Experience is important and introduces an RPG style upgrade system where you can purchase new moves and abilities. Most of these collectables will upgrade either Spyro or Cynder's magic, health or experience levels. Exploration is the game's strong point with plenty of hidden collectables to discover which elicits a real desire to recover everything available. The game is very much divided into exploration and combat. Swapping between characters is easy enough requiring the tap of a button, which is necessary as you'll need to use both characters' unique abilities to progress and solve puzzles. If you don't have a willing partner or the gaffer tape wasn't strong enough to hold someone, then the computer AI controls one of the characters for you. The game centres on Spyro and Cynder being shackled together by a supernatural chain and as such a co-op mode is available for two players. With this new tone, some of the humour and charm has gone and the overall feel is rather serious and at times it borders on being depressing.ĭawn of the Dragon plays out as a rather standard platformer with underlying role-playing elements and character building. Although they don't have much to work with, they give you some motivation to proceed and no doubt kids will be entertained. I was shocked to see the starry cast that lends their talents to the game, with Gary Oldman, Christina Ricci and Elijah Wood particularly standing out. The plot itself was never likely to be a seminal masterpiece of storytelling but it has been done countless times before.ĭisappointingly the characters themselves have been "re-imagined" from the original series and not for the better. With the assistance of a friendly cheetah, Hunter, they inevitably set about trying to prevent the usual threat of world destruction by a generic evil villain. The plot of this instalment follows Spyro and his female colleague Cynder as they are released from imprisonment by a band of strange creatures.
The series has since changed developers on multiple occasions and the final instalment of the Legend of Spyro trilogy, Dawn of the Dragon, is the first time I have revisited the franchise. The early PlayStation platformers with the little dragon not only had a charm which managed to cut through my many layers of cynicism but were very well crafted titles. I have a confession to make and it's definitely not about the suspicious blood-like stain on the living room carpet.
Reviews // 8th Apr 2009 - 14 years ago // By Christopher Wakefield The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
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