Review: The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 27 December 2008 09:50

Opinion and Analysis

Stop dragon my heart around, Spyro has lost his spark and the Legend must end with this chapter.

With Khrome studios relinquishing development of the non-hand held console third iteration of Spyro development to Estranges Libellules a fire has gone out in the series.

Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon
	Developer	Estranges Libellules (Tantalus for DS version)
	Publisher	Sierra
	Rating	PG
Wii, DS, Xbox 360, PS2, Reviewed on PS3

Dawn of the Dragon is little more than a kiddified, frustrating and luridly coloured god of war, without the polished game play.

Fans of the Spyro series will see the game pickup with both Spyro , the miniature purple dragon, and his former foe Cynder - a similar, yet darker purple diminutive dragon – released from their frozen three year imprisonment.

Quickly they meet up with Hunter who informs the pair that the Dark Master is scourging the land and only the puny dragons – who struggle initially to follow Hunters bounding from the dungeon crypts – can save the day.  The game is on. 

Art direction is awfully garish in this game, with the purple and yellow of the dragons sometimes obscured by a kaleidoscope of blurred primary colours.  Particle affects abound, with the resultant splatter of hues drowning out any strategic approach to combat.

The soundtrack to Dawn of the Dragon also has a tendency to drown and obscure, but in this case this is a good thing.  The sweeping majestic chords of the score are wonderful, and the obfuscation of the mostly forced voice acting is somewhat calming during the cut scenes.

While we are on the voice acting however, with a story line as relatively pulp as the Dark Master spreading evil discord, it is surprising to check the quality of the voice talent that Estranges Libellules have gathered together.

Names such as Elijah Wood, Gary Oldman, Mark Hamill and Christina Ricci head a list of talent that any A grade Hollywood film would be happy to promote, but for me, the voice acting was disjointed and disappointing.  Not so much a talent issue as a delivery issue within the technology of the game code I suspect.