Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly – GC – Review

Not too long ago, Sony
partially owned two enormously popular franchises: Crash Bandicoot and Spyro
the Dragon.  When the PlayStation 2 arrived, Sony decided not to continue
taking part in Crash or Spyro’s distribution, giving full rights of both games
to Universal Interactive.  Two years later, Crash and Spyro have both gone
multi-platform with new developers, designers and artists.  Even though Jason
Rubin was no longer there to oversee the game’s development, Crash Bandicoot
turned out to be better than ever.  Spyro’s original creators were not
involved with this game either.  That doesn’t matter much though, because
Universal got the right people to handle the task of developing Spyro: Enter
the Dragonfly.

Enter the Dragonfly has one main, gigantic level that links together several
other levels, creating one enormous, consistent world.  Most of the areas are
very wide-open.  You could go to the end of one level not be able to see
everything, regardless of how far you look.  Fog is not used to cover up the
backgrounds, and pop-up is nowhere to be found.  But there is so much to see
that you have to get closer and closer to each object, enemy, platform or
mountain to see it.  Think of it as visiting a small town.  Just because
there’s a big house a half a mile away does not mean that it is visible from
where you are standing.

The architecture is good,
though not quite as intricate as other action/adventure games.  That’s mainly
due to the nature of this game though.  Spyro is more of a runner and a
glider, not a jumper and a climber, making it important to create worlds that
match his gameplay style.

As such, rocks, mountains
and stair-shaped terrain are favored over hovering platforms.  You’ll come
across a few traditional platforms every now and then, but for the most part
Spyro sticks to its own layout.

Spyro may be a dragon,
but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a little electrifying fun every now and
then.  Aside from his standard fire-breathing attack, Spyro can acquire a few
additional powers: ice, bubbles, lightning and wing shield.  Ice power cannot
be obtained until later on in the game, but you’ll gain bubbles in less than
30 seconds.  Bubbles are pretty useless against enemies, but it has a purpose
for being there: dragonflies.  Dragonflies are Spyro’s equivalent to stars,
shine or jigsaw puzzles.  The more you collect, the more levels you’ll gain
access to, and the closer you’ll get to completing the game.  Dragonflies are
not hidden on top of high mountains or locked inside of a secret cave.
Instead, they roam free through most of the levels, and they must be captured,
not collected.  Since they’re always on the move, you’ll usually end up having
to chase them down.  They can’t be burned (makes sense, right?), so you’ll
have to "bubble" them a few times to slow them down enough for you to snatch
them.  It’s not really that difficult.

The majority of the
dragonflies are in easy-to-find areas.  Others are located inside of the Enter
the Dragonfly’s many mini-games.  These mini-games include such things  a cow
collecting game in which you must pilot a UFO and grab six loose cows with
your retractor beam, and then carry them into the pen.  An enemy UFO will try
to prevent you from accomplishing your mission by stealing the cows first.  A
single blast from your laser cannon will make the enemy drop any cows that
they are holding, so long as they have not been completely sucked in already.
Another mini-game will have Spyro controlling a tank (yep, you heard right, a
tank).  Your mission here is to eliminate every enemy tank in sight before
they eliminate you.  Not too difficult, and it’s pretty entertaining.

But wait, that’s not
all.  I only listed two mini-games, and there are several of them!  The
classic Spyro obstacle course returns.  The first one requires you to fly
through a series of rings, shoot down a few enemy hang gliders, light several
Asian-style lanterns (with your fire-breathing power), and burn a couple of
pigs.  Everything I just listed must be accomplished before the time runs out
(about 90 seconds).

There are other
mini-games, but it would take a long time (and a lot of space) to list them
all, so let me just end this by saying that if you like good mini-games,
you’ll definitely like Spyro.  It’s packed with mini-games, most of which are
simple and geared toward children (the mini-game-loving crowd).  These
mini-games are far superior to those featured in Crash Bash, Mario Party and
most other so-called "party" games.  The only downside is that they’re only
for one player.  Most of them wouldn’t work as multiplayer games anyway.

After bubbles comes the
power of electrocution; lightning.  Lightning doesn’t have a whole lot of
uses, but there are specific locks that can only be broken with lightning, and
a few platforms that won’t move without electricity.  Lightning cam also be
used as a great weapon.

Then there’s the ice
power, which is used to freeze things (like enemies).  The wing shield is the
least interesting of all the power-ups.  All it does is give Spyro the power
to block enemy attacks.  That may sound cool, but why block when you could
strike first and prevent an attack from coming?

All is well in the land
of Spyro expect for one thing: the story.  This game is clearly aimed at young
children.  Why?  I don’t know.  The gameplay is good enough (though perhaps
too easy) to attract older players.  Yet the story is so ridiculously young
that most people will be turned off in the first five minutes.  The kiddie
voice-overs are horrendous, and the annoying story is just plain silly.  Not
only that but there is a large amount of junk to read for a game that’s geared
at kids.  I’m sorry, I don’t care what anyone says, but the average
six-year-old is not going to want to read several pages of text before they
can begin playing the game.  They could skip the text, but the game is a tad
confusing at first, and if you’re not overly familiar with 3D
action/adventures, you WILL get lost.  Some of you will look at these things
as being minor complaints, but I’m sure there are many gamers that will be
annoyed by all of this.

Regardless, Spyro: Enter
the Dragonfly is an excellent game that’s worth a spot on your Christmas
list.  I hoped it would be good, but it far exceeded my expectations.  Enter
the Dragonfly may have been created by a new development team, but it is still
a true game in the series.  To be perfectly honest I like it more than the
PSone Spyro games.  I guess it was better that the original developers moved
onto something else, because now we have not just one, but two great,
brand-new action/adventures to explore — Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and
Ratchet & Clank.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 8.5
If you liked
Spyro before, or even if you didn’t, chances are you’ll enjoy Enter the
Dragonfly.  It’s his best adventure yet, with better levels, better gameplay
and slightly improved controls.

Graphics: 6.9
Spyro has a few
cool effects, but they’re nothing we haven’t seen at least a couple of times
before.  All of the consoles are capable of producing much better graphics
than this.

Sound: 5
The only thing
that prevented this game’s sound from receiving a lower score is the music,
which isn’t too bad every now and then.  The voice-overs and sound effects are
pure kiddie though.  Think Blue’s Clues meets Puff the Magic Dragon.

Difficulty: Easy
Spyro is a blast,
but it won’t overwhelm you with challenging level objectives.  Like I said,
this one is intended for young kids…

Concept: 7.5
Story aside,
Spyro’s concept is pretty good.  The additional gameplay elements are nice, as
are the new mini-games.

Overall: 7.5
After you finish
Mario Sunshine, Spyro is the action/adventure game to buy.  I’d buy it even if
I hadn’t finished Mario.  It’s not the longest game in the world, but this
genre is known for having very short games, so I can’t complain too much.  Is
it better than Crash?  In some ways yes, in some ways no.  If you can afford ’em
both, or if your Santa Mom, Santa Dad or Santa Grandparents are feeling
generous this year, don’t hesitate to make Crash and Spyro the new additions
to your GameCube family.