And don’t get me started on the impervious-except-for-one-specific-type-of-attack elite enemy. Absolutely perfect.īut the rest of Twilight Falls zig-zags you through landmark-starved woodlands, frequented by unlit enemies lurking in almost total darkness, with attacks (and your own combo timing) obscured by fanciful glittering jewels splashing across the screen. That Oblivion moment shows stalagmites and stalactites giving way to a waterfall spilling out over Twilight Falls, the dim but opulent view yawning towards a Jupiter-sized moon, and a swelling orchestra laying out a supple landing pad in a firefly-lit clearing. One early level gives you a breathtaking Oblivion moment as you glide out of molten caverns fringed with cutscene-interrupted escapes. And some levels (defending the Dragon City swoops to mind) exhaust you back and forth across a besieged rampart, juggling multiple strategic objectives in a game that does not rack up strong strategic points in its design.īut not all is lost for Spyro. Some levels hint at a greater freedom - before summarily denying it others hint at moving along fast-paced railways - and running it off track and against walls. Without hinting one way or the other (the tutorial setting is helpful only in specific “use this breath weapon here” ways, and that’s infrequently) the levels trip around from linear, to circular, to spoked: Go from point A to point B and return to point A go from point A to point C and return to point A, etc. One of the ways in which Spyro spells out frustration is in level design. But in the end, poring over synonyms in a thesaurus won’t spell it out any clearer. Yes, there are a dozen different ways to say it and, yes, there are a dozen different ways to show it.

Then The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon scampered into my mailbox and, after thoughtful consideration, I’ve only got one worn-out-its-welcome word to describe my feelings regarding Spyro. “Besides, frustration can easily be chalked up to ‘laziness’ on the reviewer’s part!” “There are a dozen different ways to say it!” I said. As I’m wont to do when I know little of what I’m talking about, I turned the discussion into something of a monologue. I was corresponding with another writer here at Gaming Nexus - Sean Nack - when the topic and usage of the word “frustration” in videogame reviews came up.

The legend of spyro