Sequel September 4 - Spyro 2 : Ripto's Rage! (PS1)
The next sequel stop is the sequel for the first game I ever reviewed on this blog (I say ever like it was more than six months ago). The original Spyro was an instant hit on Playstation, and any gamer you talk to will tell you that the only other good one on the Playstation generation was it's sequel, Ripto's Rage. Is it actually good though? Let's see.
Your main objective throughout the whole game is collecting talismans from every portal-world, so you can use them in your fight against Ripto and his goons. These are necessary to collect every one of these in each main world before you can unlock access to one of the boss fights, for instance the first world has six talismans you need to find, and all six are required before you can face Ripto's first goon, Crush. Each portal-world also comes with a secondary objective which changes from world to world. These are completely optional, but tend to be pretty fun and challenging (yes both). Lastly, for you completionists, there's the collection quest of obtaining every item possible in each portal-world, such as gems, orbs, spirit crystals, and a few others that, just like the secondary objectives, are exclusive to each portal-world.
Enemies remain pretty much the same from the first game. These are also exclusive to each portal-world, but all have the same requirements to defeat them. Most can be taken down by either charging them, or hitting them with your fire spit. Some enemies carry metal shields that must be charged, and some are far too big to be taken down with a charge and must be hit with fire. There are a few enemies that carry a shield that must be gotten through first before you can hit them, so these are the first ones that require two hits to defeat. Spyro 2 also features three different bosses, which now come with their own health bars. These fights are a bit longer and require some strategy.
One new element to the series is special moves. There were a couple in the first game, but it was a matter of finding something in the environment to activate it, such as the lit-up hills for the super-charge, or finding a fairy to boost Spyro's fire spit. Now, there are certain worlds with a specific power-up move that you can unlock, and the move is accessed through a small portal. To unlock the move, you must defeat a required amount of enemies (which varies with each world), but after doing so you can jump into the portal whenever you want to give yourself the move for a short time. Most of the time, you won't need these moves to complete the main objective, but they are a great help in collecting all of the gems if you're going for 100%.
Lastly, Spyro has access to a few new moves, such as swimming and climbing. These moves are all purchased through a character called Moneybags, who appears all over the different worlds. Wherever you see him, when you talk to him he'll swindle you for some gems in exchange for you learning a new move or giving you access to a previously unreachable area.
Overall, Spyro 2 is a great game just like it's predecessor. But is it challenging?
Your enemies are fairly easy. They still go down in one hit, so it's all about timing your approach to them and hitting them before they hit you. It's normally not that hard to do, but there are some enemies who have a longer reach than you do and it seems almost impossible to hit them without taking some damage yourself.
The bosses have stepped up their game this time around! While they aren't pull-out-your-hair difficult, I'd put them between moderate and hard for difficulty level. They have health bar's this time, so these battles last a smidge longer than the original Spyro boss fights, and their moves can be pretty tricky to avoid.
Collecting all the gems (if you wish to do so) can be a moderate challenge. But again, this isn't required, and if you only wish to collect enough to purchase the moves you need and gain access to the extra areas, you'll be able to find more than enough laying about in the level ready for you to grab. So if you're just playing the game for the story, this area will be pretty easy for you.
Lastly, the main and side quests in the game. At worst, these are a moderate difficulty, but most are fairly easy. One in particular stands out as being the easiest because you literally do nothing. To collect one of the talismans, on this world in particular, it's inhabitants are being tormented by an evil Yeti (is there any other kind?) So to earn the talisman you have to defeat the Yeti for them. Once you get to the area where you're supposed to fight the Yeti, it switches to a cutscene where the Yeti stomps around a few times causing a statue to fall through the ceiling and crush himself. Yup, it's that easy. The rest are definitely harder by comparison, but aren't very hard overall. The sidequests all have different difficulties, represented by 1 - 5 stars, but in reality they're not that challenging for the player. They are more fun than difficult so if you come across them, definitely take a few minutes to do them.
In the end, Spyro 2 as a whole presents a slight challenge for the player, but it only increases with how much you wish to do in the game. But before we get into whether or not this one's worth it, let's look at the pros and cons.
- Supporting Cast. With a slightly bigger cast this time around, the game gets a bit more variety, and what's more important is the story actually gets some attention. The first game just was all about Spyro, and the only other people who talked were the dragons you freed, and that was only for a few seconds at a time. Now Hunter (a cheetah who looks a lot like the Cheeto's Cheetah), Elora (a faun who Spyro calls a goat at their first meeting), the Professor (the dude who started this whole mess) and even the villains get some voice time. It looks, sounds, and feels a lot better this time around with the added characters.
- No Big Changes. One of the biggest failings of a lot of sequel games is they change too much from the original when it was already perfect. Insomniac did not do that with Spyro though, as all the amazing stuff from the original is back again. While it does look a little repetitive at first, the fact that you can pick this game right up and not have to relearn a game all over again is a beautiful thing
You can find a loose disc copy of this game for around $15, or a complete in case copy for $20, but as awesome as the cover art looks, you'll want to go for a complete copy. Just check it out.
Hope you've enjoyed this review, there's one more stop for Sequel September, and then we're on to HorrorTober! I've got a pretty fun lineup picked out for the next month's games.
Also, the next streams will be starting after next Monday. I'll be streaming The Evil Within for PS4 on my new YouTube Channel and Sunset Overdrive for Xbox One on my Twitch, but those videos will be archived on the YouTube Channel. And the votes have been tallied, I announced it yesterday on my Instagram and YouTube, the game that will be getting the review for those two is Evil Within (which is pretty cool since it's a horror game and the review should be up during HorrorTober).
The Story
Spyro 2 picks up right after the first game ends. Spyro and his dragonfly Sparx are celebrating their victory over Gnasty Gnorc, but their homeworld is facing some bad rain storms, so they decide to vacation elsewhere as a celebration. While they're traveling, on another world, Avalar, a few inhabitants of the world are suffering the consequences of one of their professor's experiments. The professor was messing with his own portal device and accidentally summoned the evil Ripto along with a couple of his goons. To fix their mistake, the trio attempt to summon a dragon since Ripto is deathly afraid of them, in hopes that the dragon will help them banish Ripto from their world. The professors experiment works again and Spyro, along with Sparx, is dragged into the world of Avalar. Shortly after his undesired arrival, the portal is destroyed. Now, Spyro is trapped on the world and must set off on another quest to collect the talismans and defeat the evil Ripto. Will he be able to?The Controls
The controls remain the same, and therefore just as great, from the original game. X let's Spyro jump and glide, O controls his fire spit, △ let's you look around the area or hover in place in mid-air while gliding with Spyro, and □ is your charge button. All movement can be done with the D-Pad or left joystick, and all camera movement is controlled with the triggers (L1 or L2 swing it to the left, R1 or R2 swing it to the right).The Gameplay
Nothing really changes for the gameplay style between Spyro and Spyro 2. It's a little sandboxy still, you have full access to all portals in each world as long as you've unlocked them. You can choose which portal to go through, and whether or not you want to complete your main objective or just explore and collect everything possible.Your main objective throughout the whole game is collecting talismans from every portal-world, so you can use them in your fight against Ripto and his goons. These are necessary to collect every one of these in each main world before you can unlock access to one of the boss fights, for instance the first world has six talismans you need to find, and all six are required before you can face Ripto's first goon, Crush. Each portal-world also comes with a secondary objective which changes from world to world. These are completely optional, but tend to be pretty fun and challenging (yes both). Lastly, for you completionists, there's the collection quest of obtaining every item possible in each portal-world, such as gems, orbs, spirit crystals, and a few others that, just like the secondary objectives, are exclusive to each portal-world.
Enemies remain pretty much the same from the first game. These are also exclusive to each portal-world, but all have the same requirements to defeat them. Most can be taken down by either charging them, or hitting them with your fire spit. Some enemies carry metal shields that must be charged, and some are far too big to be taken down with a charge and must be hit with fire. There are a few enemies that carry a shield that must be gotten through first before you can hit them, so these are the first ones that require two hits to defeat. Spyro 2 also features three different bosses, which now come with their own health bars. These fights are a bit longer and require some strategy.
One new element to the series is special moves. There were a couple in the first game, but it was a matter of finding something in the environment to activate it, such as the lit-up hills for the super-charge, or finding a fairy to boost Spyro's fire spit. Now, there are certain worlds with a specific power-up move that you can unlock, and the move is accessed through a small portal. To unlock the move, you must defeat a required amount of enemies (which varies with each world), but after doing so you can jump into the portal whenever you want to give yourself the move for a short time. Most of the time, you won't need these moves to complete the main objective, but they are a great help in collecting all of the gems if you're going for 100%.
Lastly, Spyro has access to a few new moves, such as swimming and climbing. These moves are all purchased through a character called Moneybags, who appears all over the different worlds. Wherever you see him, when you talk to him he'll swindle you for some gems in exchange for you learning a new move or giving you access to a previously unreachable area.
Overall, Spyro 2 is a great game just like it's predecessor. But is it challenging?
The Challenge (or lack thereof?)
Spyro 2 is on the same level of difficulty as the first one. From your enemies and bosses, to the gem collection and main/side quests, you'll face a decent amount of challenge all across the board.Your enemies are fairly easy. They still go down in one hit, so it's all about timing your approach to them and hitting them before they hit you. It's normally not that hard to do, but there are some enemies who have a longer reach than you do and it seems almost impossible to hit them without taking some damage yourself.
The bosses have stepped up their game this time around! While they aren't pull-out-your-hair difficult, I'd put them between moderate and hard for difficulty level. They have health bar's this time, so these battles last a smidge longer than the original Spyro boss fights, and their moves can be pretty tricky to avoid.
Collecting all the gems (if you wish to do so) can be a moderate challenge. But again, this isn't required, and if you only wish to collect enough to purchase the moves you need and gain access to the extra areas, you'll be able to find more than enough laying about in the level ready for you to grab. So if you're just playing the game for the story, this area will be pretty easy for you.
Lastly, the main and side quests in the game. At worst, these are a moderate difficulty, but most are fairly easy. One in particular stands out as being the easiest because you literally do nothing. To collect one of the talismans, on this world in particular, it's inhabitants are being tormented by an evil Yeti (is there any other kind?) So to earn the talisman you have to defeat the Yeti for them. Once you get to the area where you're supposed to fight the Yeti, it switches to a cutscene where the Yeti stomps around a few times causing a statue to fall through the ceiling and crush himself. Yup, it's that easy. The rest are definitely harder by comparison, but aren't very hard overall. The sidequests all have different difficulties, represented by 1 - 5 stars, but in reality they're not that challenging for the player. They are more fun than difficult so if you come across them, definitely take a few minutes to do them.
In the end, Spyro 2 as a whole presents a slight challenge for the player, but it only increases with how much you wish to do in the game. But before we get into whether or not this one's worth it, let's look at the pros and cons.
PROS
- Spyro Can Swim! This was the biggest flaw in the first game. If you touched any water in the original Spyro, with the exception of shallow water or fountains, you instantly drowned. It made sense for the dragon character, but was annoying from a gaming perspective. It's a fictitious game, with a fictitious creature as your main character, make him do anything and everything! This time around though, you can dive underwater and do whatever you want. It's even amusing when you go to do Spyro's fire spit, a string of bubbles comes out instead.- Supporting Cast. With a slightly bigger cast this time around, the game gets a bit more variety, and what's more important is the story actually gets some attention. The first game just was all about Spyro, and the only other people who talked were the dragons you freed, and that was only for a few seconds at a time. Now Hunter (a cheetah who looks a lot like the Cheeto's Cheetah), Elora (a faun who Spyro calls a goat at their first meeting), the Professor (the dude who started this whole mess) and even the villains get some voice time. It looks, sounds, and feels a lot better this time around with the added characters.
- No Big Changes. One of the biggest failings of a lot of sequel games is they change too much from the original when it was already perfect. Insomniac did not do that with Spyro though, as all the amazing stuff from the original is back again. While it does look a little repetitive at first, the fact that you can pick this game right up and not have to relearn a game all over again is a beautiful thing
CONS
- No More Roll. One of the nicest moves at your disposal in the first game was Spyro's dodge roll. You could run in close to an enemy, trigger their attack, and roll to the side to avoid it before finally moving in for the kill. This time, you don't have a roll and it's a big problem with the enemies I mentioned in the Challenge section that have a greater reach than you do. It's a catch 22 sort of because it's a small move to erase from his arsenal, but it also leaves a decent sized hole in your attack strategy.Final Verdict / Improvements
Just like the first Spyro, Ripto's Rage is more than worth adding to your collection. It's just as much if not more fun than the first. The story in the gaming world is after this game, the Spyro series goes downhill, especially nowadays with the Skylanders series capitalizing on selling a bunch of toy figurines along with the game that are required to play the game in the first place. Whether or not that's true, I'll eventually throw some other Spyro games into the mix to let you know if the word on the street is worth listening to. For now, though, the first two games in this series are must haves. Spyro 2 brings in some new moves that are great additions to the series, and a story that is much more entertaining than the first.You can find a loose disc copy of this game for around $15, or a complete in case copy for $20, but as awesome as the cover art looks, you'll want to go for a complete copy. Just check it out.
Hope you've enjoyed this review, there's one more stop for Sequel September, and then we're on to HorrorTober! I've got a pretty fun lineup picked out for the next month's games.
Also, the next streams will be starting after next Monday. I'll be streaming The Evil Within for PS4 on my new YouTube Channel and Sunset Overdrive for Xbox One on my Twitch, but those videos will be archived on the YouTube Channel. And the votes have been tallied, I announced it yesterday on my Instagram and YouTube, the game that will be getting the review for those two is Evil Within (which is pretty cool since it's a horror game and the review should be up during HorrorTober).
