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A huge step downwards for Spyro

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 25 / 26
Date: March 15, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've been a huge fan of Spyro the Dragon for many years. This is the first release of Spyro for the PS2, and is made by a new company.

I had heard many poor reviews about Spyro in the hands of this new company. It was made by Universal Interactive instead of Insomniac, who wrote the old Spyro games. I still have my older Spyro games so I played them side by side to see just what the difference was.

First, yes the graphics are better. I would hope so! The other games are from 2000 and before, and were for the Playstation (not the PS2). So in this new version the baskets, for example, are very pretty with their weave and decoration. The water ripples when Spyro runs through it, the grasses in the water wave. Even so, curved surfaces aren't as smooth and clean as in other current games, such as FFX and Kingdom Hearts.

Graphics do not make a game, though, and we found the new Spyro gameplay to be ... sluggish. In the other Spyros you feel like you have an energetic kitten on your hands, one that jumps and springs and moves quickly. In this new Spyro, it's more like a baby elephant lumbering along. The sounds don't seem to match up well with screen actions, either. There are often delays between when an action occurs and the sound kicks in.

Even worse, though, are the serious coding errors evident. I'm a programmer by profession so I know it can be tough to make a game perfect. However, this game didn't seem to get even simple testing done before it was released! There were NUMEROUS problems with drawing glitches on the screen, causing giant polygons to block our view. And when we tried to play through the display problems, it crashed. Repeatedly.

I really wanted the game to work well. The plot of 'the dragonflies have been stolen' seemed fun. You got to have bubble breath to capture them, and lightning breath for other tasks. There were the usual gem collecting and fun enemies. But with the sluggy gameplay and the continual crashes, it becomes very tiring very quickly. Rent this one first to see if your love of Spyro is enough to overcome those obstacles.

What happend?? This is a mess!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 23 / 26
Date: November 22, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I own the first 3 Spyros & love them to bits.. this is like a beta-version of a platform game! RENT THIS GAME FIRST.. that is a warning, you will spend way too much money if you buy this. I am still shocked at the low quality & GLARING software bugs in this Spyro game.. I really am just stunned.

They tried...

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 15
Date: November 20, 2002
Author: Amazon User

sorta.

The quick summary is "unfinished, rather buggy and far too short". Especially compared to the first three, which I loved.

I 100% completed the game in about 8 hours, and I'm not a particularly good player. Given that the game has very little replay value... it's just not worth the money. It'd probably be OK as a rental. (I find myself saying that a lot lately--maybe I should take the hint?)

The in-game camera isn't so hot. It's a lot better than most, but it occasionally got stuck (trying to control Spyro "by remote control 30 feet away" isn't much fun) and had this occasional tendency to spin around in a full circle.

The framerate takes a serious hit when there are a lot of active monsters or dragonflies on the level. One level in particular (Cloud 9, which is mostly wide-open space) had really bad problems, and the game even froze a few times while I was playing that level. This level also revealed some very painful clipping issues (trying to make a long glide to some hidden gems required repeating ~1/2 the level time after time, as I kept hitting some invisible thing or other and falling...)

Speaking of which, there's a serious lack of "Zoe" in-level save points. There are usually two, one about 1/3 of the way into the level and the other about 1/2. So, if you screw up on the last half of the level... yep, you get to repeat at least 1/2 the level. This makes exploring the levels no fun at all, since if you fall off somewhere you have to start way back at the middle.

The controls seem awkward and caused a lot of frustration. Spyro can't recover from touching something while he's flying (as I recall he could start flying again in the previous games unless he ran smack right into an object) and using the hover button also totally kills his ability to fly. Hover also seems to kill 99.9% of his forward momentum--a big change from the previous games, and I regularly missed jumps by undershooting.

The monsters are incredibly wimpy. I never got killed by any of them (heck, I may never have even gotten hit by any of them). Except for the boss, of course; he wasn't horribly hard, but I think missiles that follow you around is almost bordering on cheating (and he could fire faster than Spyro could recover from a stun, so depending on exactly where you were when you were hit it would be certain death).

I didn't run into any truly serious bugs but I'm sure there are several, as I saw a plethora of minor problems. That, the framerate issues, lack of in-game movies (there's exactly one besides the intro and ending movies and it's _totally_ out of place), and the shortness of the game basically scream "it wasn't anywhere near finished but we shipped it anyway".

There's several minigames, most of which are fun to play (and some are quite creative), but I found only a couple of them were worth playing more than once. The races were surprisingly easy compared to the first three games, not a huge problem but again disappointing.

The level portals aren't named, and they look identical for the most part. Annoying as all get out--especially if you want to go back to a particular minigame or sublevel.

Let's see, something nice to say... I thought the graphics were pretty good, and the in-game voices were fine... of what we heard of them, as there was very little interaction with other characters in the game. (Moneybags makes a single token appearance, Zoe has one thing to say, and ditto for the other characters. Hunter shows up 3-4 times I think, the most of any of the other characters.)

I'll give it two stars because I actually bothered to finish it, but it really wasn't that good and certainly wasn't worth the money. I suggest renting it instead.

Looks like Spyro,feels like Spyro,but missing something

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 16 / 18
Date: November 14, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I would actually give this three and a half to four stars because I am such a big fan of the Spyro series, and I know I will play this several times just because I love exploring the beautiful, colorful fantasy worlds. While the developers have captured the look, the sounds and sometimes the spirit of the original game, however, this game is FAR from finished, and needed a little more time for development.

I have not experienced the same sort of 'buggy' gameplay many others have reported, with a few exceptions. Yes, the load times are almost unbelievably slow -- the PS2 has been out for two years now, and this sort of lag should be a thing of the past by now. It is not as smooth as some of the other recent platform games like Sly Cooper or Ratchet and Clank. One wonders why they just couldn't get it right for Spyro. The graphics, while more clear, vivid and detailed than the PS1 games, are no more complex than any other game out there now. There's no excuse for the slow, clunky game play, but it still does not detract from my overall enjoyment of the game.

I've had the game freeze up in several places, and there are some parts where you can't really control Spyro effectively. Sometimes the sound effects seem to get stuck, as well. Other, major glitches have been reported but I haven't come across them yet (inability to use any breath weapons, entire levels being inaccessible for no reason, etc.)

The major disappointment factor would have to be the fact that there are so FEW levels. I couldn't believe it when I realized there were only nine levels in the entire game, all visible on your "Atlas" menu from the very start. The portals which lead to these levels are not labeled, so it's easy to forget which leads where. One of the main things that made me love the original Spyro games so much was the diversity in the 20-30 levels you were able to explore. Those had three to four hub levels, each with 6-9 unique, fun, sub-levels you couldn't wait to explore. Nine levels are simply not enough. There do not seem to be many mini-bosses, and so far I've only come across one speedway level having nearly completed the game. And it only takes a few hours to get to the end of the game...that's another problem.

Diehard Spyro fans like myself will defintely want to own this because it looks and plays like the old games, at least on the surface. The few levels they give you are large, creative and well-planned. The introduction of new breath weapons is a blast, with lightning, ice and bubble breath added to the mix. But by all means, don't pay full price for it unless you're as desperate as I was to get your hands on the little purple guy after two years of replaying the three older games. Something tells me it will be available for real cheap, real soon.

Disappointing after the first three

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: January 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

As a big fan of the first three spyros, I got this one hoping it would live up to the fun of the first three. Unfortunately, it didn't.

The nitpicks: There's no way to adjust the camera angle like you can in previous editions, so you get stuck with awkward views quite a bit.

The side games lack imagination, being mostly slides or shooters in a tank or a plane.

I thought there would be more worlds, but it's just a lot of portals in the dragon realms, and Ripto is the only boss at the end. There's really not much of a side story, and you don't see Spyro's friends other than at the beginning.

There's a LOT of bugs in this game. It froze during one side game, and during one of the slides, if you fall off a particular edge, it takes you back to the top but leaves the sky and you can't see the slide. In one of the Time Attack/Race the whatevers, the flying carpet guys had green sticks emanating from above and below them, making them nearly impossible to see and completely impossible to destroy in a timely manner. Several times Spyro also managed to climb walls without ladders or several other weird things that shouldn't be happening.

Spyro is also a bit more difficult to control; I wasted some 20 lives in one level just trying to fly around to platforms and getting caught by walls and falling. And if you fall in lava, Spyro hops around so much you can't hardly control him to get him out of the lava before you die. And the darn fairies never seem to be in a convenient spot when you die and have to restart. Very annoying.

And what's with the dragonfly names? They're mostly just dumb this time around, (Tweedle, Racket, Fluffy) not cute, or cool like the names of jazz musicians in the last game. (Duke, Miles, Mingus . . .anybody else notice that?)

So, rent the game, or wait until it's cheap. It's NOT worth the $$$. The worlds are pretty, graphics are nice and the moving flowers and weeds are a nice touch, but other than that the game lacks the imagination that the previous three had. No extra Sparx abilities making it easier to find gems.

good news for the spyro jaded

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 14 / 16
Date: December 05, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Hey all,

I just called the customer service number that came with the game, and they apparently are issuing full refunds for the purchase price of the game now :) Just return the game with a copy of the sales reciept, no questions asked. Also, they said they're working on a replacement cd that will be ready middle of 2003 (though I wonder if that will be enough time to work out all the bugs.

Next time, Universal, I hope you can get it right.

The Magic is Over

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 10 / 10
Date: December 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I was a huge fan of Spyro and couldn't wait to get this latest addition, but after playing for a while, I found it to be a huge disappointment. Don't waste your money on this one. The original creators of Spyro were not in on this one and it is so blatantly obvious. Universal Interactive should be ashamed of this attempt at what they call a game. Insomniac originally created Spyro and they did an amazing job. Universal's Spyro has too many glitches and flaws to list, not to mention the game is drastically shorter than the first three. If you want a great game, try Insomniac's latest creation for the PS2, "Ratchet and CLank." It is where the latest Spryo should've been with amazing graphics, countless challenges and breathtaking worlds to visit. Spend your money on that one, not Spyro. If you must try Spyro, rent it. You can finish this Spyro before it has to be returned!

Don't bother

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 12
Date: January 03, 2003
Author: Amazon User

This game is not fun--it is a frustrating mess. I wrote a letter to Universal Interactive two days after getting this game for Christmas and told them they ought to be ashamed of themselves for foisting such a sham of a game on the public. The game froze up on us six times in two days. The controls are not responsive. The video is jerky and disorienting with the camera angle changing unexpectedly and in strange directions. The whole game feels as if it's moving in slow motion. There is really no excuse for such poor development, especially in consideration of the quality of the first three Playstation games. Do yourself a favor and don't waste your money on this one. Buy the first three Playstation games and play the dickens out of them. And if you do buy this one, PLEASE write the company and tell them what you think! I'm hoping that if enough people complain, they will fix this Spyro and reissue a better game.

Big dissapointment!

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 12 / 14
Date: November 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've only been playing for about 6 hours, but I can already tell how awful it is, I can't believe it's from the same team as the other Spyro's. The most annoying problem so far is the very low frame rate, at times it drops below 10 fps, very jerky. That is the real killer. I've also ran across 3 bugs, one time after getting killed after going thru a "trial portal" I came back to life with the special portal ammo permanently! The graphics are very glitchy, and the sounds effects sound like they were "sampled" from the original games (in other words, poor, low fidelity copies). I'm considering giving up on the ps2 version and hoping that the gamecube version will at least be playable. The whole things smacks of someone getting a Spyro "license" and hacking on the code to produce a cheap knock off. I'd be embarassed to have my name in the credits of this game!

Not worth it! Too many glitches, too many tears.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: January 24, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The moment I heard there was to be a new Spyro game, I went out and specifically purchased a PS2 so I could play it. From my extensive video game playing experience, the Spyro series are some of the most fun and challenging games to play.

I should have double checked to make sure the fine folks at Insomniac games produced this game (as they did the other 3). They didn't, and boy does it show.

The mini-games are not challenging, but are annoying and repetitious. This game is peppered with challenges where you have to beat a timer (like finding all the scarecrows and super flaming them before your timer runs out). While many of them are doable, there are some that are frustrating to do because the control is so jerky, the camera work is jerky, and the glitches so many, they are impossible to complete. I am unable to finish my current game because a programming glitch has rendered a non-water world into a water world. I can't double back because the doorway to the beginning of the level leads to a completely white area (which wasn't white when I started) that the dragon is unable to manouver through. I could start over, but why re-live the anger and frustration I have experienced thus far?

I plan on avoiding Vivendi Universal games from now on. They have pretty much destroyed a beloved character and game with their hastily thrown together poor carbon copy of a once great concept.

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