Fire Dragon Review
PROS
- Cute cartoon style.
- Simple gameplay mechanics.
CONS
- Odd movement controls.
- Inconsistent monsters, fruit or powerup drops.
VERDICT
Fire Dragon is a simple mini-game that dreams of being a quick and exciting arcade title, but it will need to work harder before reaching that point.
- Full Review
- App Store Info
Fire Dragon by Joybean is an unfortunate arcade title where you must collect as much fruit as possible before various monsters or blocks of ice bludgeon you to death.
It's a simple title and its controls match the simple theme with tilt controls to slide your dragon back and forth along his wooden platform and touching the screen to fire a burst of flame straight up. Various groups of fruit will drop from the sky and must be blasted to release them from their icy prison. If you're lucky you'll be able to get two or more fruit in a row for a combo, however this is truly is a matter of luck as multiple fruit are generally scattered about instead. Various power-ups are also available, but the only one of real interest is the ability to change seasons which in turn changes the background theme.
Fire Dragon's only real positive selling point is its cute cartoonish style, but outside of this the game is somewhat of a shambles. Tilting to move feels slippery and inconsistent, which quite difficult to aim, but given the infrequency of the drops and enemies you'll have plenty of time to get that perfect shot off anyway.
At best, Fire Dragon is a mini-game that hasn't quite seen the end of its development cycle and until its given a bit more polish it's best to leave this one alone.