The 3D Platformer is my favorite genre, but that doesn't mean I automatically like every 3D Platformer. Moreso, it means I really love a great one and am annoyed by boring ones. One of the most common annoyances with the genre I have is when a 3D Platformer feels like it's ashamed with the genre. There's a weird amount of '3D Platformers' with platforming that is extremely easy and/or simple, where there's more focus placed on other elements. Banjo Kazooie arguably started this trend, but a few key elements make Banjo a good game, albeit one I personally don't like as much as other people. Despite the lack of difficulty, there's still always a feeling of vertical progression in each level, and platforming challenges often take place in fantastical areas or are contextualized with humourous mini-stories. The moveset ironically de-emphasizes movement, but the level design is so dense that exploring is extremely fun, and the platforming simply compliments that. Tie in some good audiovisuals, and you have a winner of a game.

A lot of games, especially in the late 90's, were influenced by Banjo. This is fine, but many failed to realize what made that game good, and Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is one of the best examples of this. It does get one thing right: The audiovisuals. The music keeps the fantastical style of the original Spyro, and the visuals are still well animated, even moreso in the Reignited Trilogy rerelease. However, things begin to fall apart after that. You see, there's another element of Banjo I neglected to mention: minigames. I thought the minigames were pretty middling overall, but they're also not the main focus, so I still enjoyed the game. The problem with Ripto's Rage is that the focus is switched from platforming to these minigames. Instead of building a world with platforming challenges and sprinkling in the minigames, Ripto's Rage built a world filled with minigames and put platforming challenges between them.

Honestly, this could've worked as far as I know, but the issue is that neither element is good. The minigames are pretty middling overall and all of them feel extremely disconnected. The platforming takes place in levels with basic level design and a very simple moveset, which leads to most sections feeling very mindless. It leads to a game where each part feels like a chore, because that's basically what it is. Ripto lacks any presence in the overall game, and most substories are completely disconnected from the core conflict, so I never felt much actual importance in what I was doing.

My point is that Ripto's Rage has a lot of the stereotypical flaws of the genre without any particular strengths. The platforming is weak in both level design and movement, the story has some decent characters but the events are disconnected and not entertaining, and the minigames aren't good. You could probably say at least one of those about many decent 3D Platformers, but the fact that all of them apply to Ripto's Rage is what makes it a 4/10 for me.

Assim como boa parte dos jogos de plataforma que vieram após Mario 64, Spyro bebeu nas fontes abertas pela obra da Nintendo, e logo de cara foi o melhor jogo do gênero no Psone, com seu sucessor, Spyro 2: Rypto’s Rage, avançando em praticamente todas as frentes.

No aspecto técnico a margem para avanço não era tão grande, pois o primeiro jogo já era muito bem feito tecnicamente, com gráficos e sons muito bons, que envelheceram bem se compararmos com outros jogos da época. Spyro 2 ainda assim apresenta uma evolução, sensível, é verdade, mas ainda assim uma evolução.

A direção artística continua ótima, com uma trilha sonora muito boa, uma direção de dublagem bem feita dentro da proposta do jogo e especialmente na construção do mundo, ou melhor, dos mundos. Eles continuam coloridos e carismáticos, mas agora estão mais variados e principalmente, mais orgânicos. No primeiro jogo praticamente a presença de elementos vivos era mais esparsa e praticamente toda ela era hostil, mas em Spyro 2 os mundos estão mais cheios de vida, sendo habitados não só por inimigos mas também por elementos amigáveis. Nesse aspecto, mais personagens interagem com Spyro durante a jornada, cada qual com personalidades bem construídas e executadas. Além disso, o antagonista, Rypto, é mais presente na trama que o visto no jogo anterior, e ele agrega positivamente ao jogo, com uma presença marcante no mundo da obra. Uma coisa que é interessante notar é que a influência dele só existe em certos pontos do jogo, pois há fases em que as questões existentes são próprias delas, com subtramas independentes da principal, o que dá maior profundidade ao universo do jogo.

A maior variedade conceitual se traduz efetivamente em uma maior variedade prática, com diversos desafios diferentes ao longo das fases, fugindo da repetitividade e agregando positivamente à campanha. Além disso, cada fase possuí minigames diversos, geralmente implementados de maneira coerente com o mundo que estão inseridos, adicionando novas mecânicas ou aproveitando as já existentes.

No entanto, o “geralmente” na frase anterior não foi usado à toa: houve certo exagero na quantidade de desafios adicionais, o que acarretou em minigames que não são tão bem executados quanto outros, com menções especiais negativas a um que envolve coletar pedras que são do chão em uma competição com outro personagem e a outro de escoltar um alquimista. Esse excesso representa certa quebra no fluxo do jogo, que ainda que não torne a experiência necessariamente ruim, não ajuda. Outra falha de aplicação é que alguns desses desafios requerem que o protagonista domine movimentos adicionais adquiridos em pontos mais adiantados da jornada, o que falando assim não parece uma falha, mas a questão é que se esse minigame em questão for o 3º da fase, mesmo que a fase já tenha sido concluída e os dois desafios adicionais já realizados, ao voltar para a fase com a habilidade necessária o jogo força que os 2 desafios prévios sejam feitos novamente, o que representa um aborrecimento e tanto. Outro aborrecimento são as Skills Points, que são concedidas conforme certos requisitos são preenchidos nas fases, adicionando porcentagem na busca pelos 100%. A questão é que não raro algumas delas são irritantes, mas o mais irritante é que em nenhum momento o jogo te indica o que fazer. Para algumas delas até é possível conseguir pelo acaso (destruir tantos objetos X em uma fase), mas outros só com um guia mesmo, como dar 3 voltas em alta velocidade em um determinado percurso (ironicamente na mesma fase do minigame irritante de escoltar o alquimista).

Deixando os aborrecimentos de lado e retomando para as coisas boas, um ponto que Spyro 2 supera de longe seu antecessor é nas batalhas contra os chefes, com um design que utiliza bem as mecânicas do jogo. Ainda que aqui sejam apenas 3, todos possuem dinâmicas bem próprias para lidar, demandando certa atenção, especialmente a última, que se divide em 3 etapas. O combate nos chefes é bem feito, mas nem tanto em outros momentos do jogo, especialmente em ambientes menos espaçosos, em que a câmera se torna um desafio à parte. Fora isso, os controles funcionam muito bem no que o jogo foca, que é a exploração, e o level design que já era bom no primeiro jogo se torna melhor aqui, demandando percepção e inventividade para se alcançar determinados pontos dos cenários.

Mesmo com suas falhas, Spyro 2 não só é um dos pontos altos da série como do gênero em si, ganhando um remake no pacote Reignited Trilogy, mas vale dizer que mesmo a versão original de Psone (que foi a que joguei) é extremamente recomendável e garante um ótimo entretenimento.

One of the classics. Very replayable and fun.

Speedrunning is also pretty fun to do (except for the legendary gulp skip).

This probably doesn't compare to modern games. But at the time, was probably one of the best.

I should start this review by saying that I absolutely loved the first Spyro the Dragon. If anything could give Super Mario 64 a run for its money, it was it.
Spyro had an amazing sense of terrain; every single inch of level felt deliberately designed to test the player's understanding of jump arcs, gliding distance and steering while dashing.

Essentially, it was to Super Mario 64 what Sonic the Hedgehog was to Super Mario World: trading off a more diverse moveset and list of abilities for a focused design that challenges players to consider the level design carefully, and how your movement works in relation with it.

So it was at first very disappointing seeing Spyro 2 betray its roots. A quick list of minor issues:
- The gems tally carries over from level to level, making it less obvious at a glance how much of the level you've completed.
- Moneybags. I hate Moneybags. There's absolutely nothing redeemable or charismatic about him, and there's very little catharsis regarding him at all.
- Spyro 2 is awfully paced compared to the other two games, especially in terms of level-to-hub distribution.

But there were major design changes that I had issues with.
I preferred saving dragons over the NPCs who hand out Orbs for missions, for one thing. Between the missions and the generally smaller level design, it almost felt as though Spyro 2 wasn't confident in its platforming; and not only that, but dragons just make for more interesting banter, especially from Spyro's side that you don't see enough of in this game.
For another, the unlockable moves largely don't add much meaningful depth to the platforming and exploring, aside from swimming, and feel like padding, forcing players to backtrack. Coming straight from a game that required absolutely none of that, this was a very painful change.

Spyro 2 isn't a bad game. It iterates on the powers very briefly explored by the first game in interesting ways, especially the supercharge and super flame; swimming genuinely adds to the series and what it's capable of in terms of environments and level design, and adds some important new mechanics, most importantly the hover that lets you do a small double jump in exchange for ending your glide.

But it feels like a game that lacked conviction regarding its platforming - something the previous game never suffered from - and falls under the very trappings that that game avoided, but Rare's collectathons suffered from.

One of the greatest strengths of Spyro the Dragon lied in its simplicity — one that complimented its whimsical tone and aesthetic wonderfully, making it my go-to 3D platformer to play through whenever I just want to relax and have some fun. Ripto's Rage (or Gateway to Glimmer) retains and often expands upon the charm of the first game, however there's a catch.

It's easy to see why this was the Spyro game I had the most fond memories of as a kid; every single level has its own intro and outro cinematic which adds flavor to each world, the voice acting is comical and breathes a lot of life into the experience, and the entire thing feels a tad grander in scale than its predecessor. In addition to this, there are a handful of additions to Spyro's toolkit, the most notable being the hover and swimming, which makes Spyro feel better to control and also allows for more variety in its levels. I feel that if the new implementations had stopped there, Ripto's Rage would have been an outstanding sequel, but unfortunately it suffers from feature creep and has issues maintaining momentum.

In Ripto's Rage, there are two new forms of collectables: talismans and orbs. There are several orbs that you can obtain from each stage and the way you obtain them is through minigames that often switch up the core gameplay loop. I don't have an issue with this idea in theory as long as it's done in moderation, but here it's done in excess. The layouts of every stage are often designed with these minigames in mind, leaving the general parts of each stage to feel less intuitive than the levels of the first game on top of turning the process of collecting orbs into an exercise in tedium at points. While I enjoyed most of the minigames, the extraneous amount of them feel like additions for the sake of additions. Then there are the talismans, the MacGuffins of this game that you receive as a reward for clearing through each stage. In order to unlock the boss fight of each home world, you need the talismans of each level... until Winter Tundra, that is. I'm not sure what the logic is behind making it to where the stipulation for unlocking Ripto's Arena are orbs, but it leaves me wondering what the point of adding talismans into the game in the first place was.

There's also bloat in the form of the climbing and headbash mechanics, which you unlock in Autumn Plains and Winter Tundra respecively. I don't necessarily mind the idea of adding more tools to Spyro's toolkit (apart from climbing ladders being a strange mechanic to implement in a game where you control a dragon), however with these new mechanics comes a necessity to backtrack if you want to aim for full completion, momentarily hurting the momentum of the game in each instance this is required. The most egregious example of this the alchemist escort quest in Fracture Hills, which is not only one of the most obnoxious minigames throughout the whole game, but if you didn't know you had to come back to this level once you obtain the headbash from Winter Tundra, you would have to come back to this level later and escort the alchemist all over again just to unlock the part where you defeat the earthshapers with the assistance of Hunter. Thankfully the amount of backtracking in this game is kept fairly minimal, but I still think it's a shame that there's any at all considering that there wasn't in the first game.

Ripto's Rage is a distinctive sequel with a myriad of ideas brought to the table and while I do appreciate the experience for what it is, there's no doubt in my mind that it could have been so much more.

The hub themes in Spyro 2 (Summer Forest, Autumn Plains, Winter Tundra) are still memorable 16 years later!

I don't really have anything else to add compared to the 1st game. Being able to swim is cool I guess!

I'll definitely play the Reignited Trilogy when I get my hands on it.

----------Playtime & Completion----------

[Played in August 2020]
Playtime: 9 hours
100% Completion

Considering the fact that Spyro 1 was such a laser-focused experience that was extremely successful at accomplishing what it was attempting to do, it makes sense that the sequel would expand outwards to such a degree, rather than going down the route of refining what was already there. While the first game was almost purely a collectathon with everything else existing simply to elevate the act of collecting, Spyro 2 focuses more on being an more well-rounded gaming experience, filling in a lot of the spaces that the first game had left, resulting in something that feels a more formally "complete". You've now got NPCs that exist in the world beyond being utilised as collectibles, cutscenes beyond the opening and closing one, boss fights, side objective, just a ton of new stuff to sink your teeth into. I don't really love it as much as the first game for that exact reason, with all of these other objectives detracting a bit from the raw experience of "existing in a place", but the game manages to feel magical despite this.


The level design in general feels far less sparsely populated than before, not only adding more overall detail to each stage to make them feel more lived in, but also ensuring that there are other friendly entities in each of them, making the stages always feel more inviting even when hostility is never too far away. Rather than dropping the player in more non-descript areas that feel entirely taken over by the enemies, feeling otherwise devoid of life, the atmosphere here is more akin to walking somewhere that's in the middle of some kind of inconvenient, chaotic problem that you can still solve, with robot bugs eating crops or rock golems interrupting a party, rather than just throwing you into the aftermath of a bad situation. This gives the game its own charm and sense of whimsy that gives each stage a greater sense of variety, with the narrative elements of each stage bolstering the visual theming, making the act of getting to the end of each stage feel like a completely different undertaking, even when they're fundamentally the same with minor differences. While the pure collecting aspect of the game is less prominent, not really having as many stages with especially tricky to grab gems as long as you do a basic sweep of any given stage, the level design stands out by the way it connects its side objectives into the world.

There are a ton of orb minigames throughout the game, but the vast majority of these are built into the stage in such a way that they'll take place within some regular part of the stage that's completely accessible even if you've decided not to undertake these side objectives. It causes the vast majority of the minigames to feel very naturally implemented into the world, rarely feeling as if an area was designed purely as a vessel for a minigame, even if realistically, it 100% was. Most of them are fun as well, finding a lot of clever ways to utilise Spyro's core moveset, with there only being a couple of instances of completely altering the gameplay style. This gives everything a real sense of cohesion, especially when factoring in the fact that there are less areas in this game, but all of them are of relatively even quality as well.

The bosses in this game are also the best in the series from what I've seen, with there being only 3 main ones, but each of them being fantastically designed to feel threatening, varied and relatively involved fights, at least by the standards of your average 3D platformer boss. Gulp especially succeeds in this, both in how the player is meant to damage him, but also in how you're meant to avoid certain attacks, requiring quick thinking and careful positioning, since the weapons you need to use to hurt him can also be utilised by him to hurt you instead. It gives the battle a frantic energy, where you're having to carefully line yourself up to hit him, but can't be too slow about it since that will just lead to it being used against you instead. Moments like this that utilise Spyro's movement in a more active way are a lot of fun and extremely welcome in a game that focuses more strongly on the capabilities of Spyro, rather than purely about the surrounding world.

The game is also really funny, both in more overt ways with the dialogue and some characters looking incredibly goofy (Hunter's design is perfect and it makes him merely existing something really funny), but also some more subtle ways. The biggest example of this is how Ripto is presented as such a non-threatening villain through most of the the game, not just with how all the cutscenes show him as a bumbling idiot, but also with how this is the one game in the original trilogy that doesn't have a type of enemy directly associated with the main villain. Each world here just has its own separate issue completely disconnected from Ripto, nobody mentions him outside of the hub worlds, and his influence is nowhere to be seen at any point. His presence is still felt to an extent due to the focus on him in the hub worlds, but it's always funny to see that he has such little reach that no other world even knows of his existence. Moneybags is another favourite of mine, introducing a way to give gems a greater sense of value and also being another constant source of humour. I love how he just seems to have his hands in everything going on across the realms and always figures out a way to charge Spyro for it, he's just this omnipresent figure who'll exist in 7 different places in one location just because he sees a potential way to take more treasure from you.

Overall this is an incredibly good game that adds a ton to the Spyro experience. There are occasional issues with the game, with some of the orb challenges being on the more obnoxious side of things (the headbash mission in Fracture Hills being placed directly after the alchemist is a rough misstep in particular), but this is an incredible time nonetheless, even if I still prefer the approach the first game took. While the game may add a lot of additional distractions from the core idea of wandering around absolutely beautiful looking worlds, that appeal is still present to a great enough extent that I end up adoring almost every second of my time with this game regardless, and it'll probably be a more enjoyable game to you if you thought that the first game's loop wasn't engaging enough on its own to carry you through an entire game of it.

Fantastic video game. Goddamn this was a fun one.

I'll get the 1 negative out of the way: only 3 boss fights. The final boss was so badass it almost makes up for it. It's not a huge deal but the first game has several bosses so I was surprised it only had 3.

Ok, all the levels are so fun. This game reminds me of Sly 2, lot of unique levels with unique activities that are all fun to play. Loved all the characters you meet. This game just wants you to have a good fucking time.

Great music, all the songs fit their respective levels. Game ran at a locked 30, which for a PSX game I will never complain about. Never felt nauseous playing this one.

A must-play for the PSX. First one felt more epic which is why I felt this was a 9/10 and not a 10/10.

Blah blah blah the minigames suck. Everybody says that. They're right, but honestly, even disregarding them it’s still a lesser experience than Spyro 1. The pacing is awful. There's a seasonal theme to the homeworlds, so you’d think there’d be four, right? Nope, just three, no spring. The second homeworld lasts almost half the game. The third one only has four actual levels and the primary collectable is just abandoned. Instead, you need to collect the lamest shit imaginable, nondescript magic orbs.

Then there’s the backtracking. Constant backtracking to grab the last orb or gems, but only after replaying the whole level, and sometimes even the first part of a minigame to get to the second one. Fortunately, you can use the cool double jump glitch to skip some backtracking, but more often than not the levels don't allow it.

Everything that carries over directly from Spyro 1 is obviously good, like the art direction, OST, movement, etc. The writing is a bit more involved, which I'm not too sure about, but it's mostly funny. Everything else just feels like Insomniac did their best to make the game as tedious as possible. Surely Insomniac won’t make a trend of making an amazing first game, ignore what made it great in the first place, and make a mediocre follow up

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is a worthy follow-up to the original Spyro the Dragon, dropping Spyro off in much more whimsical levels and adding many features missing from the original game. Proper characters, side-quests, and minigames all help elevate this game and make it feel like an overall grander experience than the original Spyro. This game was also the introduction of Tom Kenny as Spyro's voice, an excellent update from the original VA's more whiny performance.

Spyro 2 has a few levels that feel like a slog to get through, and like most entries in the Spyro series the bosses tend to be a disappointment rather than a thrill to fight. The main collectibles of the game, the Talismans and Orbs, are much less personal than the Dragon Statues from the original which makes collecting them less satisfying. Power-ups are locked behind defeating a certain number of enemies within a world, as enemies no longer drop gems, which makes for a confusing change for players of the first game. There are a handful of missions in the game that can cause a lot of frustration for players as well (trouble with the trolley, eh?).

Spyro 2 was a solid direction for the series to take, adding a lot of elements that would stay in the series from that point on. There are questionable design choices in Spyro 2, though it still stands as the best the series has to offer.

Spyro 2 is always held as the best one in the trilogy, and this recent replay was me trying to see if I will finally get it. Unfortunately, it did the complete opposite and further amplifies why this game is the weakest one in the trilogy in my eyes.

Spyro himself is still such a joy to move around with, and the world visually is very creative. However, while the level design is still good, it’s still a step backwards from Spyro 1 due to focusing less on exploration or pure platforming. It is now scattered with mini-games that are either mindlessly easy or end too quickly to leave any impression on me. These meaningless variety that this sequel offers somehow makes me feel more fatigued towards it than Spyro 1. As repetitive as that game gets, it doesn't have any fat to it for me to get tired of replaying it each time.

The fatigue is also not helped by the unrewarding backtracking that feels so utterly pointless that I have asked why it’s even a thing. I don’t mind backtracking as long as it feels substantial, like unlocking new playable characters, which also gets you access to brand new sections with tons of gems to collect or decent mini-games that Spyro 3 offers. However, in Spyro 2, you only gain new abilities to collect a few gems and play a dull mini-game. That's all there is to it…

I will definitely say that the world and characters are a big step from Spyro 1, but it's like going from nothing to stale white bread. Outside of Moneybags and Hunter, I didn't care much about the other characters that just exist, like Elora, or they're supposed to be an effective villain but aren't, like Ripto, who acts more like a grumpy guy than a legitimate villain. The story just feels like autopilot to me, despite its clear improvements.

I know that I sound very harsh in this review, and that is partly true. I need to make it clear that Spyro 2 is still overall a solid game that I mostly have a fun time with. I would still revisit it over most other collectathon platformers, but for a game that is universally considered the best one by many fans, I just don't see it personally. In my eyes, the supposed perfect middle ground feels more like a watered-down version of its younger & older siblings (Spyro 1 & 3).

not my favorite of the ps1 spyro trilogy because i'm an unabashed spyro1 enjoyer, but ripto's rage is still a great time. it's kinda like crash2 in the sense of "it does a great job at iterating upon the formula of the first game while having it's own uniqueness, without having the gimmick bloat of the third game".

unfortunately a la ratchet going commando, doesn't get the full five stars due to far too many bullshit orb challenges for my liking. everyone memes about trouble with the trolley, but shit like the alchemist escort and the crystal popcorn challenges are worse. top worst challenge goes to the spark plug thieves btw!

also, i find it really funny that despite the game being called "ripto's rage" (in the US at least), ripto doesn't really do much outside of kick people out of castles and change flags. none of the enemies in the game are even related to him in any way either, he's only got crush and gulp as his minions and that's it. i get he does more in the later games and even has minions in enter the dragonfly of all things, but c'mon, the sorceress only appears in one game and she felt like more of a present threat in her game than ripto does in his debut game.

Ok, I need to make sure I get this right; this game is really important to me. Even if no one reads this, it’s important that I get all these thoughts out, even if just for myself. Alright, let’s get started.

No game left an impact on me the way the original Spyro 2 did. I have vivid memories of being in kindergarten and feigning a stomach virus so I could stay home and play the game, howling in exaggerated pain every time my mother walked by. Nothing could ever measure up to the magic of playing Ripto’s Rage for the first time, and this game is one of my all-time favorites even after twenty years. I am going to discuss my love of this game in five main categories, the things that really make Spyro 2 stand out from other 3D platformers. These categories are: gameplay, worldbuilding, characters, charm/aesthetics, and completion.

Gameplay: Spyro the Dragon was a competent game; it controlled well, the camera was good, and Spyro had a unique feel compared to other game mascots. However, while the gameplay was good, it could be rather basic. The sequel managed to overhaul Spyro’s move set so that it felt like a perfect evolution of the first game, being much richer and more varied. The addition of new power-ups opened so many new possibilities for new combat and side-objectives. Little touches like the hover and ability to climb added so mobility and opened the areas up much more for exploration, but the aspect of Spyro 2 which the game doesn’t get nearly enough credit for is the swimming controls. Underwater exploration in this game has the exact same speed and feel as on-land progression, and the transition is seamless. Underwater traversal in just about any 3D platformer from this era almost always ends up being the worst part of the game, but here it’s a complete nonissue. It’s simply incredible how much depth and variety Spyro 2 adds to the first game’s gameplay without feeling gimmicky or unfaithful. It is also impressive how it manages to keep the gameplay consistent; adding so many new objectives without deviating from the core gameplay loop in any way that would feel jarring (take notes Spyro 3).

Worldbuilding: One thing you’ll hear me say a lot about all three Spyro games is that they’re all really good, and one thing they have in common is great level design. Every Spyro has big, sprawling levels which are equal parts creative and immersive. However, while I love them to pieces, the levels of Spyro 1 and 3 feel like levels in a video game, but the levels of Spyro 2 feel like living, breathing worlds.

The intro and outro cutscenes for each level add so much personality to each world. Not only does every level in the game have unique enemies and conflicts, but we also learn about much of it through gameplay. Whether you are flaming sentient tikis in Idol Springs, blasting stone apart with bagpipe music in Fracture Hills, or turning on a Fountain to stop giant elephant-snails in Mystic Marsh, each area is wildly creative and distinct from any other level I’ve seen in any other platforming game. Other details like characters in one world mentioning another, Zephyr being at war with Breeze Harbor, or worlds with adjacent portals having similar character models all go a long way to making the world feel cohesive and alive. Almost every side-objective in the game teaches you something new about the world you’re in, and the objectives manage to be so creative and memorable, rarely boiling down to ‘just go here and beat up a bunch of enemies’ (are you taking notes Spyro 3?)

Characters: The repetitive Dragon rescues from Spyro 1 were easily the most grating aspect of that game. They lacked in design variety, weren’t well voice-acted, and didn’t add much of a sense of accomplishment to find. Yes, the Reignited version fixed this problem, but that’s a discussion for another time. Ripto’s Rage improved this by having a much smaller cast of characters with much more personality.

Spyro himself has a much better voice actor this time around, but he hasn’t lost any of his spunk from the first game. Elora is a wonderful support who manages to have a lot of personality despite the limited facial animation, Hunter is an endearing companion with a lot of charm, the Professor and Zoe are alright, Moneybags is a funny punching bag, and Ripto is one of my favorite video game villains of all time; the way he can have so much presence and charisma despite his small stature is very impressive. His boss fight is one of my favorites as well.

Even the side-characters manage to be very distinct and memorable. Few of them fall into typical cartoon archetypes. The Juliet character in the game’s Romeo and Juliet spoof has a hilariously non-feminine voice, the fauns in Fracture Hills talk like valley girls because they live in a valley, and the game has a dancing skeleton. Unfortunately, many of these nuances were lost in the transition to Reignited. Many of the characters in the remake have typical voices and personalities, and it makes some levels less memorable. I still think the Reignited version of Spyro 2 is great; I love the revamped soundtrack and a lot of the new character designs and visual details, but a few questionable changes like removing the epilogue and some worse voice acting make me hesitant to call it the definitive way to play the game(they also needed to change Hunter’s age. Seeing him date Bianca is going to be uncomfortable knowing that he’s 42).

Charm/Aesthetics: As a grown adult, I can still listen to Spyro 2’s soundtrack while doing my job, it’s just so damn good. As stated previously, the game is filled with charming characters, unique levels, and beautiful music. There is no other game, even any other Spyro game, that looks like Spyro 2. The aesthetics and music of Spyro 1 and 3 are wonderful as well: this is the only category out of the five where they may actually be as good or better in my opinion, and this was definitely the category I had the least to say about, because the wonderful presentation of these games speaks for itself.

Completion: I was discovering new details and gameplay factors in Spyro 2 up until the remake came out: I spent twenty years coming back to this game, and I was always glad I did. The cutscene theater was a neat reward for the PS1 era, but the permanent super-flame may be the best 100% reward I’ve ever seen in a game. Having the option to neuter the game’s challenge as a reward for finishing the game the first time is ingenious and learning years later that I can start a new playthrough with it was incredibly satisfying. Years apart: I learned about the new game file with the super-flame, the deviously hidden skill point challenges, the cheat codes, the adorable epilogue you get for getting all the skill points, and there is a game-breaking double-jump which lets you skip massive parts of certain levels.

… this game man

I honestly could have kept going. This game was such a crucial, irreplaceable part of my childhood. I love the other Spyro games, and I love the remakes, but the original Ripto’s Rage will always be the best in my eyes. I’m so happy to finally be able to pay my respects to a fantastic game which made me happy and brought me back time and time again. The Purple Dragon has had some less-than-stellar games since the original trilogy, and the future of Spyro 4 is still uncertain. But personally, I’m not worried at all, because I know that no matter what happens, the original Ripto’s Rage will be there for me if I ever need it.

Thanks, Spyro
and thanks Insomniac

the original Spyro the Dragon was the first ever PlayStation game I've ever played. I think I played it back in May of 2022? It's a little silly it took me over a year to finally get to Spyro 2. Now that I've finally got around to it, while I had a couple issues with it, I really did enjoy it!
It's hard for me to properly compare this to the original Spyro. That's mainly because it's been over a year since I played it, and I don't remember much about it. I remember certain things, I mean, I 100%'d it after all! But it's interesting then that I just don't remember much of it. But that being said, I do think Spyro 2 is an improvement to the original.
God, the main levels of Spyro 2 are pretty damn fun! They're mini-overworlds where you can do quests and platforming, and conceptually, they're pretty fun! Another review puts it nicely, where it's not just a "get to the end of the level" design. The actual platforming was pretty good, and worked really well in tandem with Spyro's moveset. I also like how there's both collectables in both the end-of-level talismans, and within-the-level orbs.
But this sort of leads into what is probably my biggest problem with Spyro 2, which is that a lot of the orbs you can get are gained from mini-games. I've mentioned this in numerous other reviews I've made, but I've never been a fan of mandatory mini-games. To beat the game normally, you need 40 orbs, which means you'll probably need to do a handful of mini-games. Most of the time, these mini-games just felt rough. These Mini-Games ultimately feel like they're padding out the run time to me, and taking away from what is a really good 3D platformer. In that regard, I would love if this game was shorter, and just relied around the platforming.
But one big positive that this game has is the bosses. The bosses from what I remember in the original Spyro were just chases. They were really uninteresting because of it. Spyro 2 however has actually bosses, and I loved them! I beat the final boss on my first try and it was the tensest thing I've done in a while.
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is definitely an improvement upon the original, and while I did have some issues, I still really enjoyed it! Much like the first game, the game has some absolutely great platforming, but I do wish they toned down on the mini-games. Still a really solid game though.