At this point, I expected to be happily fiddling with my brand-spanking new Playstation 2, comforted that my search for the perfect gaming console had come to an end. The announcement that Munch's Oddysee, the eagerly anticipated upcoming release by Oddworld Inhabitants, was to be released solely on Microsoft's X-Box in 2001 dashed my hopes for PS2's success. I had been saving my money, not buying any Playstation 1 games for the last few months, in the hopes that I could invest in quality PS2 merchandise ... but since that fell through, I took to researching recent and upcoming releases for the PS1, searching desperately for something worth playing in the X-Box interim. A fellow PS owner on the JA Forum kindly recommended Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage as a game that might capture my fancy, so I took a chance and plopped down $15 for a used copy. Here are my thoughts on this pleasant surprise of a platform adventure.

What's Going on Here?

After defeating Gnasty Gnorc in the first game (Spyro the Dragon), Spyro and Sparx (Spyro's dragonfly companion) decide to take a vacation from fighting evil and rest at Dragon Shores. However, on the worlds of Avalar, a group of peaceful creatures have accidentally released the evil Ripto and two of his dinosaur bouncers. Since Ripto is afraid of dragons, the Avalar dwellers attempt to grab a dragon from one of the many other worlds ... and guess who just jumped into a portal to Dragon Shores? Spyro and Sparx must save Avalar from Ripto's grasp in order to return to their rudely interrupted vacation plans. To succeed in this mission, Spyro must retrieve a series of magical orbs and gems on the worlds of Avalar.

Granted, Spyro 2's plot is not on the order of one of Square's epic tales, but it does hold the game together. I'll say it here for the first time, but definitely not the last: the Spyro games are probably the best examples of all-ages gaming. The plot is easy to understand for all ages but is still enjoyable for older folks like me.

Overall Plot Grade: B

How Did it Look?

Spyro is, at its core, a 3D platform game, and with all Playstation releases in this genre, developers must strike a balance between frame rate and graphical detail. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver and the Tomb Raiders are similar games that leaned towards detail rather than frame rate (at certain points there was noticeable slow-down of the animation due to the complexities of the images displayed). Spyro 2 leans the other direction and shoots for consistently high frame rates at the expense of some texture detail. Insomniac was very successful in this goal—not once, during the course of the game, did I see any noticeable drop in frame rate. The animations of the different characters in the game are very fluid, and the additional detail given to the main characters is excellent.

Even though there was a lack of high-detail textures and skins in Spyro 2, the graphics that were implemented were amazingly smooth, colorful, and fast—even more than could be expected. For example, although there weren't textures placed on every ground surface, all surfaces were very smoothly lit and looked good from every possible perspective (no pop-up whatsoever). There were some fancy graphics included for specific effects, such as the rippling water and the sparkly appearances of Zoe the fairy—and Spyro's flame breath was done particularly well. This game is a testament to quality as opposed to quantity, and I hope that Insomniac continues this tradition.

Overall Graphics Grade: A

How Did it Sound?

When Spyro 2 was released, I read in a number of publications that Stewart Copeland (of The Police) had composed the music for the game, and I'd tried to imagine what he would write for a video game. Imagine my surprise when the game's music was, overall, fairly average. Sure, it's a little bit compelling, but it's nothing really extraordinary. If any of you are familiar with MODs, you'll know exactly what Spyro 2 sounds like, and you also know that it's nothing to write home to Mom about. Still, the music does form a nice backdrop for the game and is entirely appropriate for each of the worlds—and for all ages.

The sound effects were very nice and were exactly what I would expect from a game like this: slightly exaggerated but easily identifiable and very crisp. The real "gem" in this game (ooh, a pun!) is the voice acting. I was really taken by surprise as far as the quality of the performances—these folks actually practiced their lines before saying them. Additionally, the voices used matched the graphical image and personality of the characters to a T. Bravo.

Overall Sound Grade: B+

Was it Fun?

There's a lot to talk about as far as gameplay in Spyro 2, so I'll get right to it. The worlds, or levels, of Avalar are connected by portals, organized into three separate hub levels (Summer Forest, Autumn Plains, and Winter Tundra). Each world has 400 gems to collect, as well as a varying number of magical orbs and enemies to dispatch. Spyro can unlock special levels by obtaining more magical orbs. After the orbs on each hub level have been found, Spyro can advance to a boss encounter, where winning will allow him access to the next hub.

Pretty straightforward, right? Well, given that each world can take up to an hour to finish, Spyro 2 is a big game.I finished it in about 16 hours, but I am a seasoned game player, so it might take longer for some of the younger set. The difficulty of the different levels varies as you progress, so there's plenty of easy stuff to do before you get the hang of the controls.

Finding the gems and orbs is a little more difficult than you might think. Certain areas in the different worlds can only be accessed after purchasing a particular skill from Moneybags, a bear entrepreneur living in Avalar. You can learn how to climb and swim through Moneybags' training, and you'll want to do this as soon as possible to avoid as much backtracking to worlds as possible. There are other characters to interact with in the game, too—Elora can help you find talismans that you may have missed, Hunter the Cheetah can teach you special moves, and Zoe will save your game in the event that Spyro perishes in his quest.

Ripto has also enlisted the forces of other creatures to prevent you from finding the orbs. Most of these are fairly easy to defeat, and when beaten they disappear in fairly nonviolent ways, keeping the all-ages attitude alive. The creatures are more obstacles than threats, and many can be surpassed by simply head-butting them out of the way—no gore here!

There are also mini-games that you must win in order to gain some of the magical orbs. For example, there's a sequence where you need to play a game of hockey, another where you guide a manta ray through a series of hoops, and yet another where you have to keep turtles out of a pot of stew. These mini-games provide just the right amount of variety, keeping the player's interest in the final goal.

The control system is very simple to understand and utilizes the analog joystick for movement, so there's very little problem with moving somewhere you don't want to go. In fact, one of the few things that I can find wrong with the gameplay is the sometimes-strange automatic camera angles. There can easily be changed by using the shoulder buttons on the controller, so it's not an insurmountable problem.

The main issue I have with Spyro 2 is how saved games are handled. While in one of the worlds, if you save your game to the memory card, only the gems that you have collected will be stored. All enemies that you have defeated will come back to life when the game is reloaded. You will also not be at the location in the level that you were when you saved the game, so there's no saving and then trying a difficult jump, comforted in the fact that if you miss, you can always reload. This is mostly an annoyance, as I sometimes cannot finish a world in one sitting. When I return, I practically have to start over from the beginning, and as fun as this game is, replaying sequences can get a bit repetitive. Other than this problem, however, Spyro 2 is very close to a perfect all-ages 3D quest platformer.

Overall Gameplay Grade: A-

I was truly surprised by the depth and level of fun that Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage provided me during my morning workouts. Although I love more complex, more mature games, sometimes it's nice to just turn off my mind a little bit and enjoy a bit of the dragon. Highly recommended—especially for families.

Final Grade: A