Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

Name: Legend of Spyro, A New Beginning
Rating: 4/10
Platform: PS2



Yes, we decided to give a game a bad rating for once.

First of all, there's really not that much to say about this game.
Why? Because it's not a very long game.

For anyone who's not a big Spyro fan, the basis is that you're a purple dragon,and have to kill bad guys and save the dragon world and stuff.

But, even if you've never played the older games, don't worry.
This is an entirely new storyline and stuff.
You see, it begins Spyro's life as a little kid, from before all the stuff in the first games (for ye old PS1).

But oddly, Spyro can not do melee attacks and even more stuff than he could do in the first games.
Weird, huh, since it's supposed to be when he's young.
They also severely nerfed the charge attack, disappointingly so.
Of course, that doesn't matter, much, for they also changed it to the r button.
Maybe they aren't interested in making newer games compatible for the G-Pig market, or something.

Plus they changed the entire format of the Spyro games.
They made it pure action. No more RPG! Not even adventure.
Pretty much you just go through levels, killing bad guys and following the story.
Occasionally a tougher baddie turns up, or one of the 4 bosses.

Ah, the story. That's where we actually gave this game some points on.
Despite the shortness of it, it's actually worthwhile.
The cut scenes are fabulously animated.
The graphics are general, actually.
They put a lot of work making it look cinematic.
Makes it very eye-appealing, but unfortunately they sacrificed actual game quality for it.
We would not have minded if it were slightly less cinematic.
After all, it's a game, not a movie (which the creators didn't seem to understand.)
Gameplay is under 10 hours, particularly because there's no treaure hunting.
Seriously, how can they take the treasure aspect away from spyro?

Sparx no longer signals the health, by changing color when you're hit.
Instead, you have a standard action-game HP gauge.
You even have a gauge for your flame attacks!
The Fury attacks are cool, though.
Once you gather enough energy for it, it's simply awesome.
That is a plus, too. One of the only plusses.

Anyway, back to the story.
Cinder is an evil dragon who's been oppressing the dragon realms.
No, not the old dragon realms you once knew. Won't see those here.
The places you visit here follow in accordance to the breaths you'll get:
Fire, Ice, Earth, Thunder.
Beat all four of these, battle Cinder.
Final battle's in some alternate place.
In the final battle, Spyro uses up all his energy and stuff;
ah, that explains why in the other games, he doesn't instantly have those abilities.
That's very clever of them, actually. Creative.

But of course, it's so darn short!
And we were expecting a nice, usual Spyro adventure-RPG.
Needless to say, we were disappointed.
And post-game play? None.
You can start over, keeping the powers you have.
And that won't make much of a difference.
The story parts are good, but not a game we'd want to play through again.
We'll wait for it in Theaters.

Well, though we were severely disappointed with this game,
we're sure to be getting the next installment, soon.
There's two or more games in the Legend of Spyro series, after all.
Good thing they're so cheap used.
(Cheep used games, especially newer releases such as this, usually mean they're bad games, by the way.
Or really old, in the case of old games.
Unfortunately, these are last few years, so that means they're just crap.)
So, as we were saying: good thing they're really cheap used.
If they weren't, we may not have decided to be getting them.
But, the stories are pretty darn good, if very short.
If only they had worked harder on making the game itself more enjoyable!

Well, until next time!
~Ron and Alex, the Game Crazy (PS2) Guinea Pigs~

P.S. The cover art may show Spyro kinda different than you're used to, but don't worry; that's just an artist's rendition. The actual changes to design are not that big at all.