The third chapter in the Spyro trilogy was released and many fans of the series rejoiced. This game is the first in the trilogy reaching the next generation of console systems and it marks the final game in the trilogy. So does Spyro go out with a bang or a thud?
In The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragons you can play either singleplayer or local co-op. In co-op player one controls Spyro and player two controls Cynder. In this title a gimmick is made at the beginning to try and explain why the dragons cannot move away from each other; this being a magnetic chain preventing them from moving too far from each other. It can actually help you pull the other player up to the ledge they missed the jump to.
Graphics in Spyro are beautiful, lush landscapes that are colorful and pleasing to the eyes. They help grab you into the fantasy world along side the well known voice acting of Elijah Woods that makes the story seem very Lord of the Ringsesque. I don’t want to give too much away but prepare for some déjà vu. The musical scores are wonderfully done and synchronize well with the action.
The combat tends to be a mish-mash of attacks and explosions that a lot of times caused me to get lost and not know who I am attacking or if I am even hitting an enemy. It isn’t much of an issue though because health crystals are everywhere and they regenerate over time. There are a number of collectibles in the game each providing a bonus to one or both of the players. The nicest addition is the armor sets you can find. Each set gives special abilities or boosts to stats as well as a special bonus for completing the set. Red Crystals provide a permanent increase in health once enough are collected. Green provides a permanent increase in magic energy when enough are collected. Then there are blue Crystals which provide a large boost in experience which is used to upgrade the player’s 4 magic abilities they each possess.
The game is a lot of fun in co-op except for a few issues. Probably the biggest problem when playing in co-op is sometimes the chain will pull you back to the player that failed to make the jump causing both players to become irritated more than enjoy the game. Other times the camera will focus extremely close to a bush instead of anything relevant leaving us running around hoping the camera decides to stop staring at the bushes.
Final Verdict
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon was definitely designed with kids in mind as the simplistic combat can become quite repetitive and at times boring. Usually using a bunch of your spells can help speed through the battles quicker, but unfortunately spell energy is a little rarer at times than health was. Overall this game is great fun in co-op and would be one of the best co-op titles I have played for the 360 had it not been for a few of its major pitfalls.
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