3.5/5 ★ – nightyagi's review of Spyro: A Hero's Tail.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail is a decent game, one that does not take itself very seriously and often pokes fun not only at itself, but the genre it's predecesors came from. It's almost a parody of itself in how it's presented, but not in a bad way mind you. It does remain a collecthaton platformer just like the games before it, though gems are now treated as currency for upgrades and other items instead of being a main collectable. A Hero's Tail was refreshing after the first 4 games, especially after the previous entry being as horrible as it was. That being said, this game isn't without it's issues. There's some jank to it's mechanics, and the lack of iframes for Spyro and friends makes some sections and minigames absolutely no fun to go through. (Looking at you, Sparx...) The last section and area was also a bit of a slog and felt like it went on for far too long, with a lot of somewhat unfair enemy placement and questionable level design. The game features multiple large "open world" realms, each featuring a small hub area you start in, and multiple branching paths that lead to other smaller areas. Each realm is separate from one another and require teleporting between them. Despite there being multiple paths from each hub world, the order in which you take them is generally linear, with many being blocked off by collectable requirements or require new abilities to get through. A Hero's Tail brings back some characters you know already, like Hunter, Sgt. Byrd, and The Professor, while also introducing new characters. Unfortunately a lot of these new characters are barely used and are often only seen once for an exchange with Spyro in some way, before disappearing for the rest of the game. The only exception to this is probably Blink the Mole, and the antagonist Red. The boss fights in this game are generally push-overs, but still a lot more engaging than the first Spyro's attempt at boss fights. Most of the time it usually just involves waiting around until the boss lets you hit their weak point, like many platformers of this era and before. The best part of the boss fights are probably the dialogue exchanges between Spyro and the boss. Despite some of it's shortcomings, Spyro feels great to control for the most part. He moves very quickly and responsively, has a good move pool, some of which are from his previous games, but also gets some new abilities like a double jump and ledge grabbing. The worlds to explore are pretty great, with a good amount of platforming challenges and minigames in between. Sgt Byrd minigames are fun, and are basically the speedways of the game. He controls much better in this than in Spyro 3, and actually flies with his jetpack instead of flapping his wings. The Hunter sections are great as well, being more like micro action platformer sections. Sparx's and Blink's minigames I did not enjoy as much but I'm sure they can be some fun to someone. Sparx plays like a over the shoulder rail shooter, while Blink is a slow paced destruction platforming jaunt. The music is also really good, and I never got tired of listening to any of the area's songs. Sadly Stewart Copeland had no hand in this soundtrack, but the composers that did work on this game did a good job. The music felt very magical and bouncy. The best part of the game though by far is Spyro himself. His personality and attitude is purely hilarious. He doesn't take anything seriously, kind of just going along with everything not really caring what happens. It lead to some really funny cutscenes and dialogue exchanges. There's also quite a bit of 4th wall breaking which really caught me off guard while being very funny. Overall it's a decent platformer romp with some flaws. If you're wanting another Spyro game that's not too far from the original identity, or just want something fun and not serious and are looking for a laugh, give this game an honest try.