Kinda crazy to think about, but there was a time when the purple dragon was actually in trouble. Real trouble. By the mid-2000s, the Spyro franchise was basically wandering in the woods. Enter the Dragonfly was a glitchy mess, and A Hero's Tail—while better—just wasn't hitting the same heights as the original Insomniac trilogy. Developers were desperate. They needed a hard reset. So, in 2006, they gave us The Legend of Spyro A New Beginning.
It wasn't just a sequel. It was a total, scorched-earth reboot that threw out the whimsical, gem-collecting vibes we all grew up with and replaced them with something way darker. Sorta like if you took a Saturday morning cartoon and tried to turn it into Lord of the Rings.
Honestly, it worked for some people. It really did. But for others? It felt like a betrayal.
A Massive Shift in Tone (and Star Power)
If you haven't played it since you were ten, you might've forgotten just how much "prestige" they tried to pump into this thing. We’re talking about a voice cast that would make a modern indie studio weep. Elijah Wood—fresh off playing Frodo—was the voice of Spyro. Gary Oldman played the mentor figure, Ignitus. Even David Spade showed up as Sparx, though his snarky, cynical delivery was a wild departure from the Sparx we knew before.
The story starts with a full-on temple siege.
Gone were the days of headbutting sheep for fun. Now, we were watching a guardian dragon named Ignitus save a single purple egg from an invading army of Apes. It’s heavy. Spyro grows up in a swamp thinking he’s a dragonfly, only to realize he can breathe fire. The stakes aren’t about finding a lost lizard anymore; they’re about preventing a "Dark Master" from returning and ending the world.
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Combat Over Everything
Let's talk about the gameplay because this is where the rift in the fanbase really opened up. The Legend of Spyro A New Beginning isn't a 3D platformer. Not really. It’s an action-brawler.
If you go back and play it now, you’ll notice the levels are incredibly linear. You aren't exploring wide-open hubs to find every last hidden gem. Instead, you're moving down corridors and getting locked into arenas until you defeat every enemy in the room.
The "New Beginning" for Spyro meant trading precision jumping for:
- Elemental Breaths: Fire, Electricity, Ice, and Earth.
- Combos: Pop-ups, air-juggles, and melee strikes that felt oddly like God of War Lite.
- Fury Attacks: Massive screen-clearing blasts of energy.
Basically, Spyro became a living weapon. It was satisfying to throw a golem into the air and zap them with lightning, sure. But if you were there for the "Collect-a-thon" feel of the 90s, this felt repetitive. You mash the attack button. You move to the next room. You mash it again.
The Legend of Spyro A New Beginning and the "Cynder" Factor
You can't talk about this game without mentioning Cynder. She is easily the best thing to come out of this trilogy. Originally introduced as the primary antagonist—a massive, terrifying black dragon corrupted by the Dark Master—her design was genuinely cool.
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The twist? She was just like Spyro. She was a dragon born from the same brood, stolen and twisted by evil.
The final boss fight against her in "Convexity" is still one of the most atmospheric moments in the series. When Spyro eventually saves her and she reverts to her smaller, true form, it set up a redemption arc that actually gave the series some emotional weight. Many fans who didn't like the gameplay still stayed for the story because they wanted to see what happened to her.
Technical Realities and Growing Pains
Krome Studios, the devs behind the console versions, used their Merkury engine to make the game look surprisingly good for 2006. The lighting effects when you used the fire breath were top-tier for a PlayStation 2. However, the game was short. Really short. You can finish the whole thing in about five or six hours if you aren't struggling with the combat.
Critics at the time were... let's say "mixed." IGN gave it a 6.4/10, praising the presentation but calling the combat repetitive. Gamespot was harsher, basically saying the game was too easy and lacked the soul of the originals.
The weirdest part? The handheld versions.
The DS version, handled by Amaze Entertainment, was actually quite different. It leaned into the touch screen and had its own set of challenges. The GBA version was a 2D side-scrolling brawler. It’s a mess of different versions that all tried to tell the same story with wildly different quality.
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Does It Still Matter?
Look, if you're a purist who thinks Spyro should only ever be about collecting 12,000 gems and headbutting Gnorcs, you'll probably hate this game. But for a generation of kids who started gaming in the mid-2000s, this is their Spyro.
It tried to do something ambitious with the lore. It gave us a complex villain-turned-hero in Cynder. It gave us a cinematic soundtrack that felt huge.
Even today, in 2026, you still see fans on Reddit and Discord begging for a "Legend" trilogy remake. They don't just want a port; they want the potential of that story realized with better, more varied gameplay. They want the "Legend" world with "Reignited" level of polish.
Tips for playing it today:
- Don't ignore the upgrades: You can upgrade your breaths using Spirit Gems (red, green, and blue). Focus on Electricity first—it’s great for crowd control.
- Watch the camera: On the PS2/GameCube versions, the camera can be your worst enemy in tight spaces.
- Appreciate the music: Rebecca Kneubuhl and Gabriel Mann killed it on the score. It’s genuinely beautiful.
If you want to experience the story but find the combat a slog, there are plenty of "movie" edits on YouTube that stitch the cutscenes together. It’s honestly a great way to see why people are so defensive of this era of the dragon.
If you’re planning on revisiting the Dragon Temple, your best bet is playing the original PS2 or GameCube discs on a backward-compatible console. Emulation has come a long way for these titles, but nothing beats the original hardware feel for those specific elemental effects. You might also want to track down a digital copy of the strategy guide if you’re a completionist, as some of the hidden health/energy upgrades are tucked away in some pretty non-obvious corners of the linear paths.