How to Train Your Dragon
How to Train Your Dragon for Nintendo DS continues the story on the Island of Berk after dragons and Vikings have begun living together. Rather than replaying the movie scene for scene, the game puts you into a new Dragon Master tournament. Choose Hiccup or Astrid, raise a personalized dragon, complete quests around Berk, forge protective equipment, and prepare for a sequence of one-on-one battles.
Choose a rider and build a dragon
Hiccup begins with a Night Fury, while Astrid begins with a Deadly Nadder. Before the adventure starts, you can change features such as horns, wings, teeth, feet, scales, tail, and color, then give the dragon a name. That customization is more than cosmetic presentation: the campaign is built around developing a particular dragon, improving its battle options, and equipping armor gathered or forged along the way.
The touch-driven world map connects Berk's quest locations. From it, you can review the current objective, inspect inventory, manage equipped armor, change the active attack roster, track awards, and work through an ability tree. New moves branch from earlier upgrades, so progression is about choosing which attacks to unlock and which six to carry into a fight. Quests and random encounters provide gold, materials, patterns, and experience needed for the next tournament challenge.
Turn-based dragon battles
Combat uses a shared, replenishing Energy resource rather than a simple one-action-per-turn rhythm. Quick attacks and buffs cost less Energy and can be used more often; stronger attacks consume more and can leave an opening while the meter refills. Moves can apply positive or negative status effects, and a separate Special Meter charges during combat. When it is full, a short touch-screen microgame can power up the chosen attack.
Victories award items, gold, and possible move upgrades. Between fights, Gobber's forge turns collected patterns, ore, and occasional etchings into armor. You can also take a dragon through Fishlegs' flying obstacle courses, steering through the air, firing at targets and other dragons, and collecting coins. Together, the quests, forging, ability tree, battle loadout, and flight challenges give the DS release a compact action-RPG structure.
Local two-player dragon duels
The story is single-player, but the game also supports two-player local wireless battles. DS Download Play lets a second nearby system join from one Game Card; both players use Night Fury dragons with a limited move set. Multi-Card play lets two systems, each with its own copy, use dragons from their saved games. A save file must exist before multiplayer becomes available, and multiplayer results do not change story progress apart from dueling awards.
Nintendo DS controls and current requirements
Most navigation and combat selection use the Touch Screen and stylus. Flight challenges can also use the Control Pad or face buttons, with the shoulder buttons firing. Some forging interactions use the DS hardware in playful ways, including touch input and microphone activity documented in contemporary review coverage.
These multiplayer modes are local DS wireless features, not Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection or an internet service, so the documented head-to-head play does not depend on a publisher server. Two compatible Nintendo DS-family systems are required for multiplayer; one Game Card is enough for the limited Download Play mode, while the full saved-dragon option requires a copy in each system. The ESRB rates this Nintendo DS release E10+ for Mild Fantasy Violence.
