darkSpyro

The last major version of a Spyro game that didn't have walkthrough on this site has now got a walkthrough on this site. So, if for some strange reason you were stuck in the main parts of the Nintendo DS version of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and you didn't feel like reading the existing walkthroughs on GameFAQs - you can now use the utterly pointless walkthrough for that very version of that very game.

They've been there for years but I might as well mention that there are also visual solutions to all 80 of the Power Crystal Puzzles in the game should you get stumped on any of them.

It's that time again, every year around this point the site becomes a whole year older, and this year is no different. To celebrate this fifth anniversary I've altered the front page to look similar to the original design of the site, those of you who've been here a really long time may have recognised it.

Over the past year the site has gained a few new guides, ones for all of the versions of the latest game, Dawn of the Dragon, and a new guide for The Eternal Night's DS entry. The Guidebook is still slowly approaching completion, with nearly 900 characters so far there are only a few handheld games left to add.

At some point this year I'll get around to finishing a walkthrough for the DS A New Beginning and I'm currently half working on a refreshed guide to the third GBA game Spyro: Adventure which was the first Spyro game that I wrote a walkthrough for, it hasn't really seen much work done to it over the five years it's been sitting there and it shows. With no sign of a new game on the horizon, this coming year may be a quiet one.

I've now posted solutions to all of the Light Crystal Puzzles in the Nintendo DS version of The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night.

Disappointingly it turned out that all 80 puzzles in the new game are in actual fact exact duplicates of the puzzles in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning just with different names.

It seems Spyro might be about to become a movie star.

Quote: Variety

Spyro the Dragon could soon breathe some fire on the bigscreen: The Animation Picture Co. has optioned the rights to turn the purple star of Sierra Entertainment and Vivendi Game's vidgame franchise into a toon.

The film will apparently be based around the Legend of Spyro games.

Apologies for the lack of post worthy updates since the end of November last year but here's one.

I have today finished off and posted my brand new and complete walkthrough for the mobile version of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Only got the DS version of the game left to write a walkthrough for now.

The game, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning, has been out for over a month now and I've completed work on my walkthrough for it. Also added to the The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning section are a cheats page (with one cheat two cheats) and a page where you can randomly generate Enemy Names.

Players of the Nintendo DS version of the game might like to know that I have also posted solutions to all eighty of the Power Crystal Puzzles, though that was added a little while ago.

And for those of you who don't have the game but are still deciding whether or not to, I've collected a load of reviews together onto one page with links to the full articles if available so that you can judge based on other people's opinions of the game.

In other Spyro content news, I have finally finished adding all of the characters from Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer to the Character Guide.

Today marks the day that The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning officially goes on sale in Europe, though it was actually released slightly earlier in the week.

And for those of you wondering when I'd write a walkthrough for the game, wonder no more. Well, keep wondering for the most part but don't wonder about the GBA version no more. That's right, you can now get through the Gameboy Advance version without any trouble by using my walkthrough which covers the entire game.

Have fun.

The official Spyro website, SpyrotheDragon.com has finally been updated to promote the new game, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. You can find a few new screenshots, info on some of the new characters, info and videos about some of Spyro's attacks and a new TV Commercial (as well as the video previously seen on Krome Studio's website).



There's also a video for the Mobile version of the game as well as some new screens for it, if you're interested in that.

It's just about as close to the release date as you can get, The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning should be available in North America now if not tomorrow.

The second review from another magazine. This time it's the turn of Nintendo Power who have given the GameCube version of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning the rather average score of 5.5/10, seemingly not quite as positive as the previous review from Play Magazine.

Quote: Nintendo Power

Unfortunately the end product fails to return the purple hero to his former glory. The game's overly-simplistic combat quikcly grows repetitive - a problem exacerabted by levels that tend to drag on and on without enough variety to keep things interesting (the flying stages are nicely done, but they're too few and far between). And although Spyro has an auspicious arsenal of elemental breaths at his disposal, the game doesn't do enough to take advantage of them.

It's not all doom and gloom though, they did have a few positive things to say...

Quote: Nintendo Power

On the bright side, A New Beginning does boast some impressive production values, particularly in the audio department. The soundtrack is a sweeping orchestal score that wouldn't sound out of place in a Hollywood epic, and most of the voice acting is top notch - Elijah Wood puts in an especially praiseworthy performance as Spyro.

Thanks go to Neal for this scan of the review.

Play Magazine has given the first review of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning and it's a positive one, awarding it a score of 8.5/10.

Quote: Play Magazine

Graphically the game is as gorgeous as it can be and rich with fine details like little pads of earth that fly up from Spyro's claws, shallow mist, hand-drawn effects on water, sparking snow, reflective surfaces, and real-time lighting you'll want to write home to mom about.

Thanks to GnastyRatchet you can see scans of both Page 1 and Page 2 of the review which includes a couple of screenshots and a large picture of Ignitus.

It's been a strangely silent front with screenshots for the GameboyAdvance version of the game, you'd almost think that it didn't even exist. However the first five screenshots of the side-scrolling GBA version of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning have appeared on the Australian website of Nintendo.

Also worthy of note are the first screens of the Mobile version of the game which you can find at the Italian mobile games website WirelessGaming.it.



Thanks go to Spyro-Fan and Michael respectively for finding these.

Krome Studios have redesigned their website and along with it they have five new screenshots and a brand new trailer (apparently shown at E3) (which has since been removed) for The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning which shows Ignitus, Spyro, Sparx and what might be Cynder along with a lot of new footage of Spyro fighting things.

Quote: Krome Studios

The Legend Of Spyro: A New Begining takes the world famous Spyro The Dragon back to the beginning, in his first ever adventure! Find out what makes him such a special creature as he masters powerful elemental breath attacks, battles enemies with devestating melee combat moves and levels up his abilities to become the most powerful dragon the world has ever seen! Forget everything you thought you knew about Spyro, this really is A New Beginning.

They've also got some stuff for their other new game, Hellboy, if you're interested in that. Also removed for some reason.

Thanks go to fearthehorns for spotting it.

IGN have posted a couple of previews for the console and DS versions of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.

Quote: IGN

The long range ice attack, for instance, will blast out frozen shards that ricochet around the room. Earth attacks can unleash tornadoes, and some of the fire attacks can set enemies on fire. Should the foes engulfed in flame bump into their kin, they'll set the unlucky gent aflame as well.

They also have several new screenshots for both versions along with four new videos of the game. Also with screenshots are Amazon who have a few more DS screens.

Thanks go yet again to GnastyRatchet for finding the new console screens on IGN and for pointing out the videos.

In celebration of one of the most pointless things to know about the site, for the 800th day of darkSpyro I have updated the forums and the site in general.

The news section of the site has had a slight revamp, with 'categories' for finding news posts about each game (all colour coded of course) and a very slightly altered comments system which makes use of some of the forum changes. You might also notice a load of URL changes elsewhere on the site but they're not really that important to users.

The forum itself has got what it's had before, lost, then had again before being snatched away quickly. Yep, avatars. Amazing huh? Several fixes are also included including a change from html code to the equally similar BBCode which itself includes a quoting feature. And registered users can now also see exactly what they have previously rated all of the games from within their profile.

Oh, and here's another preview of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning from Computer and Videogames with some new screens. Thanks go to GnastyRatchet for finding it, of course.

The The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning's boxart has now appeared on several video-game shop websites such as GameStop and GAME (it was previously seen wonky here) replacing the crudely constructed placeholders. It features the same picture as the poster at Comic-Con and the game is rated as E10+ and 3+ in Europe.