The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning – XB – Review

Spyro seems to
have aged a bit. It has been two years since we last saw Spyro in his own
console game in the form of a mediocre Spyro: A Hero’s Tail. Before that,
there was Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly that bombed in every shape and form.
Spyro is out to prove that he doesn’t lie down for just anybody, though after
playing Spyro: A New Beginning, I wish he would go back into hibernation.

The developers
behind A New Beginning were Krome Studios. Krome Studios is
responsible for Ty the Tasmanian Tiger and King Arthur. This is their first
attempt at creating a Spyro game and it feels all too similar. Krome Studios
didn’t try to innovate or push the envelope with A New Beginning; rather it
followed an undemanding formula that won’t entertain anyone outside the age of
12.

If you haven’t
played a Spyro title or seen one in action before, you must have been living
under a rock for the past 10 years. Spyro is a platformer at heart and
follows the line of many other mascot adventure games out there. I mention this
because A New Beginning isn’t anything like a platformer should turn out to be.

A New Beginning
is a button-masher in a platformer’s disguise. You’ll never have to think about
your attacks due to the simplicity of killing your enemies. The enemies will go
down with only a few attacks that you’ll earn from the beginning of the game.
The combat is monotonous with the same move being used over and over again. When
you engage in combat, you are not allowed to leave the area until you clear the
entire zone of all enemies. The worst part is that a few times the enemies
will continue to spawn in the area and you’ll be stuck combating them wave after
wave. Since it’s such a tedious task,
interesting attacks and combos to aide the player could have been provided. The combos are usually taught
to Spyro by the prisoners he sets free throughout the entire game.

The story of A
New Beginning follows an easy plot device – Spyro must learn about his true
origins and family on a dangerous quest on unfamiliar lands. This won’t be that
easy since he must travel to his homeland that is being taken over by an evil
black dragon named Cynder that hopes to foil Spyro’s plan of rescuing his
homeland. This quest of finding one’s inner self is endearing, but is clichéd to
the very end. Becoming the chosen one isn’t anything new.

The level design
was the biggest
disappointment and more time needed to be
invested to create elaborate worlds for the
players to immerse themselves into. The levels do not scream ‘platformer’ and
are quite run-of-the-mill if you ask me. For being a platformer, A New Beginning
doesn’t ask the player to jump around much and adventure throughout the levels.

For the audio,
Krome Studios and Sierra have brought in David Spade, Elijah Wood, and one of
the best baddies in films, Gary Oldman. The voice cast is superb and I commend
Sierra for hooking up Spyro with some celebrity voices to give a new feel to
Spyro. While the voice cast is stellar, the script they have been provided isn’t
anywhere close to what they have come to expect with their movie scripts. Yes, I
know this is a children’s game, but all the humor and fun has been removed from
Spyro and replaced with dull dialogue.

The graphics
within A New Beginning are mediocre, but they don’t use the Xbox’s power to its
full capabilities. The graphics have the
cartoon look to them, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing since it’s aimed at
children. Where A New Beginning ultimately fails is with the lack of detail and
polish. Sure, Krome Studios delivered on a solid frame rate and a decent camera,
but Spyro’s environments are in comparison to the first-generation of
PlayStation 2 titles.

Spyro doesn’t
need ‘a new beginning’; what he needs is a face lift. I pray the next time a
developer takes a hold of this license, that they’ll give him a next-gen
treatment with beautiful graphics and an incredible story to boot. You should
only look into Spyro: A New Beginning if your son or daughter loves the
series and absolutely needs to have it. Otherwise, I recommend taking a gander at
the handful of other games releasing this holiday that will be a better
purchase for your children.

Gameplay: 5.0
Talk about a
generic game, A New Beginning took no chances on innovation. This is barely a
platformer in that it heavily focuses on combat rather than puzzles or
mini-games. There isn’t even collecting of items to stall the time. You’ll be
finished with A New Beginning in between six and eight hours.

Graphics: 6.0
Nothing to brag about here – the only worthy mentions
are the nice particle effects and lighting.

Sound: 7.0
The cast is great but they could
have used better scripts to voice. The sound effects are repetitive – by the
time you are a quarter the way in, you will have heard everything the game has
to offer.

Difficulty:
Easy
I found the game to be relatively easy. The combos at
the end of the game, especially the one with the tornado, all create a simple
game to finish. Children may find it difficult to finish since the player has to
endure a countless amount of enemies.

Concept: 4.0

The question
remains, what kind of reboot of the franchise was Sierra hoping A New Beginning
would start? There’s too much action and not enough platforming for this to be a
worthy adventure to traverse through.

Overall: 5.5
Spyro’s glory days may be behind him.