This review contains spoilers
For personal reference more than anything else.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Got 120%.
So to start off with, there's not much of a story and I also don't really like much of the dialogue as its either just dragons you save telling you how to play the game or Spyro being what I can only assume was considered 'cool' when the original game released. I kind of love Gnasty Gnorc as an antagonist with his only motivations for his actions being him getting insulted and told he's not really a threat, its so stupid and petty and its amazing. I also didn't hear much of the game as I was listening to music while playing it, but the little I did hear was good, the music was nice and the sound effects were really good.
The gameplay is the main attraction though and I really like it, Spyro feels great to control and being able to charge, glide and breathe fire is really fun. The game is pretty easy most of the time but it doesn't feel like its the kind of easy where its just straight up boring, instead it just feels fun. The only thing that I felt even slightly negative towards was the level Haunted Towers as the gimmick of repeatedly going back to a fairy to be able to deal with certain enemies or obstacles was kind of annoying, but even then it was trying something different and I didn't exactly dislike it (it along with Tree Tops were the only two levels I needed to consult a guide on to 100% though as I couldn't remember what to do and the actual solutions were things I'd never guess).
There are a few gimmicks throughout the game and they're nothing groundbreaking but they do offer a change of pace of sorts when it comes to thinking about a level. There's also the flying levels where Spyro has to hit all of the things within the time limit and I got really into these as they went on as it was fun to learn the best order to do everything in whilst also trying not to fly into something or end up in the the water. The boss fights were there but there weren't really any that stood out to me for any particular reason.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The game is genuinely so pretty looking, the bright cartoony look of it was really working for me and the fact that a lot of the levels look different from each other was so nice.
• Although speaking of the appearance of the game, I did run into a couple of graphical issues in that in one level, the enemies in boats were at a noticeably lower framerate than the rest of the game and in a couple of levels, I had enemies pop in quite close to me.
• I appreciated being able to use a level select and get basically anywhere from anywhere through the menu and even if I didn't use it, being able to listen to either the original soundtrack or the new one is a really good addition.
• There were some levels that felt quite good to explore as they made use of not only the ground but the rooftops of buildings and nearby floating platforms, I enjoyed having an excuse to use the glide more often and it also felt quite cool being on a higher part of a level and being able to see anything I missed or somewhere that is a bit further in the distance but I could now get to.
Either way I really like this game and it was quite fun to come back to.
Second time playing through this after the first time four years ago. Got 120%.
So to start off with, there's not much of a story and I also don't really like much of the dialogue as its either just dragons you save telling you how to play the game or Spyro being what I can only assume was considered 'cool' when the original game released. I kind of love Gnasty Gnorc as an antagonist with his only motivations for his actions being him getting insulted and told he's not really a threat, its so stupid and petty and its amazing. I also didn't hear much of the game as I was listening to music while playing it, but the little I did hear was good, the music was nice and the sound effects were really good.
The gameplay is the main attraction though and I really like it, Spyro feels great to control and being able to charge, glide and breathe fire is really fun. The game is pretty easy most of the time but it doesn't feel like its the kind of easy where its just straight up boring, instead it just feels fun. The only thing that I felt even slightly negative towards was the level Haunted Towers as the gimmick of repeatedly going back to a fairy to be able to deal with certain enemies or obstacles was kind of annoying, but even then it was trying something different and I didn't exactly dislike it (it along with Tree Tops were the only two levels I needed to consult a guide on to 100% though as I couldn't remember what to do and the actual solutions were things I'd never guess).
There are a few gimmicks throughout the game and they're nothing groundbreaking but they do offer a change of pace of sorts when it comes to thinking about a level. There's also the flying levels where Spyro has to hit all of the things within the time limit and I got really into these as they went on as it was fun to learn the best order to do everything in whilst also trying not to fly into something or end up in the the water. The boss fights were there but there weren't really any that stood out to me for any particular reason.
Some scattered thoughts:
• The game is genuinely so pretty looking, the bright cartoony look of it was really working for me and the fact that a lot of the levels look different from each other was so nice.
• Although speaking of the appearance of the game, I did run into a couple of graphical issues in that in one level, the enemies in boats were at a noticeably lower framerate than the rest of the game and in a couple of levels, I had enemies pop in quite close to me.
• I appreciated being able to use a level select and get basically anywhere from anywhere through the menu and even if I didn't use it, being able to listen to either the original soundtrack or the new one is a really good addition.
• There were some levels that felt quite good to explore as they made use of not only the ground but the rooftops of buildings and nearby floating platforms, I enjoyed having an excuse to use the glide more often and it also felt quite cool being on a higher part of a level and being able to see anything I missed or somewhere that is a bit further in the distance but I could now get to.
Either way I really like this game and it was quite fun to come back to.