Spyro A Hero’s Tail

Spyro: A Hero’s Tail marks the latest title in the long-running Spyro franchise to hit the current generation of consoles.  A Hero’s Tail once again puts you in the role of the little purple dragon as well as some of his comrades.  However, even though this represents a shift in the gameplay dynamics, A Hero’s Tale plays almost just like its predecessors.  Experienced gamers may be slightly turned off by the game’s simplistic nature and low level of difficulty, but the younger audience towards which the game is geared should enjoy Spyro’s latest quest.

Spyro: A Hero’s Tale follows the young dragon through the Dragon Realm as he embarks on a quest to stop Red, a huge red dragon, from spreading Dark Gems across the land.  These gems are destroying the green landscape and turning the Dragon Realm into a dark, inhospitable place.  Therefore it is up to you to collect all of the Dark Gems in each of the areas you explore in order to stop them from corrupting the land.

Controlwise, Spyro: A Hero’s Tale feels like any number of platforming adventure games.  Your character has a select number of moves, including a few new abilities added to his roster, like the ability to climb up ledges, wall bounce, a move that allows you to bound quickly up walls a la Mega Man X, and tail swing, a grappling hook-like move that allows you to swing over chasms and holes.  None of these moves are particularly groundbreaking in the platforming genre, but they certainly add a new level of control to the Spyro universe. Of course, you can still perform the moves that you could previously in Enter the Dragonfly, like breathe fire and glide through the air with your dragon wings.

Also new to the series is the ability to play as new characters other than Spyro.  You can now play as Hunter the Cheetah, a character who can utilize a bow to take out enemies, Blink the Mole, a mole who can burrow through the ground and attack enemies with either explosive mines or an arm laser, Sgt. Byrd, a penguin who can fly and attack using missiles to take out baddies from the sky.  These characters don’t feel rushed and actually add a lot to the gameplay.

Graphically, Spyro looks very good, although certainly not an indication of what the Xbox is truly capable of, which is understandable considering that the game was also developed on the PS2.  The characters look nice (albeit not terribly detailed) and are very well animated.  The environments also lack a lot of details, but appear otherwise solid.  The framerates are also super-smooth, with no hits or episodes of slowdown.

On the music and sound side, Spyro stays true to its theme, meaning that the sound is definitely geared towards young kids.  The music is very cutesy, but what would you expect from a game staring a cute little cartoon dragon. The voice acting is spot on, with each of the characters sounding appropriate for this game.

Spyro is by no means a complicated game.  What you’ll find here is a simplistic, cutesy platformer with a very low degree of challenge.  Seasoned gamers looking for a challenge would do well to check else where, but fans of the series and younger inexperienced gamers should give it a look.

Gameplay: 7.0
Pretty standard, simplistic platforming here.  As Spyro, you glide, jump and, er, burn your way through the game’s stages and enemies, collecting Dark Gems.  The new playable characters and their abilities add a great element to the game, mixing it up enough to keep fans of the series from getting too bored.

Graphics: 7.5 
The graphical presentation is very smooth, with solid visuals and clean animations.  However, the game is not a representation of the XBox’s graphical prowess, given the simple textures and overall lack of detail.

Sound: 7.0
Depending on who you are, you will either love Spyro’s music or be completely turned off by its cuteness.  The voice acting is well done, with each of the characters having a very distinct sense of personality.

Difficulty: Easy  

Concept: 7.0 
Spyro does offer some nice innovations over its predecessor, Enter the Dragonfly.  However, most of the new abilities and gameplay elements have been standard in platforming games for the past few years.

Overall: 7.0

Spyro: A Hero’s Tale is a solid adventure game with some very nice improvements over its predecessor.  However, the low difficulty level may turn off gamers looking for a challenge.  The audience to which this game is geared, namely young players, will certainly enjoy at least a rental of Spyro’s latest quest.