The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Sony PlayStation 2, 2007)

Spyro's been a shadow of his former self for years now, so it's perhaps unsurprising that his most recent foray onto the Wii and PlayStation 2 is not an amusing one. The game tries so hard to be likeable, but its humor is forced while its gameplay is both plodding and shallow. The game also throws in new and unnecessary gameplay elements while failing to offer anything truly refined. Spyro and his game have reached an awkward adolescence, and the resulting identity crisis is both frustrating to participate in and awkward to witness.



The end of Eternal Night's predecessor, A New Beginning, left Spyro mostly bereft of his powers and the Dark Master on the loose. This time around, Gaul and his Ape army are up to no good, holding Cynder captive and seeking to revive Spyro's archenemy. The titular hero is again joined by Sparx the dragonfly, this time annoyingly voiced by a barely funny Billy West--though in the actor's defense, the bland script gives him little more than overused clichés with which to work. Gary Oldman and Elijah Wood are back as well, though Wood sounds even sleepier now than before, delivering more fake enthusiasm than a used-car salesman. If you played New Beginning and are intent on following this planned trilogy to the end, Eternal Night serves its purpose, though newcomers will probably just be confused without the necessary context. Neophytes and returning fans alike will be annoyed by the constant, often unskippable small cutscenes that take you out of the action, as well as the abrupt and jarring end to almost every cinematic.

As if to match Wood's self-conscious delivery, Eternal Night's gameplay never feels all that comfortable. This is a combat-heavy platformer, so you'll often need to handle a good number of cookie-cutter enemies at once. Spyro's tail attack is your basic combat move, though over the course of the game, you'll gain access to new elemental attacks in four different categories and string them together into various combos. The special attacks will likely elicit déjà vu for returning fans, with the exception of the newly introduced bullet time--or if you want to be technical, dragon time. Indeed, you can now slow down time for a few moments, though this element is simply another example of how more rarely means better. You'll need to use dragon time often, sometimes for solving a handful of simplistic puzzles, but more often than not, just to stay alive.

Bought this because we have ALL other Spyro PS1 & PS2 games and this is the latest in the series.

Like the game before it (Spyro: A New Beginning), the fighting is very similar. In my opinion, these 2 latest games of the Spyro series require way TOO much fighting/kicking! Your fingers are CONTSTANTLY busy. What's the fun in that? Spyro: Eternal Night is better that there are 'shortcuts' to the sequence fighting (push a button a certain way and it continues the fight sequence for you instead of doing it continually yourself).

The worst thing about this game is the abrupt ending. I say abrupt because before I knew it, the game was over. This entire game seems like a 'training' session - not really an 'adventure' per say. There were some annoying lengthy fights that seemed they would NEVER end, but nothing, in my opinion, indicating you've reached the end of this game. And, the way it leaves you 'hanging' indicates to me that another Spyro episode will be following.

Overall, I prefer the first 4 episodes of the Spyro series. Even number 5 is acceptable except for the controls being set up backwards from the previous ones (and you cannot change the button assignments either). But these last TWO episodes (A New Beginning and Eternal Night) I am QUITE disappointed in and feel that NEITHER are anything like their predecessors. Totally different gaming scenarios and 'TYPE' of game. The previous ones are more like adventures. These last TWO are mosly all BATTLE-type games - not adventures.

I like the graphics, but have had such a difficult time getting past certain parts of the game that it's not even fun for me. Kind of thought this was a kid game but my kids have given up. Think there needs to be more opportunities to get health when fighting bosses. I'm still a Spyro fan, just think this one is more difficult than it needs to be.

I love the spyro series and this one lived up to my expectations. I would definetely recommend this one it is the sequel to the last spyro and continues in the tradition of great story, great graphics and great adventures

I purchased "The Legend of Spyro"for a Christmas present. This game was made for the PS2. It was new in the wrapper and my son and grandson love playing the game. On snowy days it is a good way to keep busy for hours. The only bad thing is I had to get a new memory card because there are so many levels of challenge. It is an excellent game for adults and children. I would highly recommend this game to anyone.