Spyro: A Hero's Tail

Spyro near a Dark Gem

Typical of the series, Spyro: A Hero's Tail involves the titular purple dragon saving the Dragon Realms from danger, this time by collecting Dark Gems that corrupt the land with maniacal creatures and deadly plants and have been planted by the former Elder Dragon Red.[1][2] The gameplay in A Hero's Tail is largely the same as in previous Spyro games, where Spyro jumps on platforms, flies, head-butts into enemies, and wanders around collecting gems.[2][3] His Fire, Ice and Electricity breath attacks also return, although must be purchased from Mr. Moneybags, and are used to solve puzzles.[1][2] However, he has new several abilities, such as ledge grabbing, wall kicking, and swinging his tail like a lasso, and a new Water breath attack.[2] Other items Spyro must collect include big Easter eggs, colorful dragon eggs, multi-colored gems and rainbow-colored shards.[2] Some are obtained by killing enemies (specifically Gnorcs), and unlocking gates and treasure chests.[2]

On 27 April 2004, Spyro: A Hero's Tail received its first public announcement by Vivendi Universal Games; its premise, Spyro's new attacks, and the additional player characters were revealed, as well as its release date set sometime in last quarter of 2004 for the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.[4] Two weeks later, it was presented at E3 2004.[5] Douglas C. Perry of IGN reported the game's target audience to be very young, its size to be four times as large as Enter the Dragon, and taking potentially twice as long to beat, 18–20 hours.[5] He also revealed the inclusion of mini-game levels and the additional playable characters to be Sparx, Binky, Sgt. Bird, and Hunter.[5] On 18 May 2004, the game was rated E by the Entertainment Software Rating Board and had its first trailer unveiled.[6] On 4 October 2004, Vivendi Universal Games announced development was completed, and EVP of Worldwide Studios Michael Pole exclaimed A Hero's Tail would be the "biggest, boldest and greatest" Spyro entry yet.[7]

Days before its release, Sypro: A Hero's Tail received preview coverage in Cube and IGN.[8][9] The Australian edition of PlayStation 2 Official Magazine, in its November 2004 issue, provided its readers a demo of Sypro: A Hero's Tail, where the main hub area, an egg-collecting missions, and mini-game levels for Hunter and St. Byrd were playable.[10]

On the E3 presentation, Perry was very hopeful of Spyro: A Hero's Tail for reasons of a reputable developer, improved graphics and "far greater variety of playable characters and interesting situations".[5] Cube predicted the game would be like the others in the Spyro, but a little more fun due to less of an emphasis on collecting and more on platforming.[8]

Although reviews for A Hero's Tail were generally mixed, many critics called it far better than Enter the Dragonfly.[lower-alpha 2] A common criticism, even among those that found Spyro: A Hero's Tail decent, was having too little innovations to the platform and collecting genres, as well as the series' formula.[lower-alpha 3] Avery Score of GameSpot wrote the template only shined in the series' time on the PlayStation 1, a console that had far less 3D platformers than the Nintendo 64, and that only "modest improvements", such as the addition of ledge-gripping, were made in A Hero's Tail.[1] Brent Soboleski of TeamXbox was similarly concerned over the series not evolving enough to compete with other products that took far more advantage of console hardware.[3] The gameplay was criticized as lacking thrills, containing an over-emphasis on collecting with few additional aspects spicing it up, such as Spyro's new moves and the multiple-character mechanic.[19][31][30] G4's Jason D'Aprile reported that players would spent a majority of the gameplay backtracking for missed gems and suffering through "frustrating platform jumping".[18] Avery Score suggested even children would get bored with it.[1]

Soboleski was in the minority about the variations, feeling the game the right mix of previously-established and new elements for the Spyro series to remain fresh.[3] Hyper journalist Joey Tekken found that Spyro: A Hero's Tail had the "effortless charm" similar franchises such as Crash Bandicoot had lost, calling its characters and dialogue "quite funny" and noting its variety of move sets, mini-games and playable characters, and good flow in the level design.[26] Sobeleski felt the game still had the prior games' "sharp wit and plenty of personality", and was just as fun to play.[3]

Jes Bickham, a writer for NGC Magazine, found the game "logically and pleasingly designed" if uninspired and easy, highlighting its incorporation of routes that open as a result of items being collected.[30] Sobeleski praised the game's dark-to-light changing of environments, describing them as "seamless" and providing the player gratification for destroying the Dark Gems.[3] Some critics enjoyed the addition of other playable characters and mini-games, feeling they were "pretty cool" and added variety to the gameplay.[19][30][3] D'Aprile was one of them, although was disappointed the additional characters were only "fodder" for the mini-game stages.[18] Sobeleski enjoyed how the game smoothly transitioned from one playable character to another by how they are incorporated in the plot.[3] On the other hand, Score criticized the mini-games for "artificially" increasing play time and being "disruptive and boring".[1] Matthew Hawkins of GMR also found most of the characters too bland to be differentiable, finding only one of them, Sgt. Byrd, to have unique move sets and characteristics that were "somewhat interesting".[33] D'Aprile and Score criticized the boss battles. D'Aprile noted them as being too easy and featuring more unoriginal platform tropes, such as having three hits and simple-to-learn patterns.[18] Score found the boss battles "ego-padding interludes", poking at their "posturing", "perfunctory wailing and smashing", as well as the fact their own attacks harm themselves; he also noted the ability to save the game by the hit of a boss, making the bosses over-simple.[1]

As per previous entries, A Hero's Tail maintains a low challenge level, which critics thought would make it a great product for its young demographic, but maybe not for other gamers.[lower-alpha 4] Sobeleski felt critics of all age groups would enjoy it; the adults would appreciate the comedy and gameplay, and the difficulty would be low enough for very young players. He admitted to being challenged by the air-based missions.[3] George, a writer for GameRankings, called it superior to Enter the Dragonfly for its increased responsiveness, frame rate, and focus on simple platforming over repetitive fighting.[34] Other critics also praised the controls as responsive, Juan Castro of IGN calling them the most functional of the entire series.[lower-alpha 5] Hollingshead wrote the game was easy to play, but reported issues in difficulty balance. He felt that being able to progress was occasionally hindered by a lack of detail on the map, the obscure placement of some dark jewels, and platforms being unclear in how to get on to them. On the other hand, the amount of hazards were small, and the foes "are laughably avoidable for the most part".[23]

The graphics and music were generally well-received.[33] Critics analogized the visuals as a polished PlayStation 1 title; although lacking detail that took full of the PlayStation 2's capabilities, the child audience would still be enamored by its colorful and sharp textures, detailed enviornments, and adorable, cartoonish and well-animated characters.[lower-alpha 6] Hollingshead compared its visual cartoon style and upbeat music to The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003).[23] Sobelski highlighted the particle effects, such as explosions and Spyro's fire breath, but felt the polygon amount was too low for the fantasy world to be immersive, in spite of textures and lightings trying to hide these limitations.[3] Paul Kautz of 4Players reported minor issues of background texture flickering and slightly-off anti-aliasing in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions.[17] Although finding the music "somewhat rehashed and quirky", he found the voice acting and "very well done and quite comical in all the right ways".[3] Michael Lafferty of GameZone dismissed the music as "on the elevator side" and "the type that one might hear in a pre-school, soft, light, and somewhat annoying after an hour".[24]

IGN gave the game a 7 out of 10, saying in a positive review, "Spyro: A Hero's Tail delivers a decent amount of fun. While lacking innovation in style and play mechanics, the game controls well and offers enough challenge and length to warrant a hard look by parents looking to buy a game for their kids. Also, the inclusion of new characters, new attacks and a ton of collectibles will keep collector-nuts playing for at least 15 hours. In the end, A Hero’s Tail is a definite improvement over Enter the Dragonfly. It’s a solid, albeit simple and slightly unimaginative platformer."[2]

• Spyro: A Hero's Tail at MobyGames