Backflip gets all mythical with first iOS freemium game: DragonVale

When it comes to freemium nurturing games on iOS today, your choice is stark: horses or dragons.

NaturalMotion's My Horse takes a more realistic Nintendogs approach to the genre, while Backflip's DragonVale is - ahem - more fantastic.

After all, you're buying, hatching, raising, collecting and breeding different dragon types in a game that mixes some of the creature mechanics from Pocket Frogs with familiar Ville-style levelling up and time/resource management mechanics and a hint of Theme Park.

As with many of these such games, DragonVale has been live in Canada for testing purposes, where it's proven to be a hit - sitting pretty in the top 5 top grossing chart - so now it's available for the rest of the world to experience.

In terms of game goals, you're looking after your dragons in order to attract people to visit them and marvel at the sight: a sort of anti-petting zoo with Don't Touch signs and critters with smoking nostrils.

Certainly, you have plenty to do, as you hatch more dragons (there are more than 50 types), build them habitats, look after and level them up, give them treats, as well as building more floaty space islands so you can expand your menagerie, also adding decorations to generate a larger audience in terms of the in-game virtual visitors. There's even a colosseum where your dragons can compete for prizes.

Of course, there's a real-world social element, too, as you can encourage your friends into the game - via Facebook and Game Center - and you can visit one another's park and trade gifts.

And being a freemium game, you can spend real money if you so desire. In this case, there are three in-game currencies, gold coins, gems, and treats. Each of these can be exchanged for hard cash, with coins and treats ranging from 99c/69p to $49.99/£34.99, while gem packs are available from $1.99/£1.49 to $99.99/£69.99.

DragonVale is free and available in a Universal build for iPhone and iPad.

You can get an idea of how it plays in the following video.

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