We've established to some extent my basic geek factor from earlier game reviews, so let me now, unequivocally, that I am a fan of most things "geek". Beyond my fascination with comics and Sci-Fi, I do have a big place in my heart for fantasy worlds and all things related. Dragons rank up there as one of the coolest aspects of fantasy storylines so based on the title alone I couldn't let Dragon Blade: Wrath of Fire go by. Then there's the second part of the title…blade. I like swords so there is something else to look forward to. Then you add words like wrath and fire and well, I'm a guy...

Dragons have watched humans from afar and made a pact with the humans to leave them to their own devices; yet one benevolent dragon, Valthorian, felt the need to help the humans grow and develop. The other five leading dragons didn't appreciate the interference and used the humans to corner Valthorian and destroy him.

Valthorian's body was then split into parts which the human leaders kept with the exception of the most powerful part, a hilt, which was secreted away by the human leader who had originally sided with Valthorian. This part of the dragon remained hidden in secret for many years in a small out of the way village while the spirit of Valthorian attempted to "talk" with each member of this ruler's descendants over the years. Not until Dal enters our story does Valthorian receive any response from this bloodline. The dragon teaches the ways of the Dragon Blade in his sleep so not even the villager knows that he is being taught - until they are attacked.

The plot was written by Richard A. Knaak, who has written some rather popular fantasy book series. Between some of the Dragonlance books and his Warcraft and Diablo titles, Knaak knows how to twist a plot in a fantasy realm. The story setup for Dragon Blade is good if not a bit thin. There seems to be a lack of character development for the protagonist Dal. It could be the lack of voice over but there is something missing; Dal is a character I found difficult to care for during his adventure. It felt as if more energy was devoted to telling the back story than much developing anything further.

The game plays well enough for what it is…a hack and slash adventure game. The controls are fairly straightforward. The Wiimote is used for your attacks. You swing right and left for the wide swing attacks, up and down for those types of straight attacks, and jab the Wiimote for a stab attack. The nunchuck is used to move the character around and the various buttons on both have varying effects such as jumping, dodging/blocking and targeting. The d-pad on the Wiimote also functions as a means to toggle on the dragon parts that your retrieve from beating the different human rulers you run into and these parts have differing attack effects. The attacks don't always work the way as intended but more often than not the controls work well enough to beat up the baddies - although I did find my arms a bit tired after lengthy fights!

The enemies are not exactly the most varied through the course of the 20+ stages you fight in. Lizardmen, Boarmen, Owlmen, and assorted spiders, dogs, and bears are your standard fare with a few bigger Minotaurs and demonic looking enemies. This cuts down on the variety from level to level. As for the levels themselves they are decently varied although you have but one path to get to the end so it leaves little in the way of exploration. The hack and slash monotony is broken up by the somewhat entertaining boss fights. Each King and the Dragons are points in the game that were much more entertaining than wading through the identical enemies in the stages. The kings are the means for which Dal receives the new dragon parts to fight the good fight when they are defeated.

As mentioned, the game is broken down in stages. Each one is a new area that your are investigating for Valthorian as you make your way back to confront his brother dragons and pick up the "parts" of his body in possession of each ruler. You typically get a little bit of dialogue from Valthorian on each stage and then you fight. As you progress through the level, you will be stopped at certain points to fight larger groups of enemies before being allowed to progress. Depending on the stage this could either culminate with a larger, multistage fight with increasing amounts of enemies or a fight with one of the kings to retrieve the part of Valthorian. The dragon fights are, luckily, standalone so if you fail you can easily load them again and try the fight from the start.

The visuals of the game are another weak point. Admittedly, the game is a budget priced title and due to that it lacks the development budget to truly take the graphics to the next level but for the most part it simply felt half done. The main character has little in the way of depth and the environments looks a little bland. The textures lack any sort of visual "pop" that draws the eye to them and makes for a more memorable game experience. Although the details are nothing special the overall look of the game is acceptable.

The difficulty of Dragon Blade also felt half done. The hack-slash-rinse-repeat tempo with the interspersed boss fights never really was particularly hard other than the tired sore arm/wrist the next day. The game seems lengthier than it actually was due to the vast amount of new stages thrown at you throughout even though the stages were rarely very long on their own.

Overall I would say that as a rental the game holds its own but I would be hard set to recommend a purchase at anything but a bargain level due to the issues mentioned. It seems like the developer has the right idea for making a fun game but could have used a bit more polish in the visuals department and some fine tuning of the controls to truly make it a great experience.