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Everyone’s favorite little dragon, Spyro, is back for another G-rated action adventure.
Most of the people in the Playstation console field are familiar with him, especially if they have attentive mothers. If for some reason you haven’t ever played a Spyro game, then consider this: It is an action-adventure game about a cartoon dragon that quests Disney style against a big meanie boss named Ripto. If you’re the type to enjoy Mortal Combat and Grand-Theft-Auto, then you should consider leaving Spyro on the store shelf, right next to Mario-Kart.
This Spyro falls tragically short of its superior predecessors. It is merely an average RPG for the younger audiences. You have a few moves, and full directional freedom of movement. Your objective is to rescue the dragonflies that were stolen by Ripto. Without the most intricate or well-written plot: One day, at Spyro’s party, the dragons are paired up with dragonflies. Then, Ripto appears and makes all the dragonflies disappear, and runs away after he tells everyone the dragons are powerless without the dragonflies. Yes, it is as childishly entertaining as it sounds. Sadly, the game has more bugs than a tropical rainforest. Many of them will force you to restart your game. Unfortunately learned this the hard way. Sometimes when your talking to characters, you can’t get out of it, and you’re stuck in an endless cycle of the same sentences instead of moving on with your quest. Your conversations are inevitable, just being near the characters triggers the dialogue and cinematic which you cannot move during. Some objects are larger or smaller than they appear, and the game’s collision detection is poor, your horns can stick through solid objects and you can sometimes fly right through things. I think there should be a little sticker on your TV to remind you: Objects on your screen may be less solid than they appear.
It’s fairly uncomplicated to control Spyro, whether you use the analog stick or the directional pad. Flying around, running, head-bunting your enemies, and breathing fire/ice/electricity/bubbles are your basic options. Flying takes a little bit of practice and the controls are sensitive, but once you get used to it, you will have no problem at all. The camera never makes things difficult since it is always so conveniently right behind Spryo, with exception for cinematics. It takes about thirty minutes to get used to controlling your playful purple dragon, making the game a piece of cake. Compared to other Spyro games, which all sport the easy controls, it is average, with few new concepts.
The graphics have not improved from its predecessors, even though they were all PS One games. The frame rate reminds me of a Japanese Steakhouse chef, which I can describe with one word: Choppy. Its frame rate is just horridly disappointing, since it was better in the previous titles. Though things like reflections on ice and simple shadows add to the graphics, the polygonal characters are just too simple. There is little detail in any of the characters or structures, making the game seem more cartoonish, which is acceptable since it is, after all, a children’s game. The colors are bright and plentiful, to give it a little eye-candy. The animation is smooth, with natural and realistic movements portrayed by Spyro’s wings and such. Some of the NPC’s look as if they have ADD, with their arms and legs bouncing constantly and every part about them moving at all times. Their mouth movements don’t even correspond with the dialogue as they speak, like watching a Japanese movie translated into English with poor lip-synching.
With professional voiced characters, done by the same people who voice cartoons such as SpongeBob Squarepants and my personal childhood favorite: Ren and Stimpy, you would expect the rest of the sound quality in the game to be superb. Unfortunately that is not the case, sadly. The voice-actors sound as if they’re reading straight from a script. The Asian accents are very bad, and there are multiple flaws.
This is a game for die-hard fans of Spyro and children only. It is an average game in the Spyro series, simply another quest and adventure with few changes. It only takes about twelve hours to beat, if you don’t have to restart it multiple times due to catastrophic bug problems. If you want an RPG, get something along the lines of Final Fantasy or Suikoden, but if you’re younger or a fan of this cute little dragon, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly will not disappoint you. -- Anonym. Contributor, PGNx Media
---- Jan 18, 2003
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