As you can imagine, the AI dragon often gets “stuck” during platforming segments, requiring you to switch between the two dragons to position them correctly, which leads to a lot of trial-and-error frustration. However, they cannot get too far from each-other, as the dragons are tethered together by an energy rope. Aside from elemental differences that I’ll go into later, playing as Spyro or Cynder makes no difference. Much like Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, the player can freely switch between them, and the NPC will be controlled by AI. The game is divided roughly into two halves: Frustrating platforming and mind-numbing combat. Mark Hamill is unrecognizable as the Dark Master himself. Commissioner Gordon-I mean, Gary Oldman-is Ignitus, an ancient dragon and Spyro’s version of Obi-Wan. Wayne Brady (remember him?) lends his vocal chords to Sparx, a golden dragonfly whose only purpose is to be annoying and provide incredibly flat comic relief. Christina Ricci, who was good in Casper, The Addams Family, and not much else, voices Cynder.
The dramatic music, fantasy landscape, and big-name voice cast only increase the similarities between Legend of Spyro and Lord of the Rings, especially since Elijah Wood provides the voice for our titular hero. He can also summon giant fire demons…er…Earth Golems…and he commands a large army of goblins and bugs. Like Sauron of Tolkien’s trilogy, the Dark Master sits atop a volcano. Spyro and his enemy-turned-friend, Cynder, are out to stop the Dark Master from being summoned and enshrouding the world in darkness. I can’t speak from authority for the first two Legend games, but I can tell you that Dawn of the Dragon is Lord of the Rings with flying reptiles for hobbits and cat-people instead of elves. Enter The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon! A quick Wikipedia search will reveal that The Legend of Spyro is a trilogy meant to be a re-boot of the series after Enter the Dragonfly and A Hero’s Tail did so poorly. The series has since sunk lower and lower on the quality scale (from the reviews I’ve read over the years), but I was ready to give the little purple dragon another chance. I haven’t played Spyro since the glory days on the PS1, back when Insomniac was in charge and the series was well-respected.
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