Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

"A real disappointment"

I was really looking forward to this game having played the previous three Spyros for the Playstation.. The game falls short of every expectation I had for it. So lets get into the review.

Graphics: 4/10: There are very few improvements over Spyro 3 for the Playstation. I was eagerly looking forward to seeing what the game makers were going to be able to do with some more power under the hood with the PS2. Unfortunatly there does not seem to be anything that would not run on a Playstation. The game also suffers from slowdown, which affects the control. There are also many graphical glitches also. On the first flying stage there was a giant purple streak coming off of Spyro’s wing went to the corner of the screen.

Gameplay: 4/10: The game is much shorter than any of the previous Spyros. I would estimate that it has about a third of the number of stages as Spyro 3. The challenge is really lacking also. I know it is a game aimed for a younger audience but there this game is much easier than previous Spyro’s.

Sound: 5/10: About the same as previous Spyro’s and it is overall passable. My game had a problem that whenever you get near a waterfall the game would encounter a glitch and play that noise until you left the stage. I am not sure if anyone else encountered this or if I have a scratched disc or something. Otherwise though the sound effects and background music seem to be right on par, but exactly the same as the other games.

Control: 4/10: Well it is worse than previous Spyro’s control. I think this may be due to the slowdown. The game also has some collision detection problems, nothing too horrible though.

Overall: 4/10: The whole game seems rushed an unpolished. The length is really suffering and the challenge is not there. A lot of the mini-games are missing, which made the first games very charming. The ones that are there are not very exciting at all, I remember some really cool ones from previous games (ice hockey, skateboarding, boxing). Also missing is the ability to control some different characters. There is only one main world with 8 sublevels and one boss. Someone else suggested that if you are looking at this game to go out and buy the previous three Spyro’s. I would also suggest this, if you have not played those three games you are really missing out on something special. You are not however missing out on much here.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 12/22/02, Updated 12/22/02