NAME: Dragon Island
COMPANY: Macrospace
PLATFORM: JAVA
GENRE: Forward scrolling shooter
SIZE: 120 KB
TEST PHONE: LG U8630
RATING: 7/10
You play as the hero Theobald Blade sent out by King Chaung the Wise of the Green Islands to sort out the awakening of Dragon Island. Unfortunately nothing is said or hinted about what why the ‘Awakening of Dragon Island’ is such a bad thing ! I guess it because it’s a secret.
The game is like countless other platfomers with various challenging levels, fruit to collect and monsters to subdue. It does depart from other platformers apart from having a weapon from the start. Yep you have your trusty never ending supply of axes to hurl at snails, fishes and so forth. Powerups include armour bonuses.
Graphics are modern and are large enough for a small screen and music like all mobile phone games is limited.
The controls are assigned appropriately considering the number of moves you can make. Eg, jumping, climbing , axe throwing etc.. However there is some awkwardness when you have to rush movements. It even has a save function which helps as some of the levels are quite long.
Game play is generally pretty good. The level of difficulty has been implemented in a good fashion, it increases in a consistent fashion.
There’s also a time limit which each level has to be completed. This is appropriate because it can be a simple game to complete but difficult if you want to collect everything.
The save function works but you have to start at the beginning of the level. Not much of a problem.
It is playable in most environments without attracting too much attention.
Issues
The first thing you notice when the game started is that the volume is defaulted to FULLY LOUD. This is very annoying since its not exactly the most catchy theme song out there.
I do not have any Dragon Island cheats or hints.
Summary
We rate this game a 7/10.
Dragon Island on the whole is a pretty good game made for a mobile phone. If you’re into this sort of game genre it will satisfy. If you’re not its still worth getting for entertainment value.
I believe this sort of game would work well on a Nintendo Gameboy ! The basics are there but they would need to work out how to differentiate it from the other platformers …
I haven’t finished the game yet but probably will in the near future.