Spyro: A Hero's Tail [Xbox]

Spyro returns with new animations, a new story, a new attitude, and a little help from his friends!

"I'm old," said an old-looking cartoon character during the Spyro: A Hero's Tale demo, "and I take... a really... long... time to... tell stories." Luckily Vivendi and Games Domain tell stories a little faster.

This is not your, um, older brother's Spyro the Dragon. The series and character have been given an overhaul. It's still kid-friendly and super-cute but now the feisty purple wonder inhabits a much more detailed world that maintains a steady 60 frames per second at all times.

The player gets to control Spyro, his good buddy Sparx the dragonfly, the irascible flying penguin Sgt Bird, Hunter the Cheetah, and Blinky the Mole, who can dig through portions of his levels with his super mecha gauntlets.

The developers claim the Sparx sequences play like Centipede, only you're the bug this time. Our impressions were the sequence was more like a third-person isometric version of another arcade classic, Tempest.

The story concerns an evil red dragon out to destroy the Dragon Realms. He's planted light-sapping dark gems all over the world, which Spyro and friends must find and collect.

Players can expect familiar Spyro gameplay and puzzles, with an emphasis on specialized levels using the above playable characters and a great deal of humor; J. Stewart Burns ( Futurama, The Simpsons) wrote the script.

New gadgets include the dragonball, which knocks enemies down like ten-pins, and the aqualung, for underwater shenanigans. Additionally, Spyro can breathe electricity, fire, ice, and -- new to the series -- water, onto his foes. He can also perform dragon feats like the horn dive, and use brimstone bombs and ice shards.

Spyro is back and he's packing a heck of a punch, featuring all new allies and gameplay surprises, and offering better family-friendly action than ever before. Now, if only we could do something about his terrible breath.