The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon 360

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This is an incredible game! Buy it, play it, have a BIG smile on your face! I assume you might want a bit more of a productive review than that, so here goes. I shall simply tell you why this is an incredibly game and you must buy it, play, and yes, have a big smile upon all of your faces.

You're a dragon. They do put a storyline in there, but to be honest, who cares. You're a dragon! More specifically, you're a special purple dragon who has more powers than other, normal dragons.

When this game arrived in the post I had a little giggle, I used to play the original Spyro game (which was good) which looked simply awful. With the summary on the back of the case, The Dark Master is bringing forth a new age of darkness. Spyro finds himself teaming up with an unlikely ally, his former nemesis Cynder, to save the world. This, coupled with the simply 'fantastic' title made me think this game would be terrible.

I was wrong. Firstly I had forgotten how fun running around as a dragon could be, trying to collect a load of gems could be. Secondly, there are a load of cool new powers you seem to have got since I last played on a Spyro game, like shooting lightening and breathing ice and (erm) rolling around in a ball of mud to squish people. Even with that, I think you should all be going I wanna roll around in a mud ball squishing people!. If, however, you require slightly more from a game, either play the game through with a friend and make it a mini competition , or (more realistically) - don't buy a game where you're a little purple dragon!

On the note of playing it through with a friend, it really is a fantastic feature. Throughout the game, Spyro is stuck with Cynder (his arch-enemy-turned-best-friend-and-slight-strange-teenage-dragon-romance-story) whom the computer will naturally take the role of. If, however, you have friends, they can adopt the role of cinder. Then, if that friend has to leave, and you still want to play, the computer just takes over! This new drop in drop out co-operative feature makes the game great for friends, or something to enjoy by ones' self. Everybody wins!

I think that for once it's worth mentioning a few technicalities about the game. It simply wouldn't be a Spyro game without lots of colour flying towards you, slightly bizarre graphics whereby terrifying dragons look like cuddly toys, and the evil people look more like they need a dummy than a blast of fire. Not to mention the odd rolling camera that makes you feel slightly dizzy when you've been playing for a while, then look away and expect life to continue in this style. (If this happens, you may wish to reconsider the amount of time you spend playing. Just a thought, just a thought.)

I didn't really understand the plotline, having not played the other Spyro games, but that really didn't matter, the game sort of takes each level one bit at a time, making it easy to jump in and out of not only as the second player, but also into the game in general.

One more point to make - the game is, as far as I can tell, exceedingly near to completely impossible. Two quite keen seventeen year old gamers, as my friend and I were as we were playing the game, were completely foxed by how to open a door, for instance. Embarrassingly, we had to ask Youtube how to do it! And second to that, there are a few characters in the game who seem impossible to beat. Either you get very lucky, or you sneak past without them noticing. (Or you accidentally leave them to your friend who unfortunately dies whilst you proclaim that you would have done a much better job. I recommend this option.)

I read a couple of reviews by Xbox which said that this was a terrible game, and that it failed to deliver as a good gaming experience. I think they've forgotten what games are actually about - fun. This game is harmless, stupid fun that will keep any member of a family entertained, one of the rare games which parents will enjoy yet is pleasant enough for a child to play.

I'll admit this review was longer than it needed to be, so I shall leave you with this simple summary statement statement. You are a little purple dragon! You want this game!

Written by Rowan Brown

You can support Rowan by buying The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon



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Rowan Brown writes the Teen Gamer column.

"I write about my favourite games from a younger person's perspective. It's often surprising how different this ends up to other more grown up reviews."

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