Disclaimer: rare long review incoming

This is probably my least favorite Spyro game from the series and I hope to never play it again. Why so? Allow me to tell you.

For starters it took me 2 tries to complete it since as my younger self I couldn't fathom not only the cheeky unfunny dialogue but also the story itself. I had too many question coming from the PS1 era, such as: Who's Red? Who's that pink dragon? Why does everyone talk like what they do is a chore? Why does it feel like everyone hates being there? What happened to the Professor and his intelligence? And most importantly, HOW CAN I MAKE MONEYBAGS SHUT UP?!

Seriously, he's the most annoying ever and you have to talk to him constantly because there’s now a gem shop where you can not only buy upgrades but keys which you need for some collectibles or to fast travel between areas. In fact, he even talks to you whenever you're near his portals repeating the same lines with that smug face, and (spoiler alert in case you were wondering) you never get back at him.

So that’s bad enough at least it’s somewhat bearable if you turn off the audio. What isn’t and plays a major factor are the controls. Honestly, whoever decided to map the run button to circle and the fire button to square should have been fired immediately. I lost count on how many times I messed up hitting an enemy or dashing in the air due to muscle memory. Every time that happened it made me facepalm and at the time of reading this my forehead is probably quite red.

Moreover, the 3D platforming is made even worse by the bad physics engine. While not the worst I’ve witnessed it encompasses a lot of instances which needed more time in the oven: glitchy hitboxes specifically while hitting some enemies, slippery platforms particularly moving ones, getting hit through walls which at least didn’t happen often, or even missing collectibles you clearly go through because the game didn’t load it fast enough.

There are also minigames throughout your journey and while I didn't despise them, there were certain parts that really frustrated me: the Sparx levels for spamming you with enemies in sections where you have to go through fast closing hatches, Blink's platforming considering for how much you have to do of it sometimes with a lot of waiting; and Hunter's inaccurate moveset for both jumps, punches and arrows if you’re not at the right spot. Sgt. Byrd was the only one that controlled well enough to not be a problem and its times weren’t as strict as some may say.

Apart from that, the game in general had an accumulation of minor inconveniences which I could mention but it would make the review twice as long. These I wouldn't have noticed if this was the first game in the series but since it isn’t and the problem wasn’t there to begin with it’s quite noticeable. For example, you’d expect after ramping into a jar or a chest to immediately give you its contents, mostly gems. Well this game sometimes doesn’t do that and makes you turn around, move the camera and step where you’ve just been. Stuff like this isn't game changing but once it happens too frequently it can pile up enough to get on your nerves. Fortunately in the case of gems there are so many lying around that you might as well avoid the chests all together from a certain point onwards.

On the positive side, the presentation itself is very colorful and despite not being a fan of the character design, it looks good enough for its console. Furthermore, while none of the tracks caught my ear and this is a downgrade from how well they used to be composed, some may find them catchy after hearing them enough. Also, not every single joke in the game was bad, some dark gag did make me giggle in hindsight, too bad they didn’t while playing the game considering whatever annoying task I had to perform.

All in all, this was simply an utter disappointment that completely stepped on my good nostalgic memories with a pale version that tried too hard to make fun of itself to the point that it can be summed up in one word: annoying. The only reason I went back and completed it was to lay my curiosity to rest and in that regard I think I’ve done more than enough.