
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon will mark the 10th anniversary for the Spyro the Dragon series. Hard to believe it has been ten years already. I still remember when the game first came out for the PlayStation 1. Everyone thought it was just another Mario wannabe, but as it turned out, it was a fantastic game.
Here we are now, after ten years and over a dozen games in the series. You'd think by now it would get really stale, but as it turns out, this may become one of the best Spyro in the series to date.
Hit the jump for my full impressions.
The very first thing I noticed as the game was being demoed was that Spyro looks older now. I was expecting Spyro to maintain his original look of a young dragoon, so I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case. Spyro, like the series, has grown up.
The art style has also changed. As you fly around the game, you could easily think that this was a living oil painting. The game is very colorful, vibrant and fresh. The levels Spyro runs around in now are more of what one would expect to see in a story dealing with dragons. A lot of the areas we saw were very wide open and gave Spyro plenty of room to fly around.
Flying has been overhauled in the series, too. No longer do you have a time limit for how long you can stay airborne. You can fly around as long as you want and anywhere you want. The only limit that is imposed is that you can't get too high into the air.
Also new to Spyro is a second playable character called Cynder. In previous installments of the Legend of Spyro saga, Spyro came up against Cynder, who was under the influences of Spyro's enemies. Spyro was able to save her from the dark side and now Cynder is aiding Spyro in his quest to defeat the main enemy of this series, Dark Master.
As you fly around as Spyro, Cynder will fly alongside you and will help you fight any enemies you encounter. You can switch to Cynder on the fly, and control her as you desire. The main difference between both dragons is they have different magical attacks. The game will support co-op, so you and a friend can battle it out together. This option will only be available locally as there are no plans for online co-op, although when I questioned this, I was informed that it's something they're still considering before the final release.
Spyro and Cynder will both have their standard melee attacks as well as grapple attacks. The fighting looks fierce, like Spyro and Cynder really just want to tear enemies apart. You can get combos for attacks, and after enemies have been taken out, you collect orb-like items that will go towards upgrading your attacks. The main difference between both Spyro and Cynder is with their magic attacks. Spyro is more focused on elemental magics and has ice, fire, thunder and earth spells, whereas Cynder has dark magic attacks such as poison and shadow because of her past life as a dark warrior.
In addition to upgrading your attacks, you'll also be able to get upgradeable armor. Spyro and Cynder can be equipped with a helmet and other types of armor. This isn't going to be just for looks, as these will help reduce how much damage they take from enemies while in battle.
After we were taken through some levels, we got to an area where we encountered a giant lava monster. You could only hit it when it laid its hand on the platform you were standing on. After a short time, the lava monster knocked down the platform you were on, and a context-sensitive button appeared on the screen as the platform was falling. Press the button prompt in time and Spyro and Cynder will make it to safety.
The last thing we got to see was one of the puzzles the game has. Spyro and Cynder need to get to the top of a cliff, but because of their flight height limit, they can't just fly right to it. So instead, one of the dragons has to cling to the cliff's side. Spyro and Cynder are magically chained together (it's invisible) and have to stay close to each other. So for this puzzle, when one of the dragons has grabbed the cliff side, that dragon will swing the other dragon up to where they can get on top of the cliff. Then the dragon first dragon will swing on up with you.
As far as the story goes with Dawn of the Dragon, three years have passed since the last game took place. Monsters have been destroying the world and Spyro is hope of the world, as it's his destiny to take out the Dark Master. Cynder, Hunter the Cheetah, Spark and a whole cast of others will aid you in your quest.
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a coming-of-age story. Even with the God of War angle, it will be fun for a kid to pick up and still plenty of fun for older players.
The game will again feature some talented voice actors such as Mark Hamill, Christina Ricci, Wayne Brady and Elijah Wood. The game should be out this October for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS.
Internet flooded with Spyro/Cynder porn in 3...2...1...
Massively relieved to see Spyro making a return to form, platformers are coming back.
Whoa, looks lovely.
Never bought a spyro game before but used to always play the hidden demo on the Crash Bandicoot 3 disk.
Spyro has been dead too me since Spyro 3 (the last good one IMO)
I want to love this game, but I am nervous ...
the new art style is awful. the games were never the same since insomniac stopped making them.
Ooo, Spyro's lookin' classy.
Doesn't look as bad as I thought it would, might have to give it a rent.
Spyro 3 was fucking awesome.
I've never played a single Spyro game, but those shots look amazing... I may have to give this one a shot.
I'm officially interested.
Kinda digging the new style. Doubt I'll pick it up as I'm not a big platformer fan but good to see Spyro back.
Looks... Not bad. Wow.
And Mark Hamill? Seriously?
Another game to look forward too.
Spyro never looked so awesome. I played the first game with my friend on his PlayStation all the time way back in the day. We loved it, but I've never played another after that. This looks really good though. Mark me down as interested, I might pick this up.
BLOOM EFFECT OVERDOSE !!!?!!?
Visually, it's gorgeous. I played the first two games and they were pretty damn enjoyable. The series suffered in the past because it looked incredibly kiddy, thus was written off as a piece of shit.
Really glad it's looking good. A great current-gen Spyro and Crash would really make me happy.
I had the original spyro as a kid, and loved it, even though I didn't play it that much. I'm loving the art direction. I possibly could pick this up, let's see how it comes along.
I really, really hope this game is good. From the looks of this it seems like they're heading in the right direction.
What? I couldn't read the article because of all the fucking bloom lighting.
I'm diggin' Spyro's new look. I like the idea that the character has actually aged a bit.
@liqideos agreed.
BUT! Local co-op? Sign me up. Christina Ricci? Awesome.
I hate the character art. he looked way better in the first 3 psx games and even the 2nd ps2/xbox game now he is an ugly little freak ever since this "trilogy" started.
The whole trilgy don't even have much to do with any spyro game they could have slapped a pink Dragon Pyro mcpinky or 4 legged dinosuar and called it "The adventure of my lizard" and it would not matter.
Im all for more serious,hell I want to see spyro rip limbs of people with his claws and blood flying when he stabs stuff with horns or go the route of conker bad furday,
but don't make him so damned ugly at least he is older in this "trilogy" uber young spyro from a new begining was even more ugly than the older one, and the young ones are the ones to be cute.
It's almost half way to bomberman act zero level if uglyness over the old character design.
And supposedly insomniac gave spyro up since it did not have hands. What the hell ? Even I can think of way or him to carry weapons like ratchet and clank and other stuff for him to do.
Even these guys gave him more to do. Ratchet and clank is spyro he dragon with guns anyway, they cant slap some guns or the animators cant get creative enough to find ways to have him carry guns and now we are stuck with stuff like this?
Good they could have even borrowed Daxter from ND again and had him carry the guns/items the whole time he rides on spyro shoulder/nack then he would have had a reason for being on his back/shoulder for the whole game unlike Jak where he don't do anything 99$ of the time.
I keep chasing the purple dragon!
Almost, almost!
But never quite there!
I loved the first "The Legend of Spyro" I heard the second wasn't that great, but now that their is Co-Op in one of my favorite game series (PS1 Spyros anyways),I think this one looks awesome.
Whoa I almost skipped this article thinking it's be a PS3 exclusive. I'm glad more platformers are coming to the 360. This and Banjo are gonna gonna fill that emptiness.
I’m with Chad. The last good Spyro game that I played was Year of the Dragon, which was the last Insomniac-developed one (it was on the PS1). I’m hesitantly excited for this game...
New Spyro, my girlfriend will be super excited. I might have to play it co-op to check it out.
hmm *puts down for rent*
SO SHIIIIIIIIIIIINY!
Awesome! another Spyro game, i must admit that i was shocked a bit when they came up with the spyro the TLOS series but i quickly got over it & accepted the new games with open arms, I have played & finished every spyro game that ever came out on PS1 & PS2 & enjoyed them thurughly & it's great to finnaly see that spyro is growing up with the gamers that played along him in the earlier days. we started to see some growing up in heroe's tale where he threatened munny bags more than once. But over all im glad it's back & if your a true Spyro fan you would be going back to finish all of the games again just because you can!
Also cant wait to see if Spyro & Cynder will finnaly get to together
May Spyro F**k me hard while I F**k Cynder