Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage Review *spoiler warning*

[Blazeymix 890]

Introduction:

I got it beat 100%, woo! Going through this game really REALLY got me thinking about how much I really don't enjoy Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. I'll explain why I feel this way soon. So as the direct sequel to the awesome hit Spyro the Dragon, how does this one hold up? Well, like sequels are well known to do, it doesn't top the original. This one has Spyro traveling other worlds of Avalar instead of the Dragon Realms, and just about every problem with the original title is fixed or resolved in this sequel. So why is it that I don't much enjoy playing this one? The answer is simple... Quests. Not just that, but this game's design is a classic example of one step forward, two steps back. Read on.

 

Story: 8/10

So before I get into the quests and everything that's new about this game, let me talk about the story. And boy did they step it up since the last game. Instead of a more Mario-esque style of "Bad guy takes over world, save everyone by yourself from bad guy", it's a LOT more detailed and open. You notice immediately that Spyro isn't the only main character in the game anymore. Now he has friends! Well.. friendly creatures that need his help anyway.

 

So following the events of the first game, Spyro is feeling pretty beat. He needs a vacation, and he picks Dragon Shores as the perfect place to relax. As soon as he hops in the portal to go there, his between world travel is intercepted and he is taken to a new world called Avalar where he meets the new friends that need his help. Why do they need his help? As Spyro is confused by where he is and who THEY are, an evil little guy with a ceptor shows up and immediately displays his distaste for Dragons. The fairies scatter these Orbs around Avalar to prevent the little bad guy named Ripto from using their power for his evil means. While Ripto tries to smack one, he drops his sceptor in one of his big minion's mouth and retreats. Boy what a mouthful.

 

So Spyro learns that the creatures who summoned him(Elora the Faun, who reminds me a LOT of Sally, Hunter the Cheetah I think or Leopard? Idk. And the Professor) used the orbs to get him there and to get him back HOME he needs to collect them all. Great. So while he's stuck there looking for them, he may as well help out the good guys and kick Ripto out of their world right?

 

Right. So after collecting 14 Talisman and beating up both minions and finding enough orbs, he faces Ripto for the final battle, and spits a fireball at him to knock him off a bird and into the lava. Kinda gruesome death, I thought it was pretty harsh and graphic when I was little. So with Ritpo defeated, Spyro heads to dragon shores after collecting all gems and orbs and enjoys his vacation.

 

Overall, the story was a lot more amusing and interesting than the first game, it brought new characters into the mix and the bad guy had lots of personality and is my favorite villain in the series. The story isn't amazing but it is a great improvement over the first game if I do say so.

 

 

Gameplay: 3/10

Here's where things get really interesting. There are a LOT of new things to cover in this game. So I won't waste much time in explaining the core mechanics of Spyro as it's much the same as the first game. What's changed here are new moves, new movement mechanics, lots of new... tweaks to gameplay as well.

 

So let's start with Spyro. What's new? Well the first thing I noticed when I started playing, literally almost immediately, is that he moves a ton slower than the first game. His charging is a LOT slower and more steady, which might be better for overall control over him, but personally I found it to be less fun. His speed is so steady that the gameplay just doesn't feel as fast paced as the first game, which by all means wasn't fast paced but at times it definitely was. In other words, the pace in levels is just much slower. His movement is also tighter, when you turn with a diagonal dpad input you can charge with a sharp turn. This wasn't particular useful but it was an update. One thing that changed was when he runs and jumps together. See in the first game, you can charge and hold the jump button to make Spyro charge and jump repeatedly, which increased his charging speed quite a bit. Made catching those egg thieves a lot easier. Well that's no longer possible, with the slow movement also came the slow jumping and charging. When you charge and hold the jump, he'll make a long jump with a ton of slow airtime, eliminating the speed increase altogether, which was unfortunate. Also worth noting, is that Spyro can no longer do the Side Roll move that he can do in Spyro 1 by pressing the L1 or R1 buttons. This was an odd update but not bad, I NEVER used the Side Roll in the first game so I didn't care anyway.

 

He has a new Hover mechanic when gliding. Basically, the Triangle button doesn't drop Spyro in midair like the first game, instead he does a hover move with his wings that lifts him up a few feet before he drops down. It's VERY useful for reaching ledges that are a bit too high to glide to. I loved the introduction of this move. Spyro can now swim in water, something that was impossible in the first game. If he so much as touched liquid in the original he would take a hit. There's even an entire level dedicated to swimming, which was a lot of fun actually. It's too bad they didn't make a few more water levels. He can climb walls with ladder textures on them and he can do a ground smash with his horns, much like Yoshi's Ground Pound with his rear. These new moves really help improve and innovate Spyro's movement and gameplay, with some levels cleverly using his climbing and other moves to progress in unique ways that would be impossible in it's predecessor.

 

Even Sparx got some notable upgrades. No longer does he take forever to chase a butterfly and chomp it. He now chomps them super quick and gets right back to gem collecting. It's like the developers knew this was annoying in the original, so they fixed it. Good move for them. Also new is the extra lives system. There are now rainbow butterflies that give Spyro an extra life when Sparx eats them. They are trapped in jars, but Spyro can make them appear if he gets Sparx to eat enough butterflies. One more new thing.. is Sparx's gem collecting radius. Ho...ly... COW. In the first game you had to be nearly right next to a gem to collect it, even when charging past it. But in this one, Sparx's collecting radius got a SERIOUS upgrade! He collects gems about 3-4 feet away! I actually found it impossible to collect gems directly by Spyro because Sparx was just so efficient at it! The only way Spyro could get them on his own by directly touching them is when a gem would fall out of something that exploded or when Sparx was gone from too many hits, OR when Spyro did his Super Charge. I like this change altogether, makes gems easy to get. Though sometimes I wish I could collect them directly with Spyro, I don't like Sparx doing all the work for me all the time..

 

Now that we got them out of the way, let's talk about what's new in the actual GAMEPLAY. So... for starters, CPUs. There a TONS of them in every realm of Avalar. Gone is the feeling of being alone in the realms, every realm is bursting with personality and life. Heck, you even interact a LOT with CPUs to progress through the level! At least in the earlier levels. And I think this change was mostly made because the developers knew how empty the original game felt. LIke I said, the entire game was improved. Or was it..?

 

With this drastic change came ONE BIG MAJOR FLAW... and this flaw is littered throughout the entire game, ultimately making this game nearly unbearable for me to play. And that change is... The level design and Quests. Yep, Quests. First of all, at the start of every realm or "level" are little cutscenes that give you a hint about the conflict in the stage. As soon as you enter a realm, you talk to a greeter CPU who is native to the realm and tells you that their world is being attacked and if you could clear out the baddies or something close to that. So once you talk to him, you then progress through a very tight, linear based level until you get to the goal CPU who gives you a Talisman or an Orb then opens the portal for you to leave. The way the worlds are designed is a very distinct and reacurring pattern that you'll get used to super fast. You run through an area, narrow passage, next area, narrow passage, final area, all of this in an elaborate line but still linear nonetheless... This doesn't make you feel like you're exploring a world anymore, it just makes the levels feel like tedius missions, which they are... though you can collect gems that are well scattered throughout the level and there are plenty of platforms to jump and climb etc etc to make sure the levels don't feel like a complete straight line.

 

No, the true exploring of every level begins once you get to the end. Oh but first... you have to kill the baddies. See, killing baddies no longer drops gems. Instead, their spirit gets collected into a powerup device which will activate once you kill a certain amount. So by the time you reach the end of the linear level, you'll have activated a powerup device if you killed enough baddies and usually this device will allow you to get to places you couldn't get to before or blow up metal chests. So this mechanic really encourages you to backtrap through the level to make you feel like you're exploring, but really it's just.. backtracking. Though some levels do open up a lot more space when you get these devices working. Some levels, like the water level, make you backtrack once you get the powerup device working but ALSO open up new areas once the level is completed, totally seperate from each other though. You don't need to kill baddies to get to the new areas in this case. These designs are decent and I wish most of the levels did it like this. Also, I should explain more on powerup devices. Like I said, once the baddies are killed enough, these things activate and once Spyro runs through them, he can use a special move depending on which device it is. For example, instead of the kissing Fairy that gave Spyro super flame breath in part one, you run through a fireball device and Spyro shoots super fireballs that fire straight like a missile. Instead of Supercharge pads that Spyro charges on to gain super speed, you just run through a supercharge device and he'll supercharge that way. One cool thing about this though is that there is a flying device which lets Spyro actually fly in the stage, although very temporarily like all the other powerups. Personally I preferred the original Spyro's way of powering up much more, because it was more personal. You didn't have to collect spirits to gain supercharge, you simply had to run on pads to charge SUPER fast. It was much more fluid and immersive in the original game, and it's just adds to the fact that the levels are WAY TOO LINEAR and plain small in Spyro 2. BLAGH.

 

Also about the baddies, there are as much variety of baddies as there are CPUs. Most levels have their own kind of bad guys, which is cool... but it's not like the first game, which had similar baddies in every realm of a world. For example, if you were in the Magical world, you would find nothing but wizards and magical creatures in all the realms of that wolrd. In this game, every realm has it's own set of baddies. Which could be good or bad depending on taste. Something I noticed is that there is a LOT less focus on armored vs unarmored enemies in this game. In the original, you had three distinct enemies. Small, Small Amored, or large. The small you can charge or flame, the small Armored you had to charge, and the large you had to flame. So when you'd see an enemy you'd have to figure out how you were going to take it out. In this game the enemies are less focused on Metal vs Non-metal and more on big vs small. Basically, they're either big or small. That's about it. You can kill almost ALL enemies with the flame no matter what, and only some take a charge to defeat as I think one or two enemies has armor covering their bodies. This was a bit lame to me, but I guess it makes things less technical and more about what each enemy can do to attack. And boy do these enemies have lots of ways of attacking you. So it's more of a tradeoff. Where in the first game you had to focus on how to kill them, this game focuses on the many ways to kill you.

 

So aside from the linear level design and backtracking, there are a few more things that really change up how Spyro works. For one, there's Moneybags. Who or what is that? Well.. it's a greedy bear that has an english accent and he loves gems. He wants to be filthy rich and he'll charge you out the asz for lots of "services" through Avalar. Things like opening up pathways, or openning up new levels and speedways, or teaching you new moves. I found this guy annoying at first because of how greedy he is and how low he'll stoop just to get your gems, but I actually like the fact that you CAN spend gems in this game. In the first game, gems were just.. collecting things. Couldn't do a thing with them except find them. But here, you actually spend them, you use them, there's a true and good purpose to finding them! So it adds something to the game that I think is brilliant. Though, I hate that finding gems shows you the TOTAL amount you've found in the game on the screen no matter where you are. In the original, when you collect gems in a level, the total you've found in the LEVEL will appear on the top left to let you know how much you've found. Once you left the stage, it would add to your total pool and you'd see your total in the hub worlds. I liked this because it was easy to know how many more gems I had to find before I got them all. In this game, because it shows me my complete total, I have to constantly check my guidebook to find out how much I have left to collect in the level, and this takes away yet MORE from the immersion and pace

 

For two, there's less worlds and realms and speedways. Spyro the Dragon had 6 worlds, the first five had 4 levels each and one speedway each and the last world had 3 levels and a treasure room level for a grand total of 23 realms + 5 speedways + 1 treasure level + 6 hubworlds = 35 levels/maps. In this game? 3 Worlds, 18 realms, 4 speedways, 3 boss arena's, and one bonus end game level(Dragon Shores) = 26 levels/maps not counting the boss Arena's.

 

For three....... And this is the other big reason why this game is my least favorite in the series, Quests. Yup, we're finally talking about quests. So what are they and how do they work in Spyro? Well we already know that the CPUs tells us to get to the other CPU at the other end of the linear realm right? Once we reach them and he opens the portal, he'll give a talisman or an orb, we went through this so that's good. However, through the level, are other CPUs(completely identical to the intro and outro CPUs mind you), that will talk to you and ask you to help them with some task. This leads to minigames or missions near that CPU. Some are easy but most are just plain annoying and will take multiple attempts to complete. Some are so incredibly tedius that you'll want to smash your controller and others are tedius AND time consuming, you know the ones that make you wait like a ride or an escort mission and if you screw up once you have to do it ALL over again. Yeah, it's that kind of questing. Pretty much none of these are fun, but once you complete the task, you'll be given an orb for your trouble. The entire game is basically centered around this system. Meet CPU A, get to CPU B, Meet CPU C and CPU D throughout the level to do missions/tasks/quests to get orbs. Because of this system, I literally DREAD every level in the game because of the fact that I remember the annoying, boring, tedius quests that are in it.

 

One quest has you flame/charge 5 slow moving cattle to get them from one end of the map to the inside of the fence. Once you get all 5 finally inside, one at a time... up platforms, around turns.. you have to find 3 more for a second orb. And these three are even further out. FUN RIGHT? No... not at all. Another mission has you flame dinosaurs that eat villagers if you don't flame them fast enough. Think it's easy? Not when there's like 5 running around at once and little time to save the villagers! Another one has you escort this IDIOT alchemist through a field of big golem baddies that will smash him and make him drop his bottle of Stone solvent. You have to charge the golem's before he reaches them or he drops it. Why is this annoying? Cause after doing it 50 times... because I have to follow the same path over and over and he doesn't walk fast either... I hate that mission. I hate it so much. One other mission has you race to a flag that has a genie on a flying carpit on it, you have to shoot him with a super flame ball to get him down. Once you do, you have to then chase him back to the CPU guy without being hit by his barrage of bombs. And believe me, this is hard as heck. Oh but once you do it, you have to do it two more times, both get harder and further away from the CPU. Fun right? Hell no. Hell. No.

 

Bosses on the other hand were given a major overhaul. Remember my complaint about how easy and unnoticable the bosses were? Well, the developers REALLY must've listened to feedback assuming people also felt the bosses were lacking because these bosses are big...and impossible not to notice, and HARD AS HELL!!!! Seriously! Without a doubt these bosses are the hardest in the series. Right off the bat the bosses have their own arena's. So you can't miss em. They also have life bars, so you know they're bosses, and the first two Minions are just HUGE. The bosses are quite unique and intricate too, they do have a pattern to learn and you have to hit them 10, count em, TEN times to beat them. They're hard, and fun and awesome. Ripto being the most pain to beat because he has three segments to his fight. My only complaint with the bosses is that there's only 3. Like the first game, one per world. Too bad there's only 3 worlds...

 

Another issues is the fact that this game is just too easy. It's easy throughout the entire thing. Since every level is similarly designed and pretty small, every level's difficulty is basically the same. It doesn't get harder as you go along, nope. Only thing hard in this game are the bosses mentioned above.

 

Last to discuss is Dragon Shores. Once you collect everything in the game, you may enter this vacation spot. So what is it? A small theme park-esque place with 3 minigames and a theatre to rewatch all the cutscenes. Yay. None of the minigames are fun except for the roller coaster which might be either fun or annoying for players. Once you collect 100% of the game though, you may enter the big door in Dragon Shores, which reveals a powerup that grants Spyro permanant fireball breath. This would be great if you know, you could play at least SOME of the game with this at first but getting it after you get everything in the game is completely POINTLESS. Even when I was little this powerup was a huge disappoint. Why get a permant upgrade when everything is dead and beaten? Uh.. cause it looks cool? I don't know. Dragon Shores is overall pretty lame and disappointing, but at least we get something more than a treasure room level like in Spyro 1. Nah.. I'd still prefer that.

 

So while the levels have much more life and personality, this life and personality stops at nothing to bug and pester you to do this and do that for them the entire game, making what could've been potentially fun and awesome into something I just dread. There's also lots of new moves, but they are completely overshadowed by the crappy linear maps and quests. If the realms were designed to be more open and explorative like the first game, then these new moves would've make a TON more possibilities and fun ways to explore. But they are completely wasted because the levels just don't focus on the core gameplay of Spyro's moves and gliding. It's more focused on going from the start to the finish and doing little missions. The first time playing through the game is great honestly, but never again! No! It's just unbearable, it's not fun at all. The level design is plain boring and small and linear, with only a few spots in the game decently fun to explore.

 

Music and Sound: 4/10

There's not much to say here. The sound doesn't have the same fun that the first game did. For example, the baddies. When they die, they make sounds, funny sounds sometimes, but none of them sound as funny and awesome as the Gnorc's and other baddies did in the original game. This game has TONS of different enemies, but none of them have that charm that the first did. None made a sound that made me smile. The sound effects otherwise are standard and normal. Nothing really to talk about here. The voice acting is decent for the time when VA was rare in PS1 games. Spyro's voice is different than in part 1 and not as cool. Still fine though. The music in this game is completely forgettable. While the composer is the same from the original game, his music seemed much like the gameplay did: Linear and without focus on Spyro's world. Gone is the atmosphere and mystical feeling from the music, every level is just themed with a forgettable track from a talented composer. It's sad really..

 

 

Replay Value: 2/10

Oh god. I might play this game in another five or ten years. When I have forgotten about what the worlds are like for the most part. There's zero reason to play the game again like the original, except playing THIS one again isn't fun at all, UNLIKE Spyro 1, which is fun to play again because of the experience and awesome gameplay. Playing this again is just incredibly undesirable. I dread the idea of doing all those missions again. God no.

 

 

Summary: I love all the Spyro games, even this one, but this one ONLY because of Nolstalgia's sake. I just don't like the way it's designed and the fact that the game is not focused on Spyro's gameplay mechanics but gimmicks and missions instead. Gone are exploration, gone is the atmosphere and magic of the classic original, every level feeling like a shallow boring drab world with crying helpless CPUs instead of vast, magical dragon realms. Sorry Spyro 2, I don't like you more than I remember! To the game's credit, it's definitely a fun time the first playthrough. Most missions and quests are okay and some are fun to do once, but when you try to play the game again, they're just.. horrible, like I mentione before. So play it once, then put it away or delete it!

 

Final Score: 4.5/10

 

Author's note: This took me two whole hours to write. It's huge, thanks for reading all the way through if you made it this far.

[blade_tigerx 192]

That was a very long review. Love the detail put in, I have to say, I only briefly played this game years ago, maybe even back in 1999, didn't get far, but I recall hearing that this game was really good. It's a shame to hear a lot of the fun and exploring was taken away to be linear and full of annoying quests (insert current game joke here) but it was good that they made changes to the right problems to the original one, like making the bosses have more presence and continuing the story. But it's a shame that they tried to redo what already worked, the old saying "If it's not broken, don't fix it" which it seems they did. So I may give this game a try, I've never really played the Spyro series and would like to, so best to do the original trilogy.

 

Great review SaL, well detailed with good and bad points, and the story does seem fun, but 100% doesn't seem worth attaining in this game.

[dragonmaster77 188]

I will say I enjoyed Spyro 2 it was fun for me and plus it introduced characters we see again, heck Hunter sticks around till the end of the orginal series run and even gets a role in the Legend of series and as for Ripto and his minions Crush and Gulp despite there ends they return heck Ripto becomes the main antagonist for the Enter the Dragonfly game, a number of the game boy games even one of the main antaganists in the Crash Bandicoot crossover games.

[Miles Kjeller 23]

Fantastic Review,

I particularly enjoyed Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (EU), and you cover it brilliantly.

[Blazeymix 890]

Fantastic Review,

I particularly enjoyed Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (EU), and you cover it brilliantly.

Wow, thanks, I appreciate that. Glad you enjoyed my review.

[Blazeymix 890]

Looking back on this review, I gotta admit Spyro 2 is funner than I made it sound 2 years ago. I think I'll give a re-review soon.