Got kids who are fans of the animated movie How to Train Your Dragon? You’ll be interested in an upcoming game based on it called Dragons Adventure, which uses location and augmented reality technology in nifty ways.

The catch? You’ll need to buy the Nokia Lumia 2520 tablet to play it. What’s that? You didn’t know Nokia made a tablet? Oh yes, that’s news too: Nokia unveiled its first iPad rival this morning alongside the game.

The thought of location-based technology in a game for children may sound a bit worrying, but the idea with Dragons Adventure is that the game will be played while travelling: “A real time, immersive, magical experience that lets you play within a virtual environment that actually mirrors the real world around you,” as the announcement puts it.

Due to launch before Christmas, the game will let its young players “hold up the tablet to seek and find items in the air, like your very own dragon… built for parents and kids to enjoy together or as a solo kid challenge, making every road trip, whether by car, train or bus, short or long, a lot more fun”.

Nokia stressed that the game can also be played while stationary at home. We’re intrigued by the idea of a game that uses maps and the camera to turn the real world into the virtual environment: it’ll even use the right weather and traffic data for wherever the game is being played.

And that tablet? The Lumia 2520 will also go on sale before Christmas, initially in the US, UK and Finland. It’s expected to cost the equivalent of $499 – matching Apple’s full-size iPad – and runs the Windows RT 8.1 software.

It sounds like Nokia is keen to attract families with the new device. Dragons Adventure will also have a companion app for Windows Phones, although there’s no news yet on when (or whether) the game will be available on iPad or Android tablets too.