Positives:
- A slight shift in genre (Adventure/Metroidvania) while still keeping the Spyro gameplay intact.
- Fun level themes, like the egg thieves guild.
- Platforming issues from the past two games are basically non-existant.
Negatives:
- Levels are a bit on the basic side, with almost no platforming involved.
- Agent Frickin 9.
-----------------------------------
''We arrive at the final game in the Spyro GBA trilogy, and perhaps the most interesting game to talk about as well--which is funny to say since, on first look, it looks exactly like the past two games. But I'm here to tell you that, surprisingly, that's only half true. The gameplay--or rather, the game design is completely different. To put it simply, the first two games in this trilogy tried to bring the feel of the Spyro PS1 games to the Game Boy Advance, while Attack of the Rhynocs tries to be its own original adventure. The game's title in PAL territories is Spyro's Adventure, so don't blame me, blame them.
The biggest criticisms with the past games have always been that the isometric perspective made platforming not that fun to do, and depth perception made it worse. I don't agree with the statement that platforming wasn't fun to do, but it was a general criticism. So Digital Eclipse came with a compromise to still make it an isometric platformer... but at the same time make platforming itself basically irrelevant. There are barely any situations where Spyro has to jump over long bottomless pits, and when he does need to jump, the platforms are either in close sight or there is solid ground underneath him. Given that there is no life system anymore either, this was all a deliberate decision to make the biggest criticism a non-issue anymore--and that's a valid strategy! But I must also admit that most levels are now far less fun to go through, despite still having interesting themes like a rabbit hole with rabbit magicians, or the thieves guild where our favourite egg thieves live.
But if platforming isn't really prevalent anymore, then what makes Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs an interesting game? Well, it went with a more Adventure approach, not unlike a ''fetch quest'' game or even a Metroidvania in design. And I'm not even kidding there since all levels are connected to the Dragon Shores, and you can't finish a level on first visit due to needing other items or even abilities, like new elemental breaths or a ground pound. Levels will have to be revisited multiple times, but if you just follow the storyline, you won't ever really be stuck because you missed out on an ability or something. It also has a few interesting collectables aside from what is needed for completion, like different colours for Spyro and such. Good thing is that you also need nowhere near everything to just beat the game if you're not a completionist--you just aren't my friend anymore but that's okay right :D?
There is one aspect I didn't really like though. In every level, there are multiple different coloured chests that can only be opened when a key has been assembled from two parts. These are obtained from the animal friend levels, in this case Sgt. Byrd and the returning Agent-9. They uh, aren't really good. Sgt. Byrd is the least offensive at least since it's similar to how he plays in Spyro: Year of the Dragon; fly around, kill enemies and bring the army back to base. Agent-9 though... they made his stages into super annoying 2D Stealth levels. I hate them, I really, really hate them. Yet again, just like the last review, enforcing that I just want to play as Spyro.
To close off this review, I would say that I really enjoyed the game, but it's slightly behind Spyro 2: Season of Flame for me. The main reason for that was simply because I thought it was a shame that platforming here barely exists anymore. The reason why is understandable, but I'm also of the opinion that they got pretty close to having it work very well with Season of Flame. At the same time though, I can also appreciate this game for trying to be its own thing and on that front, they did a pretty good job. And with that, we reach the end of the Spyro GBA Marathon! Overall a pretty solid set of isometric platformers, with some lows but also a lot of heights. Thank you for reading!''
- A slight shift in genre (Adventure/Metroidvania) while still keeping the Spyro gameplay intact.
- Fun level themes, like the egg thieves guild.
- Platforming issues from the past two games are basically non-existant.
Negatives:
- Levels are a bit on the basic side, with almost no platforming involved.
- Agent Frickin 9.
-----------------------------------
''We arrive at the final game in the Spyro GBA trilogy, and perhaps the most interesting game to talk about as well--which is funny to say since, on first look, it looks exactly like the past two games. But I'm here to tell you that, surprisingly, that's only half true. The gameplay--or rather, the game design is completely different. To put it simply, the first two games in this trilogy tried to bring the feel of the Spyro PS1 games to the Game Boy Advance, while Attack of the Rhynocs tries to be its own original adventure. The game's title in PAL territories is Spyro's Adventure, so don't blame me, blame them.
The biggest criticisms with the past games have always been that the isometric perspective made platforming not that fun to do, and depth perception made it worse. I don't agree with the statement that platforming wasn't fun to do, but it was a general criticism. So Digital Eclipse came with a compromise to still make it an isometric platformer... but at the same time make platforming itself basically irrelevant. There are barely any situations where Spyro has to jump over long bottomless pits, and when he does need to jump, the platforms are either in close sight or there is solid ground underneath him. Given that there is no life system anymore either, this was all a deliberate decision to make the biggest criticism a non-issue anymore--and that's a valid strategy! But I must also admit that most levels are now far less fun to go through, despite still having interesting themes like a rabbit hole with rabbit magicians, or the thieves guild where our favourite egg thieves live.
But if platforming isn't really prevalent anymore, then what makes Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs an interesting game? Well, it went with a more Adventure approach, not unlike a ''fetch quest'' game or even a Metroidvania in design. And I'm not even kidding there since all levels are connected to the Dragon Shores, and you can't finish a level on first visit due to needing other items or even abilities, like new elemental breaths or a ground pound. Levels will have to be revisited multiple times, but if you just follow the storyline, you won't ever really be stuck because you missed out on an ability or something. It also has a few interesting collectables aside from what is needed for completion, like different colours for Spyro and such. Good thing is that you also need nowhere near everything to just beat the game if you're not a completionist--you just aren't my friend anymore but that's okay right :D?
There is one aspect I didn't really like though. In every level, there are multiple different coloured chests that can only be opened when a key has been assembled from two parts. These are obtained from the animal friend levels, in this case Sgt. Byrd and the returning Agent-9. They uh, aren't really good. Sgt. Byrd is the least offensive at least since it's similar to how he plays in Spyro: Year of the Dragon; fly around, kill enemies and bring the army back to base. Agent-9 though... they made his stages into super annoying 2D Stealth levels. I hate them, I really, really hate them. Yet again, just like the last review, enforcing that I just want to play as Spyro.
To close off this review, I would say that I really enjoyed the game, but it's slightly behind Spyro 2: Season of Flame for me. The main reason for that was simply because I thought it was a shame that platforming here barely exists anymore. The reason why is understandable, but I'm also of the opinion that they got pretty close to having it work very well with Season of Flame. At the same time though, I can also appreciate this game for trying to be its own thing and on that front, they did a pretty good job. And with that, we reach the end of the Spyro GBA Marathon! Overall a pretty solid set of isometric platformers, with some lows but also a lot of heights. Thank you for reading!''