Admittedly, when I first started into Haypi Dragon, I was less than enthused; however, after a little personal training and dragon enhancing, things picked up quickly. Haypi Dragon exists somewhere between Angry Birds, Pokemon, and Tank Wars (aka BOMB, circa 1990) to create a turn-based-PVP-RPG-bomb-a-thon. The firing system is akin to Angry Birds; character building and power ups harken back to Pokemon; and, the bombs and attacks dream up my favorite MS DOS game, Tank Wars. Confused yet? Read on…
Design
Haypi Dragon is not the easiest game to pick up and understand, but the game walks the user through the initial stages of Dragon training. The game is an RPG in the sense game characters (dragons) must advance powers, gain mana, increase HP and health, and combine augmentation stones to enhance attacks. The lobby menu allows for navigation between battle levels, alchemy stations, dragon training, and PVP channels.
The app encourages users to create an account to track user information, but it is not necessary from my research. I was able to play the game, upgrade and train my dragon, all with an application assigned user profile. Because the app is run through multiplayer channels, there is a constant stream of chatter that pops up in the left hand corner no matter what part of the game you are presently accessing. I found it quite annoying, but thankfully a setting disables the feed.
Gameplay
The battle levels occur throughout 5 distinct worlds and over 100 levels. In battle, control your dragon, which is strapped with a cannon, to attack other enemies on a turn by turn basis. Based on training and power ups, it is a battle of HP and health, with some level ups interlaced with the attack. Battle up to 4 other baddies at a time and invite friends to help out! In fact, the level bosses are only tackled with a multiplayer component.
Progressing through the levels, acquire different creatures that utilize different attacks and train them simultaneously in the training nest. Throughout the levels, acquire different coins and power ups to add to your creatures strength or health, which will come in handy as you deal destruction. The battle scenes are best understood by watching the gameplay video below.
Conclusion [rating: 4/5]
As mentioned previously, I wasn’t super excited at first glance, but learning curve now aside, Haypi Dragon (Free, App Store Link) is a solid game. While I still struggle to understand how all the different coins, level ups, and stones effect gameplay, the small details are explained in the tutorial. At the price of $0 for a Universal App that should sync between iOS devices with a profile, I definitely suggest trying it out for yourself. There is, however, a strong push for in-app coin purchases to upgrade your characters more quickly. Enjoy hours of fun upgrading your character and battling with friends.
Pros
- Several ways to upgrade the characters
- Interacte with other players to defeat enemies
- Great graphics
- Free
Cons
- Annoying chat feed, but it can be turned off
- Very complex upgrade system for an iOS game
