The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

"Dungeons & Drag-ons"

This is not the Spyro we all once knew..

Graphics 6/10
Aural 2/10
Gameplay 4/10
Replay 6/10
Light-Crystal Minigame 9/10
Tilt 4/10

The Spyro series began on the mega-popular Playstation as a 3D-platformer collect-a-thon, following the well defined footsteps of the revolutionary Super Mario 64. It was light-hearted fun with big, bright and bold colours, enjoyable tasks to complete, and a diverse selection of now classic characters. This latest followup has none of these elements. The Legend of Spyro (hitherto referred as LoS) for the DS more of a dungeon crawler, only without the essential RPG elements. Apart from the nice FMVs (ripped straight from the console versions) the overall production is terribly poor. It has no charm, no substance, and for the most part it feels like a chore to play through.

The Etiology of Eyestrain
It has been done successfully in a couple of games, that is 3D polygons over a 2D backdrop, but in LoS this method of presenting the graphics is broken. The models of Spyro, the NPCs and the enemies may be decent, but it is pretty hard to tell since they are so darn tiny, as Mr. Bean puts it, microscopic! Utilising a top-down perspective with a slight angulation, in order to provide a good view of the surrounding area the view is quite zoomed out. Unfortunately this is done so much so that except for a couple of times when you are directly engaging some enemies, every 3D object overlying the nice hand-drawn background is minuscule. It makes a game difficult to cope with when your eyes just cannot focus on what is actually happening.

But Polygons aside, the myriad of spell effects look pretty good. The visual style strikes a semblance to that seen in Warcraft 3, and strangely enough it actually plays out like a poor man's version of the bonus mini-mod, WarChasers! I really did like the artistry of some of the static backdrops, but towards the end it seemed like the artists went AWOL and we are left with very bland and generic scenery.

Dungeons and Dragons
As I alluded to earlier, LoS is barely a platformer and more of a Baldur's Gate type Dungeon Crawler. There is a good selection of abilities available at hand, with some different elemental attributes made available with progress. It starts off rather well, but really at the end of the day, you are just going to rely on your power shot attack most of the time. This is a real big shame, since with New Game + allowing players to go through the quest again retaining all previously powered-up abilities, it could have been good fun for replays had the system been more deep and rewarding. You control Spyro with the D-pad, with the touchscreen used to specifically target enemies, break energy-containing objects, activate switches and a couple of other things. There is possibly too much touchscreen use for a game like this; you will madly tapping out while trying to hold your DS steady. If you are like me and prefer to use a stylus, you are going to have to develop a new way of holding the game console right - that or grow another arm.

The main goal is to move across the lands, beating down a limited selection of enemies (only about 13 different ones), moving onto the next scene, and eventually arriving at the mandatory boss battle. However, travel is painfully slow. It seems when Spyro first came to, he could not run - that's right, no dashing at all. But the slow pace comes mainly from the ever-spawning enemies; you have to clear an area of all enemies before the barrier comes down to allow you to progress forward. The problem is that waiting for enemies to teleport into your waiting hands tests your patience. Not only is it silly since you are all ready to pounce on them as soon as they appear, but sometimes you will have to backtrack a bit just to make them appear! Very poor design here guys. The 'crawling' is fairly basic, but if you are lacking in breath power, it is extremely easy for a couple of hits from just a handful of enemies to knock you out; then it is back to your last save point, which not only can be quite far, but all progress made since is nullified - especially frustrating after having completed several of the crystal games (see later) along the way.

But persevere with the monotony and you will soon arrive at a boss battle which is slightly more interesting. These duels are presented as a full 3D rail-shooter. Now it does sound pretty good doesn't it? And on first impressions, you will be thinking these are totally worth the plodding in the main game. But although they present some nice ideas, the patterns of movement are repetitive (a common theme throughout this game?) and the bosses don't pose that much of a threat apart from the first one oddly enough...

So it sounds really bad doesn't it? But for those into these slow-crawl games (such as the DS' own Deep Labyrinth) then I CAN recommend this title for it is a good time killer, especially once you have access to the various cheats. At least this game does not seem to have any glaring glitches like a couple of other recent DS releases.

A Better Game?!
Perhaps the best thing going for this game are the bonus puzzle challenges. Power Crystal Shutdown is the name of the game, and the aim is to direct coloured light beams emitted from various sources to the corresponding crystal. You will have a selection of mirrors which can be used to reflect and refract the beams in order to complete the conundrum. It is a simple concept, but is highly addictive and a lot of fun, seriously! There are 40 of these puzzles and 40 more unlocked as bonuses for collecting sufficient crystal shards in-game. It would have been nice if there were more, since the idea could really spin out into a whole new successful puzzle-logic game on its own!!

The Sound of Silence
Just on a quick note on the audio, because it barely registers a blip. The sound effects are minimal and the music is practically non-existent. Upon viewing the credits I was shocked that there were 2 composers for this game! If the credits are not referring to the other versions spanning multi-console, then I really don't know what to say; just like the game, I'm 'speechless'.

The Leg-End of Spyro
Ever since Insomniac left the helm, the Spyro games have become progressively more lacklustre with each new episode. It may have been a good idea to re-invent the way we play Spyro, but too much has changed, and the execution is extremely poor. Heck, the game is so linear now, and you can't even replay boss battles unless you grind your way through again. It seems to me that this franchise, which started out so well, is a dead dog. And we all know there's no point beating a dead dog.

RECAP
* Nice 2d backdrops, microscopic 3D models
* Controls are highly counter-intuitive
* Arsenal is varied, but mostly redundant
* Boss battles are a nice idea, flawed by so-so execution
* The Light-Crystal minigame is great!

Overall 6/10 - Just made it to this rating, and only because of the excellent light-crystal minigame!

16/10/06 :P

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 10/17/06