Back in the day, well a few years ago anyway, I remember playing Spryo the
Dragon on the PlayStation. It was a sight to behold: colorful graphics, simple
yet engaging gameplay and an overall sense of fun. So now comes along Spyro and
his gang’s first foray on the PlayStation 2 in Spyro the Dragon: Enter the
Dragonfly. Unfortunately Dragonfly is not the same entertaining experience on
the PS2 as hoped. Let us find out why...
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A frozen friend. |
Right from the beginning Spyro is a disappointment and a little confusing. It
seems that Spyro’s old friend Ripto is back with a plan to, well ... I’m not really
clear what his original plan was, but what he does manage to do is scatter all of
the dragonflies throughout the world. Having done so, Ripto quickly exits
leaving Spyro to go and capture all of the now lost dragonflies. Of course, as
it turns out, dragonflies are extremely important for dragons. No dragonflies,
no dragons. Who knew? So off Spyro goes through different lands, gathering
different items, using different attacks, and controlling different vehicles
while hunting down the strangely irritating dragonflies. This is one of my
issues with the game. These dragonflies get zapped across the world and when you
finally find one the last thing they want to do is to be taken alive. Maybe this
isn’t a big deal, but it seems to me that they would have been happy to see our
purple friend and certainly wouldn’t have been taunting him when you go to
capture one. Kind of made me want to use the Flame Breath on the little buggers
instead of the Bubble Breath...
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Bubbles?!? |
Bubble Breath? Yep. Spyro must be eating some strange stuff lately. In addition
to Bubble Breath, which is only used to capture a dragonfly, Spyro will acquire
different Breaths throughout the game. These include his always available Flame
Breath, Ice Breath, and Electric Breath. Both Ice and Electric Breath can hurt
enemies, but they can also help the Scaly One by freezing enemies that can then
be used as stepping-stones, and by recharging certain items. Spryo has basic
moves like Charge, Head Bash, Glide, Hover, Deflect, and Climbing. The latter
two are new to Spyro’s arsenal but, honestly, they aren’t anything amazing.
So we have all of the required ingredients for your basic platformer. Yet there
are other things thrown into the game that no platformer should have. For
example, how about load times where you can actually watch your hair grow
because they take so long. Or, maybe you would like to see the game shutter and
jerk while playing because the framerate is all over the place. Are you into uneven
collision detection? If so, you might enjoy this game. What’s that? You say you’d
like a game so easy that you can probably play the game in less than 8 hours and
not lose a single life? Then Enter the Dragonfly is your game. I understand that Spyro is aimed at a young audience, but the previous versions had just enough
skill level required where it was a challenge to youngsters, yet didn’t bore the
more advanced player. I’m afraid that even a newborn would be bored with the
challenge here.
I think the biggest problem with Dragonfly is that I have played this game
before. Sure, not exactly like this, but in many ways. There really isn’t
anything that separates it from other Spyro games. Actually in a lot of ways the
PS1 games are much more enjoyable and original. Anytime you take a franchise
game and move it to the next generation you run the risk of losing what made it
so special to start. What was cutting edge and original on the old console can
become common and boring on the next.
What was so interesting about the first Spyro games to me was the originality of
the world and characters. The games were absolutely gorgeous and very fun, if
not somewhat of a guilty pleasure. I say guilty pleasure because they were
certainly aimed to a very young crowd, but there was just something about the
Purple Beast that hooked me. Kind of like Mmm-Bop by Hanson. For the love of
God, I know I should hate it, but sometimes late at night when I'm alone in my car
and I hear it on the radio, I find myself grooving. Shameful, but true. That’s
the way Spyro has been to me. Until now.
In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated:
50%. Enter The Dragonfly just has too many problems to overlook. Yet,
if you are a huge Spryo fan you at least should give
it a rental.
