I have liked all the Spyro games... Sure, the originals were the best, but, the same thing could be said for almost EVERY SINGLE video game franchise.... (almost... so, don't rage there)
I heard a rumour, before Skylanders was announced, that the devs were trying to make a mature Spyro game for the older-generation who grew up with him, but it got canned quickly to make this kiddy-knock off...
Sure, it may be built around the gimmick of toys into game characters, but, eh, I was looking forward to the older-targeted Spyro games... Still, hard to sell a purple dragon to adults purely from "Hey, you played this as a child!?!!"