He's back... and he has changed.
The Legend of Spyro is Spyro like you've never seen it before, gone are the whimsical worlds, endless collectibles and silly NPCs seeking your help, this is a new Spyro, in a new world and with fancy Kung-fu skills.This reboot changes almost everything, now Spyro is the last survivor from the final batch of Dragon Eggs, but in order to protect him from the Evil Master, Ignitus, a red dragon, hides Spyro's egg away, which is quickly found by a family of Dragonflies that raises him as their own. Very early in the game Spyro discovers that he's actually a dragon, and sets out with his adoptive brother, Sparx, on a quest to find out about his origin... and to restore the Dragons and face this looming evil. As you can probably tell, the story is no longer an excuse to set out after collectibles, instead being a proper narrative guiding your through the game. I found the story to be very interesting, and the characters endearing. Featuring an all-star cast of voice actors, most of them did a good job with Spyro... except David Spade, who completely ruined Sparx. The voice doesn't fit, the tone doesn't fit and David sounds quite uninterested in his role.
The Earth Breath's secondary attack is overkill. Be sure to level it up as soon as you get it.
What might take Spyro fans by surprise is how much the game has changed, gone is the collectathon formula from before, this is a linear beat'em up through and through. Jumping, double jumping and gliding return, but they are means to an end since the focus is on beating up enemies. As for doing so, you've got your four-hit combo with Circle, R1 to charge-headbutt enemies and you can continue off your land combo on the air, since it ends on a launcher. Spyro can use four different breaths(Fire, lightning, Ice and Air) with the square button, each with a different property, and triangle for an alternate shot with each, all which share a Magic gauge, but it can be easily replenished since fallen enemies drop a lot of restorative crystals. Defeating enemies also rewards you with pink crystals that can be used to enhance your different breaths.Everything in the game is competent, but it stops at that. Your offensive tools are fairly limited, and the game throws obnoxious numbers of enemies at you, which kinda sucks since the game grows tiresome pretty quickly. Limiting upgrades to just your breath attacks also kinda sucks, since it's a bit of a missed opportunity, how great could've been being able to upgrade your life, breath capacity or even your melee combos? It also sucks how they did away with puzzles, since the last game finally got the breaths and their possibilities right. Plus, a few puzzles could've helped with the game's short length, there're about 5 levels in all, and only 5 bosses, one which is a repeat. Not to mention that most enemies you fight are reskins of the same 3 enemy types.
The art direction isn't as charming as A Hero's Tail, but it gets the job done.
The gameplay shift I can live with. The new interpretations of Spyro and Sparx I actually enjoyed. But the gameplay itself just falls short. The focus is on fighting, but fighting is very repetitive and lackluster, Spyro's moveset is way too limited to allow creativity, something that could've soothed the relatively large enemy waves. Regardless, I'm positively hopeful for the next games in this new sub-series, since this was a good parting point.6.0 out of 10
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