Dragon Brawlers Review

Ride Your Dragon into Battle

MOBAs and dragons have become popular over the years. Mash them together and you get Dragon Brawlers. Developed by IGG.COM, this action MOBA has players collect and ride dragons into battle in four different battle modes.

Four Game Modes

Dragon Brawlers features four play modes: Dragon Soul, Dragon King’s Awakening, Gem Jam, and Bounties. Only Dragon Soul is available at first. The other modes are locked until players play a certain number of matches. Losses also count towards unlocking the modes, making it easy to unlock all of them within days of downloading the game. The four modes bring enough variety to keep players engaged. Dragon Soul is a 3v3 match where players take control of three flags to gain points. Players gain more points for their team when they control more or all the flags. The team that reaches 2,000 points first wins.

Dragon King’s Awakening is my personal favorite as you and your team summon the dragon king to attack the enemy’s base. The player who controls the team’s dragon king is selected at random. Players have a 1-in-3 shot to ride a Godzilla-sized dragon into battle.

Gem Jams is a fun yet simple mode where the team that collects the most gems wins. Bounties is a standard 3v3 matchup where the team with the most kills in a certain amount of time win. These modes are also fun to play but Dragon King’s Awakening stands out to me as the best due to the dragon king. The race between which team will summon their king first drives the match.

Fleshed Out MOBA Gameplay

Gameplay is straightforward with players moving their dragon-riding character around the field to complete objectives. The player character has one normal weapon attack, and the dragon has one normal attack and one super skill. These skills recharge in battle leaving it up to the player to strategize when they want to fight, flee, pursue the objective, etc.

The battlefield map is a long stretch of land with fields for players to hide in and surprise their enemies from. The fields can be sliced down with the player’s weapon or burned by their dragon’s fire. I found it useful to slice through fields of grass near certain objectives. Then the enemy team couldn’t sneak up on me and my teammates. The map refreshes after about a day so that players are not always battling on the same map.

Customize Your Dragons

Dragons are the name of the game and they’re here to fight. Players start off with a beginner dragon and slowly unlock more as they accomplish feats or receive free dragon eggs. The dragons are also customizable, with each having their own unique skills and stats that players can upgrade over time. The upgrade system is easy to understand with each dragon having its own EXP it must earn before it can level up. Each dragon also has different skins that players can select. This is one of my favorite features as it lets me feel like I’m riding my own unique dragon into battle. The skins are purely cosmetic. Players can even ride a pirate-themed dragon!

Too Much of a Bad Thing

Like other mobile games, Dragon Brawlers lets players watch ads to unlock free content or upgrades, such as new dragons or EXP. Unlike other mobile games, Dragon Brawlers makes players watch 5-10 ad videos before unlocking whatever item is hidden behind them. The ads each last 30 seconds meaning it could take up to five minutes of ad watching to unlock something. This makes watching the ads a time waster as the coins or EXP provided is not worth five minutes of video advertisements.

Overall, Dragon Brawlers does well in providing users with a mobile MOBA that has a unique twist with its dragon fighting premise. Dragon King’s Awakening stands out as a mode with gameplay and mechanics original to Dragon Brawler. The other modes, though enhanced by dragon customization and battle design, do feel incredibly like other MOBAs on the market.