Spyro Shadow Legacy is the latest installment of the Spyro series, this time for the Nintendo DS system. Spyro is on vacation, when a mysterious storm blows in and traps his teachers in the Shadow Realm. Spyro will have to travel back and forth between his world and the Shadow Realm in order to rescue the Elders.

So much for the story. Anyway, Spryo: Shadow Legacy is the latest adventure starring the cute, spunky little dragon. This time around, the viewpoint isn’t isometric, but features 3D characters freely roaming in a 2D world. It’s also not a platform game anymore, it’s now an RPG. Spyro gains experience by defeating his enemies. These enemies are pretty easy to defeat and don’t offer much of a challenge. The dual worlds of Shadow and real world serve the purpose of having Spyro travel back and forth between the worlds, but there’s not much difference between them except for the lack of color in the Shadow Realm.

Spyro spends a lot of time moving around to different levels of height in the game on ledges, but it’s hard to see where the ledges start and end, which can end in poor Spyro’s demise. He gets stuck behind things, too. And, as too often happens in handheld games, he just can’t jump very well. At least, sometimes he can’t. Sometimes he makes it, sometimes he doesn’t - and dies. Alas, poor Spyro, we knew him well.

The gameplay is adequate, but not anything to jump and down about. At first it’s fun, but it soon becomes repetitive. And, the dialogue can be way too long, too. Spyro has his usual fire and head-butting moves, but he doesn’t actually have to use them that often. There are a few puzzle elements like switches and platforms to stand on, but they’re too easy to be much fun.

The game looks really pretty. Spyro and his friends are oh-so-cute, and the backgrounds are very nice, too. The colors are pleasing and fit the theme of the game. The music is nice and cheerful, and kids will especially enjoy it.

Overall, this is a pretty average game. The GBA versions of Spyro are all much better than this game in terms of fun and action. While the game could have been fun as a RPG, there’s just not enough to do to make it very interesting after awhile. However, there’s nothing very bad, either. It’s just a very average game. Young children will probably have a decent amount of fun with it, but tire of it fairly soon. Older kids will probably not be all that impressed.

Gameplay: 6.0
The gameplay is fun enough for the first few times playing it, but then it becomes quickly repetitive and ho-hum. There’s really nothing to keep anyone’s attention for very long. The RPG elements seem like they would be fun, but aren’t, really.

Graphics: 8.0
The graphics are nice and brightly colored. Children will enjoy the cute characters and the vivid colors.

Sound: 7.0
The sound is good, and not annoying as in so many of these type of games.

Difficulty: Easy
Very easy to play.

Concept: 6.0
Nothing new here, and the presentation isn’t very well designed.

Overall: 6.5
A wholly average game that young kids will enjoy for a short time, but there’s really nothing much here for anyone else. And, even the kids will tire of it after awhile. However, it’s not a frustrating game, and it’s pretty easy, so parents may want to give it a whirl.