The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (Pre-E3 2006)
May 1, 2006
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning will take players back to the origins of the purple dragon and will reestablish the gameplay mechanics as well. If you’ve never played a Spyro game, you’ve at least probably seen one before. There are a myriad of Spyro titles on several different console and handheld systems. The first few were well received, but the later sequels often got mixed or even downright negative receptions. Developer Krome Studios hopes to reintroduce Spyro and this latest title has potential.
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning ditches much of the platforming elements and replaces it with more action-oriented combat gameplay. As you progress through the game, you’ll learn how to use different several different attacks based on the four elements of Fire, Ice, Earth, and Electricity. As you’d expect, each type of attack has certain advantages and disadvantages. For instance, Electric attacks work best at a distance, while Earth-based tasks are more effective at close range. Obviously, you’re going to want to roast ice-based enemies with your Fire attacks and use Ice attacks against a heat-based enemy.
There’s more depth to the combat system than that however. As you progress, you’ll be able to upgrade your attacks. You’ll be able to choose in what order you upgrade your abilities. In this way you can somewhat customize Spyro to your playing style. Attack moves can be strung together in various combos, which will help you plow through multiple enemies or deal with one or two tough ones.
It’s interesting to see Krome take Spyro in different direction, and at the very least, it highlights their effort to revitalize the series. So far, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning seems much more action-oriented than the previous Spyro games, and it looks promising. Still, we haven’t yet seen all of the gameplay that the title will include. We’ll be able to check more of the game out at E3 next week to get a better idea. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning is releasing on PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox in October. There are also versions head to the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance.
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning
Developer: Krome Studios
Publisher: Sierra
1 Player Game
Genre: Action/Platformer
Release Date: October 2006
Platform: GameCube
E-Mail This Article 
Print This Article