Review #558: Spyro 2 - Ripto's Rage!

 His anger is your enjoyment.

Barney's back!

 Spyro the Dragon was a hit, deservedly so, which meant that a sequel was pretty much a given. Spyro 2 is every bit as good as the first one and then some, the improvements might not be game changers, but the first game was so good that there was little left to improve on.

 So, there's this nutty professor and his entourage fiddling around with a portal, accidentally bringing the pint-sized tyrant Ripto into their realm. Claiming ownership of the realm, but not before making it clear that he is afraid of Dragons, Ripto leaves on his merry way, so now the professor uses the portal to bait a Dragon into their realm in order to save them. As luck would have it, Spyro is the one sucked into the portal, and is quickly coerced into aiding their cause. The game is divided into 6 different worlds with about 6-8 stages and a boss each, and is about as long as the first game.

Headbutting enemies feels so good! And they deserve it too!

 The format of the game has changed a bit, now each stage has three different goals: Collect all the treasure, collect the talisman and collect the orbs. Treasure is peppered throughout every stage, and now has a use besides 100% completion, you can use it to buy access to stages, areas or new moves, such as climbing, head-smashing and diving underwater. Orbs are gated behind side objectives, usually minigames, such as completing a mine-cart course, finishing a turret section, finishing a hokey match, defeating every enemy of a certain type, etc. Orbs are used to unlock bonus flying stages. Lastly, Talismans, which are used to advance through the first two worlds, which are earned by finishing the stage's main objective, because this time around, stages are not just a collection of platforms and puzzles, but rather each stage has an objective, such as saving every villager from tree-monsters, ending the curse of petrified innocents or getting baby turtles to a safe haven. Needless to say, while I liked Spyro 1's simplicity, I like this approach much more, and making every collectible rewarding in some way goes a long way into motivating you to collect everything.

 As for Spyro's moveset, it's pretty much the same as it was in the first game, with the addition of swimming, climbing ladders and head-smashing. You still have charging headbutts and flame breath as your attacks, and will have to do with jumping and gliding to do all the platforming. Each stage also has a temporary upgrade, such as an accelerated dash, fireball-breath or flying, that's locked behind a defeated enemy counter and is usually required to obtain an orb. It's a good moveset, and level design is varied and well done, so you never feel like the game is cheating you. As a matter of fact, Spyro's slippery movement didn't cause me to die once in this game, so level design has been
tweaked a bit around that.

Enemies are different but offer no new challenges for Spyro.

 While every tweak is an improvement, and every addition is very welcome, I still feel as if Spyro 1's simplicity has its merits. Regardless, Spyro 2 is a better game, if only slightly, so I'm guessing that whichever game you play first is the one you'll like the most. Regardless, Spyro 2 is easily among PS1's greatest.
 9.0 out of 10