‘The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night’ for PS2

1 out of 5 stars

Fire-breathing dragons used to be a facet of dark fairy tales where there were castles, dungeons, dashing princes and damsels in distress.

But in the video game realm, all we have is Spyro, a cute, little fire-breather – not exactly the epitome of intimidating.

In Spyro’s latest adventure for PlayStation 2, ‘The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night,’ the dragon again must travel through different worlds while defeating enemies. The video game industry has become solely focused on releasing sequels faster than ever, and this latest entry in the Spyro franchise, which began in 1998, is a prime example.

This version of Spyro practically signals the end of the once-juggernaut series. The gameplay is so horrible that you constantly struggle to toggle your way through the different worlds.

Along with the poor controls, the game seems to primarily focus on entertaining younger gamers. Classic Spyro players might want a more evolved episode of the series, but its core marketing seems to be toward players in their early teens.

The graphics, however, are by no means childish and remain the one standout quality of the game. The characters and backgrounds are beautifully detailed.

Sierra, the company that distributes the Spyro games these days, might be going in a different direction with the future of the franchise.

The problem is that the game is too easy to last a long time, certainly nothing approaching the length of a standard PS2 role-playing game. ‘The Eternal Night’ loses any appeal quickly, simply because you can beat it in several hours, anywhere from six to eight.

Besides the graphics, the puzzles that players have to solve aren’t that complicated. Spyro has new, intriguing attacks, including the ability to bend time a la ‘The Matrix.’ Yes, these scaly, fire-breathing creatures can now control time to dodge enemy attacks or perform other nifty tricks.

Ultimately, the attacks cannot help the game from being substandard.

The original Spyro games prove to be much better, especially when compared with the most recent crop of Spyro releases. Older games, like ‘Ripto’s Rage’ and ‘Year of the Dragon’ are light years ahead of ‘The Eternal Night.’

‘The Eternal Night,’ on the other hand, is a flop, and it’s easy to doubt the shelf life of the famous dragon after this adaptation.

Everyone’s favorite purple dragon seems quite lame, and this version of Spyro won’t cut it even for hardcore fans of the franchise.