This is November’s entry for the “retro game club” that I participate in with some friends. The nominator claimed this as the most solid entry in the original trilogy, and I can see why. It has established mechanics that are slightly iterated on, introduces a stable ensemble that carries forward into the rest of the series, and isn’t bogged down by the many extra playable characters that the third entry unsuccessfully added to try and keep things fresh.
Insomniac’s Spyro games were a trio of 3D platformers on the original PlayStation that featured a non-traditional non-humanoid protagonist. Spyro served as one of a number of vying de facto mascots for the PSX, despite not being owned by Sony. He arguably has enjoyed the most success beyond his creation… but at what cost, seeing as his series was eventually segued into the Skylanders franchise.
But anyway, those original three, and Spyro 2 (subtitle Gateway to Glimmer, Ripto’s Rage, or Outrageous Tours, depending on your region) in particular, are solid and innovative 3D platformers. Spyro is a joy to control: he can speed around with his charge attack, and his glide move and fire breath work smoothly. The breakneck pace of the charge can feel like you’re careening out of control, but this is actually a fun kinetic element of the movement that makes it feel even more rewarding when you get it right. I suppose the conceit of the character is that he’s a young dragon who hasn’t fully mastered his powers yet; for example, free flight is only done through powerups in contained arenas.
I can’t go further without describing the single strongest design element of the game: Sparx the dragonfly is Spyro’s constant companion and you know I’m a sucker for a buddy duo platformer. Sparx is an economical partner in that he both changes colours to represent your health, thus allowing for a health system that eschews UI clutter, and collects gems (the basic collectible) around you in a certain radius. Losing Sparx through damage thus adds to the feeling of peril by removing this endearing collection effect. Restoring your health involves the problematic slaughter of native animals (which are unique to each level), but leads to an amusing animation of Sparx chasing a butterfly to eat it. The collection mechanic is a boon to the movement system as it lets you roam carefree, not worrying about precisely picking up each gem. Basically Sparx is great and even without speaking has little basic touches of character that make him fun.
Speaking of speaking, this game has full voice acting. A neat feature of the CD-based format, and it gives the incidental NPCs more personality even if most of it is just a silly voice or accent. These NPCs are also unique to each level and for the most part are contained only to that level. This helps the cartoony, episodic feel but it also can feel a little disjointed, plus they often fall into tropes or questionable stereotypes. Still, I like the designs… less successful are the small skit-like animations that play before and after levels. Also underwhelming is the main plot of the game, which is barely there and what does exist is contrived. I didn’t care at all about what was supposedly happening, but luckily seeing what new content was next kept me going as the game was just basically fun to play and each new level had new experiences that I looked forward to discovering.
Not that all the game’s challenges were satisfying, however. Whenever a supercharge powerup was required, for example: no bueno. Several other of the minigames or challenges were equally steep tests of patience. But it wasn’t too agonising to get to 100%, minus the optional extra achievements, many of which were not interesting or rewarding enough to attempt. Some backtracking is also necessary for all collectibles, as you are obligated to revisit levels after unlocking new abilities… problem is there’s only really two or three such abilities so it doesn’t feel like a well-integrated part of the game. It doesn’t otherwise feel rushed or unfinished, but there is a strange imbalance of content in that the hub worlds are season-themed… but there’s only three of them. And they have different numbers of levels, the third being the smallest. Odd. (Sidenote: the third world was missing the MacGuffin collectibles for plot reasons, but that made clearing its levels feel less satisfying, especially as the plot was so perfunctory.)
But let’s conclude. Spyro 2 has well-developed core competencies with a fun movement system, some inspired design touches like Sparx, and varied level designs and themes. It also looks great—for the time anyway. It’s not all roses if you’re aiming for full completion, and the story is totally half-arsed (albeit attempting a simplistic cartoon-like feeling), but it’s certainly one of the stronger 3D platformers in an era that was chock full of them. It even inspired me to seek out other games with dragon protagonists, the results of which you can watch in this stream archive.
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