Spyro’s back for another romp on the next gen platform circuit. And this time, it’s personal. No, not really… or at least I’m not sure if it is or not. You see, I haven’t played a Spyro game since the first one came out on the original Playstation, and from the first minute of gameplay in The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (Spyro), it’s obvious that the little purple dragon has grown into his own and spread his wings.

Activision’s Spyro begins with two purple small dragons encased in a crystal, a goblin touches the crystal and it explodes, then two snake necklaces are placed on the two dragons as they wake up in an underground laid fighting a giant fire monster. The green necklaces bind the two together and while they can fly, fight, and use elemental powers (Spyro can use fire, ice, earth and lightning, while Cynder (the evil other dragon) can use dark powers such as fear, poison, shadow, and wind?), they must work together to escape with the help of a tiger named Hunter and a loud mouthed dragon fly named Sparx. Make any sense? No? That’s how I felt playing this title as it seems to be a direct continuation from the past title, unless you played that last title they don’t give you any back story to work with. While on the topic of not making any sense, Cynder controls the evil elements, I understand that, but since when was wind considered bad? Linka never used her wind power for evil when calling on captain planet. Another issue I have with sense-making is that these two small dragons can fly at any given time, they can glide through entire levels, EXCEPT when there is a wall covered in vines, then all of a sudden they forget how to fly and must physically climb up the walls.

Changing subjects a little bit away from my rant, when playing Spyro, I couldn’t help but feel like this game felt very similar to something and after an hour of gameplay it hit me. Spyro is an E rated version of God of War! All the mechanics from GoW are present: action buttons, colour specific gems that provide health, mana, or exp, and when you have enough experience, you level up your spells the same way as GoW. The same scale battles and feel of fights are present, wall climbing, similar puzzles, rolls, giant monster battles ending with action buttons and an overall feel of GoW is present throughout the game, but cuter, colourful and with the ability for two player coop.

The controls are again, much like gears of war, using the D-pad to select your elemental spell, having a weak attack, strong attack, block, dodge, elemental attack A, elemental attack B, grab and player change. To fly you triple jump then beat your wings to gain altitude. Specific actions must be made by either Spyro or Cynder to open doors using specific elements such as blowing wind into a horn, or shocking a switch, so puzzle action utilizes more than one dragon at any given time. With two dragons flying around and as many as 10 bad guys on the screen at once, the gameplay can get a little hectic, add on top that both players can fight to control the camera angle and you get confusion and fire blasts left right and centre.

Graphically I was taken back by how great this title looked compared to the only other Spyro game I ever played over ten years ago. The detail in animation of all the little monsters running around, as well as the quality in terms of level design were great! The reflections on the monster’s slimy skin and the scales of Spyro are seen throughout the game and along with the artistic stylings of each element (especially Sypro’s fire and Cynder’s shadow elements) the game is a fast paced graphical enticement for the eyes.

With full voice over acting, and aside from cheesy script writing and unfunny jokes, Spyro’s voices are great. In fact, the voices are all filled by A-list stars that each fit their roles very well. Elijah Wood voices Spyro, Gary Oldman Ignitus, Wayne Brady as Sparx, Christina Ricci as Cynder and Mark Hamill as the evil Malefor. If I didn’t read the names on the back of the box, I would have never guessed these big names lent their talents to this game, and am amazed at how great they sound and work in a mysterious dragon world.

In an epic feeling conclusion to the Spyro world, The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon doesn’t leave much out, if only they could have clued in new gamers to their world before diving head first into continuing the story. The one thing I missed most was Spyro’s confidence issue about being the smallest dragon in his clan. It seems somewhere within the last ten years he overcame his height issues and became a full fledged dragon hero.

Gameplay: 3.5/5
Graphics: 4.0/5
Sound: 4.5/5
Replay Value: 3.0/5






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