Drathmoore's Games you have to play

Right. I'm Drathmoore. Student, Musician, Dictator-to-be. I've signed up to do reviews, but due to a lack of money that may be difficult. Instead, I fell I'll tide you over with this feature: Games you have to play (which is just really a cheep way of reviewing old games...). Enjoy.


Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer


Okay then. Spyro was, and still is, one of the long standing faces of Video-Games. And, similar to Sonic the Hedgehog, has gone downhill in recent years. However, Spyro went into the rubbish for different reasons. You see, Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer and Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon were all developed by Insomniac. After that, Universal took the rights away, and gave them to various different companies, such as Krome Studios (makers of the "Legend of Spyro" Series), Digital Eclipse (who made the GBA Spyro games), and others, but none of which were ever as good as Insomniac.

Nowadays, you couldn't have a game like this. Mainly for the humour. The Spyro series, while childish and cartoony, has some dark humour, of which is most apparent in Spyro 2. Some of the cutscenes in Spyro 2 openly involve or strongly suggest death, but it is presented in such a way that a child would laugh. Come on, tell me that those cutscenes from Colossus aren't freaky. And the animal cruelty issues these games have... Insomniac really seemed to hate sheep. The sheep got their ownback in Spyro 3, but that's a different matter (and those were "Space sheep").

Storywise, the game isn't bad. It takes off a little while after Spyro 1, where the "Dragon Worlds" (and their inventive naming) have seen a torrential downpour. Spyro decides to go on vacation, and so with his friend Sparx the Dragonfly sets off through a portal to Dragon Shores (told you the naming was inventive). Meanwhile, in Avalar (not to be confused with Avalon, the island in Arthurian Legend), a Mole, a Faun and a Cheetah, by the names of The Professor, Elora and Hunter respectively, are trying to catch a Dragon. And they do so by going to Glimmer and setting up a portal (thus the name "Gateway to Glimmer"). The reason why they need to get a Dragon is to scare off Ripto, a Dinosaur-like dictator who has started to take over Avalar. They catch Spyro (of course; there wouldn't be a game and/or a reason for me to have been telling you all this). Ripto comes along, with his two minions Crush and Gulp (more inventive naming for you there). Ripto sees Spyro, and proceeds to get angry (thus the name "Ripto's Rage", of which this game was called in non-PAL regions). He runs away, you need to chase after and kick his butt, while going through elaborate levels collecting Gems, Orbs and most importantly Talismans (which are symbols to say you've just gone through the level). Alright, it's not a J.R.R.Tolkien masterpiece, but it's meant for kids, what do you expect. Do you watch kids' tv shows for double-entendre and sex jokes? Well, if you watched Animaniacs, then I presume that you did (see here for details). The characters are nicely fleshed out, you really start to hate Moneybags (the real villain - he's the one that gives Ripto everything he needs, and then promptly gets his butt kicked by the dinosaur with "short-man syndrome"), and the voice acting is actually pretty good (listen hard enough, and you can even hear Spongebob Squarepants. Try finding him in Hurricos).

As for the gameplay, it plays rather well. If you've played Spyro 1, then adjusting is easy; Spyro can jump (as usual in any platformer), glide, and now hover (by pressing Triangle mid-glide, it gives Spyro a small bit of extra height). Also available are new abilities, such as Swimming (in Spyro 1, water killed you. Quickly. Like lava), Climbing (he's a Dragon, and didn't know how to climb?), and the Head Bash (think of the Ground Pound from Super Mario 64, but with your head. And on Rocks. Ouch). You can't roll anymore, but instead you get power-ups. Remember the Supercharge from the first game? Well, there's that and more. The way Power-ups work is that there will be two tall pyramidic posts close to each other. In between the to posts will be a number. This number is how many enemies you have to kill (another reason why you won't get a game like this nowadays; it encourages the killing or random creatures. With a flamethrower). Once you kill the amount of enemies necessary, you can unlock Supercharge (just running fast), Superflame (Fireballs in other words), Superspring? (a power-up unique to this game; thrusts you upwards), Invincibility (do I really need to explain?)... etc. The aim of each level is to reach the end of it, normally reaching some sort of objective and helping the local residents along the way. Doing so will earn you a Talisman. Get enough of these Talismans and you can reach the boss: the first being Crush (who tries to kill you with a club. Inventive considering his name), then Gulp (who fights you by CHARGIN' HIS LAZAR!!! Yeah. Sorry about that. Anywho, this is inventive, considering his name), and then finally Ripto in an epic duel (who fights using magic. But you get to use magic, so it all evens out). There are an assortment of Sub-bosses in the levels, but I won't cover them at the moment, mainly because I can't be arsed.

What else is there... Music! Yes, the music is calm, ambient, and nicely fits in with the game. A little bit of repetition in the songs being used for levels, but that doesn't really matter. The bonus level is very fun (basically think of a theme park. Then make the attractions out of your enemies. Odd considering that the employees of the theme park are enemies from the first game. Maybe they don't like each other?).

Spyro 2 is very enjoyable. Aimed at kids, but fun for all ages. Look, I don't need to explain it anymore, it is simply a Game you have to play.