The little purple dragon known as Spyro has had his ups and downs. After a successful trilogy on the original PlayStation, the franchise transitioned over to Vivendi / Universal, with less than spectacular results. To its credit, though, it kept plugging away, and The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning is their latest attempt.
As the title implies, is essentially a franchise reboot ala , letting players experience Spyro's new origin and backstory. As the new story goes, the world is in disarray, with the forces of evil, led by the black dragon Cynder, having conquered the good dragons who tend to the welfare of the realm. However, one dragon manages to smuggle away a single egg prophesied to give birth to a savior.
After floating down a river, it instead hatches Spyro, who is taken in by a family of talking dragonflies. Upon growing up, shadows from the past encroach into his peaceful existence, and it soon becomes clear that Spyro has a grander destiny than anyone in the swamp could have imagined. One of the game's cooler-sounding bullet points is its use of some expensive voice talent, with Elijah Wood voicing Spyro, David Spade playing his dragonfly companion, and Gary Oldman taking the part of the aged dragon Ignitus, Spyro's rescuer and mentor.
Unfortunately, the script they're reading from isn't terribly good, and it turns out that even Gary Oldman is only as interesting as his material. And David Spade, as you might fear, is more annoying than humorous. Thus is falls to the gameplay to save things, and here the game has a bit more success.
Master of Dragon-fu The little purple dragon known as Spyro has had his ups and downs.
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