Dawn of the Dragon returns to the previous glory of the original PS1 trilogy.
Spyro now is a more matured dragon along with the game taking a more dark feel than Spyro's past adventures. The combat system is very similar to God of War, with many mindless slashing and bashing combos that can be performed easily and to much amusement - which isn't a bad thing. The new scheme fits well with the game.
You can also join with a friend and play in a two-player cooperative mode at the same time, with one player controlling Spyro, and the other Cynder. This definitely adds to replay value and fun factor.
A few complaints on the controls and camera are notable, such as two-player cooperative mode getting frustrating if you do not follow your partner in tandem. The camera can tend to pan too far out, or follow the wrong player. Additionally flight controls can be confusing unless you change from default to inverted. Sixaxis flight is hit and miss depending on the situation.
Dawn of the Dragon's presentation is solid. Fluid and well rendered graphics are drawn in 720p on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 versions. While the graphics may not be the best seen on either system, they are definitely way above par. Both versions suffer from slowdown in rendering intensive scenes but generally maintain a stable framerate. Textures on the Xbox 360 version seem blurred and washed out compared to the Playstation 3 version. Other than that, the two versions are virtually identical.
The latest Spyro game is definitely worth checking out if you were a fan of the original trilogy - and at an MSRP of $49.99, it is a bargain against other new titles. Dawn of the Dragon gets an 8.5/10 in my opinion, and is worth adding to your game library.