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The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (DS)
by lolly23
I remember the first time I met Spyro.
I was around 8 months pregnant, with backache, sickness, and ankles so swollen that the only footwear I could squeeze into were trainers.
My partner at the time was very kind and decided to buy me a brand new PS1 (the little cute white ones). Knowing I was not very good on ... console games he went for one of the easiest options - Spyro the Dragon (not sure which one but I've played a lot of them since).
On the PS1 and 2, Spyro was a simple game that was fun and cute and easy to play.
On the DS, Spyro seems to have since grown up and become a bigger, tougher version of himself that is no longer easy and fun to play (he is still cute though!).
My son enjoyed playing Spyro on the Ps2 so when we bought a DS this was one of the first games I bought him.
Oh dear. The game is a LOT harder to play and a little complicated as well.
There are four main sections of the game and the end of each section brings a dragon master to beat.
You work your way through the levels, collecting 'gems' (they're nothing like the gems he used to collect) There are three types of gem: Red, for health; Purple, for fury; and Blue, for spirit.
Health is obvious, you just gain a little extra health on the health bar.
Fury is a strange one. You collect it until a bar on the screen fills up, you can then release it by clicking on colours that come up on the screen in the right order. You then go and fight the baddies with 'fury'.
I am not impressed with this feature as even if you do click it in the right order it can suddenly stop, and when you go to fight with 'fury' nothing really happens. You just wander around with a purple haze around you.
Spirit is a slightly better idea. You collect spirit gems then you can go into the options screen and use them to upgrade your breath powers.
You start with fire breath and you can gradually gain; earth, ice and electricity as you work through the levels.
You can then upgrade and increase the power of each breath.
A good idea, but I can never notice any difference in the breath, it does not seem to get any better than it was before you spent all of your gems.
Some of the dragons at the end of the levels are very hard to beat. I once had to go online just to find out what you had to do to defeat one! Not what you expect from a kids game.
I didn't really like the game, it was an average game and it seemed a little flawed and not very well thought out. It is also not in-keeping with other Spyro games so you will probably buy it expecting one thing and get something completely different.
Maybe a game for youngsters who grew up with Spyro and have now moved on to more challenging games? Not for me though, that's for sure.
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Geometry Wars (DS)
by alf_fly
Based on the hit XBox Live game, Geometry Wars: Galaxies is a frantic shoot-em-up that make use of the DS's touch-screen to replicate the analogue stick controls of the original. While the XBox 360 game was a single screen shooter with a fairly steep difficulty curve, Galaxies plays out over a series of levels, each of which has its own ... victory conditions and challenges. Whether throwing specific types of enemy at you, limiting your lives and smart bombs, or putting you in mazes with moving walls, these variations and more keep the game fresh and exciting, and there are plenty of levels and achievements to unlock.
Your craft is controlled using the directional pad, while you use the stylus to aim your guns. It's a decent enough system, but the DS's notoriously poor directional pad can make dodging enemies trickier than it should be, and this set-up isn't incredibly comfortable for long play sessions. Graphically everything is bright and shiny, with some neat particle effects, but the DS's relatively low graphical grunt means that this version isn't as busy or pretty as it's Wii equivalent.
What it is, though, is lots of fun. Without any semblance of a plot to weigh it down, Geometry Wars: Galaxies is a lean, pure arcade shooter with a surprising amount of variety and plenty of replay value. At the low prices it's currently selling at this is a real bargain.
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The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (DS)
by kellface
The tenth anniversery of Spyro The Dragon see's the last in the Legacy trilogy. Since Spyro was first released on the Playstation, way back in 1998 it became one of the most popular action adventure game series.
The legend of Spyro : Dawn of the Dragon was released last October, and features new and exciting ways to play the ... game.
- Gameplay -
It's the first Spyro game that lets you fly whenever you want, with the 'free fly mode', you can explore the new and bigger worlds at your own free will.
The game also features an awesome co-op playability where you can take control of two characters, those being Spyro himself and Cynder. Or you can choose to complete the story as either character.
Spyro still has his same powers, fire, electricity, earth and ice. Whereas Cynder has the control over poison, wind, shadow and fear.
Spyro's story in this game begins with Cynder, Sparx and himself escaping their 'time prison'. Sparx is re-captured, by the evil beings who work for The Dark Master, Malefor. It's up to Spyro and Cynder to rescue him and bring about the destruction of Malefor and all of his evil. Along the way they come up against much evil and must against it to reach the heart of the world, where Malefor has set up base. Will Spyro and Cynders defeat Malefor before he brings about the destruction of everything good in the world?
The game makes good use of what the Nintendo DS has to offer, various actions will require you to use the DS Stylus pen, but most of the game is used just using the basic controls of the DS. The top screen of the DS has all of the items you've collected and how much power you have, and what your upgrades are etc.
The graphics for the game aren't too bad seeing's though its on the Nintendo DS, the colours are bright and vibrant which is expected as all the other Spyro games are the same. The sound is good, and there's even some famous faces featured in the game, well their voices anyway.
Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins - Lord Of The Rings) plays the voice of Spyro and Christina Ricci (Addams family, Monster) plays the voice of Cynder.
The game has good longevity, once you have completed all the levels you can go back and select any of them to play again, to collect anything you might have missed first time round.
- Overall -
I'd recommend the game to anyone who's played any of the previous Spyro games, this ones just as good as the rest if not better. It's recommended for ages 7+, so is great for the younger gamers, but I'm 23 and still enjoyed this game. The graphics aren't amazing, but for the Nintendo DS they're not too shabby either.
It can be found at most video game stockists, I bought it from Gamestation for £15 just after Christmas.
Thanks for reading :)
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