The Spyro Retrospective continues! We join the purple dragon for another adventure as he ventures to a new land, learns some more moves and collects an endless amount of gems. Lets get flaming!
History:
The game started production not long after Spyro 1 went gold, so similar to Insomniac's future series Ratchet & Clank, the Spyro PS1 Trilogy was in rapid development. So while many played Spyro 1 Fall 1998, Insomniac was hard at work on the sequel due out a year later.
Not much is out there for development history for Spyro 2 but again mirroring a future Insomniac series, voice actors switched for the second installment; Tom Kenny became the new voice for Spyro. What is interesting about this? Well, he is only the voice of a yellow sponge under the sea and of a ice wizard in a specific adventure based show. This is a big deal in retrospect.
A fun fact about Ripto and the games title; in Japan Spyro 1 had its own original JP name but when looking at it, Insomniac thought it looked liked a word called 'Ripto'. They loved the name and used it for both the NA title & the main villain of the game. EU also got a different name compared to the US version....if you read the Retrospective sub-title, you might get the hint to this.
I also feel that Spyro 2 got a larger amount of funding, as there is a lot more voice acting and the amount of locations compared to Spyro 1 increased with more stuff to do in each of the worlds. Spyro 2 released in Fall 1999 alongside Naughty Dog's final Crash title, Crash Team Racing. Spyro 2 got great reception and work on the third & final game from Insomniac in the Spyro series was underway.
Story:
This is much larger in Spyro 1 in many ways.
Spryo and Sparx are relaxing, where they see a portal to Dragon Shores pop up. They run into the portal hoping to find relaxation after their battle with Nasty Nork from the first game. In Summer Forest, we have three characters trying to summon a Dragon to take out a foe they acidently brought to their world; Rypto.
They end up getting a dragon.....and its Spyro. He asks if this is Dragon Shores but soon learns that he is yet tasked with yet another adventure to complete. Spyro says "Oh well, lets get started" and the adventure beings.
What makes the story here fun is the character interactions. We get great characters like Hunter, the Professor and Money Bags introduced with this game and many of them appear in future titles. Everyone is voice acted and they are well voiced. This includes all the side NPC's you see in the other levels across the game and it makes this world a living, breathing place.
Spyro 1 accomplished that with its atmosphere but Spyro 2 does that same effect with a push toward character interactions and I like this shift. We also have intro and ending scenes when we enter/leave the levels, giving you a nice feeling of 'conclusion' after beating each world. Really like the characters and world of this game, with this direction continuing with Spyro 3.
Gameplay & Progression Structure
Here, this is where the Spyro series really shined the brightest honestly. The gameplay is the very core of Spyro 1; exploring levels to collect every single gem and accomplish the 'main' goal. But HOW this plays out turns this into a very different game.
Spyro learns some major moves here. He can learn to climb walls, he has the ability to flutter in the air to get some extra height for jumps (start the game with this ability), swim underwater and a ground-pound esc horn dive. All of these mores are core abilities Spyro has for a number of future games, so this game established his 'core' moveset.
Spyro's swimming is something I have to comment on, as it is some of the best swimming controls in any 3D platformer I have ever played. Spyro moves so gracefully when swimming and this makes exploring underwater slowly or quickly very relaxing & enjoyable. Core gameplay structure got a big overhaul, as instead of saving X amount of dragons to unlock the next set of levels you have to collect one talisman for each world to beat the game. But to fully see everything, you need to collect all the gems and orbs.
Gems function like in the original game, where can stockpile a massive amount of them just from exploring the worlds. But we have Money Bags, which makes gems feel important. You unlock some of Spyro's moves and access new parts of the level by 'paying' Money Bags with your gems. This games value to them and a good reason for you to collect them.
The orbs are the power stars, jiggys and so on; missions that are tied to the 'big' thing you need to collect. They are very varied too, ranging from just helping someone deal with some pests by spitting rocks at them too riding on a mantaray racing Hunter underwater. The variety for these missions is consistent and varied, making completing these fresh and interesting.
But some of the missions are annoying......hate the ice skating one. Otherwise, most of them are a lot of fun.
Speedway Levels:
These are getting its own section due to them being one of the highlights of the game to me. Like the original Spyro, these allow you to fly around in an open plane where you have X amount of goals to complete with a timer counting down.
What makes Spyro 2's ones so much fun is two extra features that got added; the ability to super charge (running very quickly when holding down []) and side missions in each Speedway for Hunter or another character.
These give more variety to these levels and make them more replayable then before.
Gates:
When you defeat all the foes in a given stage, you can unlock different gates that power-up Spyro with different abilities. They include the following: Flight, Super Flame Breath (break strong objects), Spring (jumps very high when hitting gate), Fire Skin (walking on lava). These are very useful and like the new way gems work now, give an existing mechanic new life through added purpose & meaning.
![37594-Spyro_the_Dragon_2_-_Ripto's_Rage_[NTSC-U]-8.jpg](http://199.101.98.242/media/images/37594-Spyro_the_Dragon_2_-_Ripto's_Rage_[NTSC-U]-8.jpg)
Bonus 100% World:
This is a big one; when you get all the orbs in the game, you can unlock the Dragon Shores area.....and it is full on level with mini games, gems to collect and more! It is a great reward for working hard on fully completing the game and a stable that Insomniac continues in later titles they produce.
Presentation:
Spyro 2 is a timeless looking game to me. You have vivid detail with the art direction across all the different worlds and the animations got a big face lift compared to Spyro 1. The voice acting is also better compared to Spyro 1 as well. Musically, Stewart Copeland returns to compose the score and it is one of my favorite gaming soundtracks. So many of the tunes are memorable and the hub world music is particularly breathtaking. So magical and otherworldly.
Gateway To Glimmer Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Utr7QbAgbA&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166&index=1
Summer Forest: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kUT-7YajIaQ&index=2&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166
Idol Springs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HD_7MuflM8&index=3&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166
Aquaria Towers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBwSmZhOcH0&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166&index=8
Ocean Speedway: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsa8xVv6oEA&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166&index=10
Autumn Plains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH5R_TzdAG8&index=11&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166
Skelos Badlands: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnGZLrzrvXI&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166&index=12
Dragon Shores: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QMpTo2GBmk&list=PL9FC1AF5B2633F166&index=35
Overall:
This is a PS1 Classic and very similar to Crash Bandicoot 2, the triogly to me, is topped here. Insomniac Games took what worked with Spyro 1 and did everything 100 times better. I really love this game a lot and I feel it stands up tall next to Mario 64, Crash 2, Sonic Generations, Ratchet 2 and other quality 3D platformers.
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