Fire Breathing, Acid Spitting, Death Cheating Dragons

By William Barker

Almost 10 years ago to the day, Spyro the 100% clean and sober dragon landed on the original Sony Playstation. 

Incidentally I used to hang with an albino hobo named Francis when I was busking in Amsterdam 10 years ago, and if I remember correctly he once told me that he saw dragons.

He told me of these dreams, these colourful visions of hairless dogs with wings, animals that could chew through molybdenum and vomit radioactive isotopes at will.

I thought he was a whack-job and my hunch was validated when I later discovered that Francis used to be the CEO of the Netherlands largest "coffee" franchise, but after going postal was wanted on several counts of conspiracy and manslaughter.

Suffice to say he brewed one sweet cup o' coffee, and when I got my hands on the latest Spyro game it reminded me of his ultra-violent outbursts...

In the 10 years since, both Spyro the dragon and Will Barker have grown up, becoming wiser, stronger, and most definitely sexier.

Spyro is still a moral crusader of sorts, teaching kids and adults alike how to be upstanding life forms, and he exhibits many a virtue on his journeys. 

But gamers thinking the final title in The Legend of Spyro trilogy is a kids game should seriously think about becoming accountants.

Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is the kind of game that newbs can pick up and beat in a few weeks without getting too technical, yet there's enough depth here for the die hards and the gaming gurus - yours truly included - to get their teeth stuck into.

I mean, I started out thinking this was a game for babies or malformed homo sapiens with no capacity to think beyond their next meal, but boy was I wrong.

Available on almost every console known to man, including the Xbox 360, Wii, and for the first time the PS3, this game is a third-person action adventure with a satisfying combat system. It's drag-tastic.

The story can be explained in a few seconds, but is actually quite compelling: Spyro must stop the Dark Master Malefor from spreading his sinister, umm, funk across the world.

In essence it's Lord of the Rings dragon-kung-fu-style and it really is a gratifying romp through a fantasy setting.

Convincing cut-scenes draw you into the tale and flesh out the character, beginning in an underground cavern after Spyro and his side-kick Cynder - voiced by Elijah 'Frodo' Wood and Christina Ricci respectively - bust out of some sort of crystalline stasis, with no knowledge as to where they are and how they got there.

It's a pretty full-on introduction to the Spyro universe for newcomers as you basically have to fight off a massive 300-foot tall stone giant who is intent on breaking your scaly face as soon as you awake from your celestial slumber. 

But this impressive first level is also a great way to show off the scope and detail of the spunky graphics engine.

This trial-by-fire level serves as a tutorial of sorts: you learn how to fight enemies, double jump, climb walls, bite enemies, fly and use your elemental powers (breathing fire, ice, etc).

The voice acting is sensational and adds a great deal of credibility to the tale, and Gary Oldman and Mark Hamill lend the title a touch of videogame class. 

While the story ties the game together and makes objectives and quests more meaningful, it's the gameplay that really shines.

After the first mission which involves escaping from the above mentioned 300-foot tall stone demon (think Balrog from Lord of the Rings), you reach the first major level which allows you a fair bit of freedom.

You are quested with saving your guide, trapped in a cave beneath a waterfall, and while you can go straight there and save your vulpine friend, you can also wander around, explore, search for secrets and boost your experience by smashing blue crystals.

I spent about an hour just cruising around, learning how to fly (which is awesome, by the way), finding new bits of armour and staring in delight at the awesome, luscious and vibrant visuals.

The dragons move very smoothly, almost as though they've been motion captured, and really do steal the limelight.

There's heaps of different melee moves and lots of fancy magic too, and it all looks superb. Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a gorgeous looking game. On some systems...

We played it on the Xbox 360 and PS3, both on high definition LCD television screens and the PS3 version looked pretty shabby in comparison. 

I'm no Xbox fanboy - my Xbox 360 has died the red ring of death that many times I have grown to despise the white console - but the anti-aliasing and bump-mapping on the Xbox 360 is far better than on its Sony rival.

Whichever platform you own, this game doesn't disappoint in terms of scale and scope however. 

Cruising around the lush green world is quite a treat; the waterfalls, rolling hills, cliffs and rivers sailing past reminds me of my time spent in Amsterdam with Francis...

Of course, cruising around on wind currents is one thing but doing it with a pal and sharing the joys of soaring the skies is marvellous.

The co-operative mode in Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is excellent and extends the scope of the game by leaps and bounds. Beating up monsters and toasting them with fire is always more fun with friends.

The controls are fairly tight which makes the game very approachable by gamers of all experience levels. 

For example you can beat the game just by mashing the two attack buttons and stringing together low level combos, or you could get surgical on your enemies by biting onto them and then swinging them around outlandishly and racking up massive combo hits, and combining melee and elemental magic attacks.

You use your elemental forces by hitting the shoulder buttons, which comprise four different attacks for both Spyro and his tough-talking side-kick dragon babe Cynder.

One of my favourite things about the game is the casual use of RPG-inspired stat building and items. As well as increasing your health and mana gauges, you can also find various pieces of armour in treasure chests and level up your elemental forces to devastating effect. 

Players can switch to Spyro's side-kick Cynder at any time but first here are Spyro's elemental powers:

Fire: Burn them all!
Ice: Snow-cones anyone?
Earth: Good for protection.
Electricity: Zap attack.

As well as being useful for dispatching enemies, both Spyro's and Cynder's powers are often needed to solve puzzles. Anyway, Cyder's powers now:

Poison: Vomit green acid.
Shadow: Disappear momentarily.
Fear: Terrify your foes.
Wind: Smells like poo.

Of Spyro's four elemental forces I concentrated on ice and was pleasantly surprised after I reached the higher levels. 

As well as adding new moves, levelling up the elemental forces improves the basic spell, which resulted in his ice projecticles getting bigger and freezing enemies with less effort, which made biting them to death crunchier.

There's a fair bit of platforming action in between the combat - jump from here to here, and don't fall off - most of which is okay and some of the puzzle-solving was kind of cool and thought provoking.

My favourite bits of the game and what kept me coming back to play were the boss fights and combat in general, and simply flying around the levels like some sort of hairless dog with wings is a lot of fun.

It's not a particularly ground-breaking game, but it's very nice to look at, it's fun to play and the combat system is surprisingly satisfying with a wealth of different moves and elemental skills to learn.

Bad points? Well, the story does rip off Lord of the Rings in pretty much every respect, but in hindsight I think I actually liked that about the game and also because there's no sign of Samwise the insipid hobbit.

Hmm, what else... Well, there are parts to the open-world levels where it looks like you can fly or walk to, yet you are barred by invisible walls which is frustrating and looks sloppy. Surely the Sierra, the developers, could have pasted a few trees or a big old fence in places?

For what is essentially a 'kids' game Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is a tip top little title.

Back in 1998 when Spyro first emerged from his egg sac on the Sony Playstation he was a real green-horn, wet behind the ears and with the gait of a mad Dutchman.

But today he's a more mature, well-adjusted dragon.

If Francis the Dutch albino wasn't chained up in a KGB holding pen in northern Siberia, he'd be playing this game with me co-op, mark my words.

At the end of the day, Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon is an engrossing and often satisfying experience that shouldn't be dismissed as a kids game, and the yarn it weaves is pretty cool too.

Game: The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
System: Xbox 360
Players: 1-2
Online: No
Developer: Etranges Libellules
Distributor: Activision

Rating: 85%

(Ratings Key/Explanation)