I really cannot think of any downside to Dragon Mania, unless you just do not like this gaming genre. The dragon battles can be a fun way to pass short bits of time while managing and growing your kingdom gives the game longevity. Dragon Mania Legends comes across as an entertaining Windows and Windows Phone title capable of meeting a wide range of gaming needs.

If I had to put my finger on one negative is that for the Windows Phone and Windows 8 versions to be in sync, you have to connect to Facebook. Not everyone is a Facebook fan but it is better than not being able to synchronize the two. Facebook makes synchronizing convenient but it would be nice if Gameloft could have their own cloud or find a way to use OneDrive to sync the two versions.

All in all, we have to agree with the 4.5 Star rating Dragon Mania Legends pulls down in the Windows Phone Store. It is an enjoyable game for your Windows Phone or Windows 8 device. It is a free game with plenty of in-app purchases available.