Okay, so The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning on GBA is basically Spyro’s origin story—but with way more fireballs than you’d expect. You start off as this tiny purple dragon who doesn’t even know he can breathe fire yet, and within like 10 minutes, you’re roasting enemies and gliding off cliffs like it’s nothing.

The controls feel surprisingly good for a handheld port—no awkward jumps or weird hitboxes. And yeah, the graphics are actually decent for a GBA game. Spyro’s animations are smooth, and the levels have this nice mix of open areas and tight platforming sections. The story’s cheesy in that early-2000s way, but honestly? It works. You’ve got these weirdly intense cutscenes where Spyro learns he’s basically the chosen one, and then boom—back to torching lizard guys.

If you’ve played the PS2 version, this one’s obviously scaled down, but it’s not just a lazy port. They tweaked some mechanics to fit the GBA, and it actually feels like its own thing. Just don’t expect the voice acting—it’s all text boxes here. Still, for a handheld Spyro fix, it holds up way better than it has any right to.