The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (2006)

Short.

And too dang many invisible walls.

The flying levels were poorly executed rail shooters- shouldn't have been included.

11/7/2006 That is one of very few negative things I could say about this latest Spyro iteration that came out just a couple of weeks ago.

It is what I wanted to see the Gamecube do to Spyro.

Myself and my wife have been playing Spyro faithfully since his birth on the ps1. We thoroughly enjoyed his outings until, The XBOX/Gamecube/PS2 generation came along. We were sure that the XBOX-esquire rendering made capable by our Gamecube were going to show us what Spyro really was meant to be. But, alas, they were terrible.

What poor excuses those games were, and with such a great license...

So, I have been waiting a couple of years now for a good Spyro game to emerge from all this newer gen technology. Both attempts on the Gamecube have been pretty miserable- the framerate dipping so low at times that you felt embarrassed to be playing it at times. The unfinished feel of them was so hard to ignore, that it made playing it an almost uncomfortable experience. I continued playing them just in the hope that maybe the next level would be done by a better designer, with better graphics or smoother running because it was more thoroughly built. It never came.

So we waited, until I walked into GameStop here in Las Vegas, trading in some old games, hoping my eye would fall upon something inspired in the used games section. It took me about 30 second or so when I saw it- the bright blue image of a new Spyro game in the Gamecube area! Wow! I snatched it up at once, with a truly neat surprise for my wife.

The Legend Of Spyro- A New Beginning.

Wow! This was more than I could have hoped! We were nuts about the old Spyro, and the box looked great! We got it home, put it in, and it fired right up with beautiful graphics, perfectly smooth in the engine it was running on, and an opening demo that blew my out of my seat! This Spyro was something completely new...that much was clear.

This is an evolved Spyro with devastating attacks, at some points going practically nuclear in their visually devastating, camera shaking glory.

Holy cow! The controls operated so beautifully too... this was gorgeous and responsive too... wow... great start! I loved it... the tutorials you go through are filled with "The Legend of Spyro" back story that was wonderful to hear... a ton of time was put into the story of Spyro's place in the history of dragondom, and the world he is an important part of. After all, a purple dragon is only born but once in 2000 years, and he is the answer to the prophecy told throughout the ages.

It was very cool to learn so much about one of our favorite platformer stars! It was so detailed and amazing that I just couldn't wait to see what it would develop into after the tutorials.

That, my friends, is the killer.

The crushing blow hit. You get to learn your 4th skill element, get trained in it's 3 variations, and you get ready to rock some wild new spyro worlds... right??? Then- DAMMIT! You go after Cinder (the Dark "lordress" of this game) for about an hour or so, defeat her, then No-Way! CREDITS! It was ramping up so amazingly into what surely would have been a blockbuster game, but POOF! You make it to the end of the tutorial, and this games over! You can go through it all in probably 12 hours, probably less.

Great tutorial... no game.

I just hope that this is a precursor to a massive, 30 world upcoming next gen game that will have made this game truly worth it.

I give it a 7 out of 10 due to length.

8.75 on it's merits alone. 1/2 point deduction for the flying levels.

It really is a good game.

Especially if you love Spyro.

Mark Perkinson