Review: Spyro Shadow Legacy
Everyone loves Spyro the Dragon, right? Well, who in their right mind wouldn’t! I just finished playing his new game for the Nintendo DS, Spyro the Dragon: Shadow Legacy (Warning: Flash content).
It was an awesome game from start to finish. Spyro starts his adventure in a little motel on the beach in the dragon village. He’s just finishing up a nice, long vacation, and all of his friends are leaving. That’s when disaster strikes. The link between the shadow realm and the real world becomes manipulated by some unkown being (there is much speculation in-game, but I will not reveal the true nature of the being at risk of spoiling the plot) and everyone is cast into the shadow realm — except Spyro (for no apparent reason he is immune to this?).
The goal of the game is to rescue the people (magical beasts, etc.) in the world from the shadow realm and ultimately restore stability between the worlds by using knowledge and techniques learned from the Elders to find and defeat the unknown being.
The game progresses as you travel in an essentially open RPG-style manner from village to village, coming accross prideful dragons, entrepreneureal bears, obsessively-mining armadillos, dimwitted cavemen, confused fairies, and frustrated bunnies (of course familiar characters such as Hunter, the Professor, and Bianca appear throughout the game). All this time while, borrowing RPG elements, levelling up and choosing which techniques/skills/magic you want to learn from the Elders (the player can choose two techniques each time he levels) and when. The levelling system appears to be set in place to encourage players to choose a balance between a well-rounded character and a specialized one.
The game includes a number of find-and-seek side quests and quirks to keep the player interested in it, even addicted to it. Liberal use of the dual screen is made by displaying stats, inventory, etc. in the touch screen while the main action is on the top screen (no screenshots, sorry…try Google?). Though most attacks are achieved via button combinations, I thoroughly enjoyed spellcasting as drawing the spell’s symbol in the touchscreen. 
So this game has a well-developed plot, intuitive and addictive gameplay, and a few extras to keep the player intrigued. What’s missing?
The game actually left a lot to be desired. After two sessions consuming no more than 12 of my waking hours, I had completed every side quest, recieved every technique/skill/spell, maxed out my wallet and items, and defeated the final boss. I had little desire to delete and restart my file after I had achieved Spyrotic (a word I just made up) perfection; the only reason I would do so would be to visit the villages in a different order (wouldn’t make much of a difference)!
On a side note, I wondered what ever happenned to seemingly neverending handheld RPG’s, especially The Legend of Zelda’s Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons. Well, a man can dream can’t he!
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