REVIEW:
The Year of the Dragon by Mobad Games
Story: This is an original story about a young dragon and a boy who befriends him. The main thrust of the tale is the desire of the dragon to be in some boat races. He defies his parents wishes to the contrary and actually becomes the boat for the little boy and the rest of their friends (all the other animals of the zodiac). I was really excited about this story when I bought the app, but was let down after reading it. I was expecting it to have more of an Asian influence in it's style and execution. While dragon boat racing is a custom in China, nothing about the human characters felt authentically Chinese. The little boy even had blue eyes.
Artwork: The illustrations are actually really good in and of themselves. The only problem I have with them relates back to the story. The story was not only lackluster but it was also very repetitive, so there isn't a lot of variety in the images presented here. However, the animal characters of the zodiac are adorable.
Interface: The interface is simple and intuitive just like I like it. One interesting element is the perspective of the images when you tilt your handheld device. The landscape moves in layers giving it a sense of depth that the developer calls "3D". It's an nice added bonus but does not add much to the overall experience. There's some nice interactivity with the dragons and boats where you can move them across the screen whichever way you like. The most dominant interaction is when you touch the characters they move a little and make a sound of some sort. This is where the repetitive nature of the story causes problems again. A lot of pages are of the animals of the zodiac making the same noises page after page. Also, at the end of the story you can look up your own Chinese zodiac and find out the meaning, which is a nice touch, but they mess it up. The Chinese zodiac is by year unlike the Western zodiac that is by month, and they list the years according to the Gregorian calender that starts on January 1st. Whereas, the Chinese new year changes every year in accordance with the lunar cycle. So, a lot of people will be misinformed as to their true Chinese Zodiac. It's little touches like this that made it seem like they weren't really telling an authentically Chinese story.
Devices: Available on iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch
Summary: The app all in all is o.k. I just felt like an interesting concept was squandered by an overly bland plot.
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