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Spyro the Dragon
to save all of the other dragons in Happy land because they were turned to stone by the evil, mean, bad nasty troll like thingamajig, called Gnasty Gnorc. Someone give me a stomach pump, I just O.D.ed one the cute factor. Come one, how much cuteness can you handle in a game? I know that this is aimed at kids, but even that isn't right for reasons I will explain later. Uh, let me get this review over with so I can play something else, like Croc.....NOOOOOO!!!!
GRAPHICS
Okay, now you've probably heard some idiot raving about how hot and pretty the graphics are here. They lied. The graphics so far are okay, but nothing to write home about. The game is played in a fully 3-d free roaming environment like Mario 64. Now the PSX does have graphical limitations, so in order to handle the huge envirnonment, the level of detail had to be dropped. Think of the environments in BLASTO, and you have Spyro. Even the charatcers themselves seem one shaded and lifeless. And Spryo himself has a flame attack that really, really, looks like sh%^. I mean, when he spits flame, it looks like he is spewing orange juice mixed with roadcones! Twisted Metal two had a better flame effect. Hell, even TM 1 was better than that. Now, I know that cretins...I mean CHILDREN younger than eight might enjoy the whole cartoon feel of the game, but it really put me off. I'm no programmer , but I can think off any number of ways to add more detail in the game. I'd take smaller, more numerous levels with more load time if it meant that I could have more detail. You know, MGS may spoil every gamer who plays it into realizing that most other games in his or her collection look like crap. Oh God, one game has made me a graphics whore....
SOUND
The sickeningly sweet sound effects and tunes will plague you for the entire damn game. Its just that simple. On the other hand, the voice acting for the dragons was very good, when you consider that one guy did all eighty.
CONTROL
Now, I REALLY had a problem with the control. It is way too damn touchy. One tap on a digital pad, and SPyro's ass goes rocketting off into geosynchronous orbit. I don't mean to brag, but normally in nine out of ten games, I can beat most jumping puzzles, moving platforms, etc with very little difficulty. But with this, I spent six minutes on the first level trying to figure out how to make an apparently simple jump. Its crap! And then there is the camera. If anyone ever makes a controllable camera in a third person game that works right, I will cross dress as Aeku for an entire week. I am confident that this will never happen, so I have no fear...
GAMEPLAY
And now, the final nail in the coffin lid. If you have played any of the followin, you have played Spyro: Mario 64, Banjo Kazoie, Croc, Blasto, Bubsy 3-d, Tomb Raider, The Fifth Element, etc... Spyro brings absolutely nothing new to the genre. You collect gems, have a three hit sheild, jump on crap, and fly a little. Thats it. Every single boss pattern, puzzle, and idea in this game has been stolen from soemone else. The game may be aimed at kids, but its so damn long that your average ridlin addict child will forget about it before he even get a third of the way through. And the bad control, grpahics and camera will turn off anyone willing to settle in for the long haul. Do yourself a favor and get any other game but this. Please, I beg you...
GRAPHICS: 7/10
SOUND: 6/10
CONTROL 5/10
GAMEPLAY 5/10
OVERALL 5.5/10
-MADGRAD
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