Soooo I've tried Spyro games before and the older ones all seem to have this trend of really picky platforming and difficult jumping controls (I TOLD YOU TO JUMP AGAIN YOU FUCKER NOT GLIDE ASDFLOLWTF), so I've always seen them as having great potential, but crippled by lack of fine tuning.
I got Legend of Spyro: Eternal Night for Christmas and, yeah, it was pretty much what I described above. It COULD have been really fun, but my God, the controls just killed it. After Lurid and I played that for a little bit and got fed up with not even being able to fucking DOUBLE JUMP properly due to how exact the timing had to be, we skipped the rest of it and went straight to Dawn of the Dragon, which I also got for Christmas.
Now, I never used to be too pissed at Skylanders because frankly, I was never into the Spyro games much. To me. Skylanders just kinda took a good character design and shat on it and that was it. But now that I've played Dawn of the Dragon, even just for a couple hours, I am SEETHING that there won't be any more games like it.
It's a ton of fun to play DotD with 2 players, and it's rare to find a game that lets you play through the entire story with a second player like that (*acknowledges Portal 2*). Needless to say, Lurid is playing as Spyro and I'm playing as Cynder, and MAN do I love playing as her. For those who unfortunate enough never to have played this or seen it, her abilities are the elements of Venom, Wind, Shadow, and Fear. FEAR. How fucking cool is that???
Also, FINALLY we actually get to fly. Not just that stupid little jump and glide that's near-impossible to control, either—actual sustained flight. And not just in specific sections or boss fights; we get to do this like, whenever. I love the more open world, too, though I kinda wish it had a map of some sort so I wouldn't get lost. A few moments can be frustrating, and the elite enemies are kinda bullshit, but I have no other complaints. Overall, more Spyro games should have been like this, at LEAST in how well the controls work. Seriously looking forward to playing more.
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I understand your feelings completely. I started with the original PS1 series and it was the biggest building block of my childhood gaming. After that I played A New Beginning and was disappointed (though I was playing on the DS so that might explain it). Once I got Dawn of the Dragon, I was hooked. I liked the story aspect, elements, and free flight. The fighting was a bit stale for me, but don't care. Had free flight.
So when I first saw Skylanders (specifically Spyro) I was furious at how ugly he looked. After I learned more, the fact that he wasn't even really the main character made it worse. Then they added Giants and Swap-Force which doesn't even show Spyro at all from what I've seen. It's like the makers just used Spyro's old popularity to get them started, and then tossed him in the trash. It wasn't even really needed either. The games seems pretty good (except for the $10-$15 for each new character) so no one understands why I have a bias for it. Oh well...maybe they'll reboot it or continue The Legend of Spyro series somehow...
In short, I agree and like to rant about Spyro. :B Sorry for the wall of text. Also, Cynder ftw!
I understand your feelings completely. I started with the original PS1 series and it was the biggest