Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

"A hange of developer for the fourth Spyro game, and definitely not as good as the PSone versions."

This is Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, the fourth game in the Spyro series.In 1998, out came Spyro the Dragon on Psone, the first game which was clearly the best Spyro game. One year later in 1999, Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer was released, which was another great Spyro game. Then the next year in 2000, which was actually the Chinese year of the Dragon, the third Syro game came out, which was called Spyro: Year of the Dragon, which was again, great. After a great Psone series, I was thouroughly disappointed.

I was reading my PS2 magazine on Christmas Eve, and read the review of Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, and saw it get 6/10. I just thought it was only a matter of opinion, and thought it would be good, like the others. When I played on it, I thought it was good, then quite good, then okay. There were a lot of glitches in the game, and it was rehashed. Rather then Insomniac making the game, they moved on to the critically acclaimed Ratchet and Clank. This game was passed to Equinoxe and Check 6. And believe me, they didn't do a very good job.

When you play on it, the first thing you will find is that it takes a looooooong time to load. It takes about 30-45 seconds to load, and it sometimes crashes afterwards. Then, I watched the video, like any other Spyro game, and played it, and thought it was rather good. Then it came to me that there was one home world, with about 8-9 levels. It didn't look there was a big improvement to the graphics too. The game started glitching up a bit, like going through a gate, annoying cameras, stopping music, falling through platforms, etc. I thought it was the CD, it was just that CD, but apparantly, all of the games are faulty. Then going through a challenge portal, I found a speedway. It was just like the speedway you found on Spyro 3!

The story is that Ripto, who you defeated off Spyro 2, has made a comeback, with Crush and Gulb. This time, he has stolen the dragonflies and 'hidden' them in the dragon world. You have to find them and rescue them, where some runabout, which is challenging, but really it's a matter of being bothered. You have to pick up gems to go through the game too.

This game is a bit of a rehash off other Spyro games. It isn't completely though, as you do have different breaths, which are the traditional flame, bubble, electric and ice. The speedways are like ones off Spyro 3, not the levels, but the options. The challenges are like the ones off Spyro 3, amd other things too. It has a bit of originality too it, with the breaths and new levels, but not a lot.

Of course, if you like Spyro, like me, you'll know what you will get on the game. You have to collect gem and stolen items, but it is too similar too previous Spyro games. It's not a bad game, because it does follow closely what Insomniac did before. But it's too closely, and you can see there could've been a lot more originality and new stuff, show them what you could do on PS2 what the PSone couldn't. It's perfectly playable, and you will be playing on it if you are a Spyro fan, but you will be grumbling a bit while you play. The graphics haven't changed too much, but the texturing has been smoothened, and the characters animations have been treaked, but the modelling is PSone'ish and bad lip synching with the words.

The graphics aren't the same as PSone, as it has been improved, as you should expect. On the PSone you had jagged edges and low pixel texturing, this has all changed, where the characters have been snmoothened and the texturing has been smoothened. The characters have been enhanced and look very good, look a lot better than the PSone. There is a vast amount of detail on the characters. But the modelling of things hasn't changed, on PSone the lip synching wasn't great, that is, how the characters mouths move along to the words they are saying. The lip synching hasn't changed here, the mouths still move like a Muppets. The frame rate can get a tad choppy and there are some annoying glitches in it too, which I have mentioned before. I shouldn't be comparing it to what the PSone was like either, it should be better! Yes, the graphics are good, but it's definitely not reflecting how good you can make PS2 graphics. Hardly next gen. Score: 6/10

The music isn't that great either. The music sounds okay at first, but when you go through, running about collecting gems for about an hour or more, the music gets so boring, repetetive and so on, you may just want to switch it off. Not all of the music is bad, but some of it is. Occasionaly it stops as well. Stick to your hi-fi. The voice acting is no great shakes. It has the original actors that were good on the PSone, but some of the new ones are boring and you don't really want to listen to them. Even I could do a better job! The collision effects, eg running into walls and jmping into water is okay, but the sound ain't great. Score: 5/10

With the gameplay, it has the same puzzles off Spyro 3, which can get a bit boring. Some originality is lacking. You have the new breaths, one which you blow bubbles to catch the dragonflies which run about trying to tease you, which isn't really challenging nor good. It can be quite fun to play, it is perfectly playable, and if you have played on Spyro in the past, you know what this should be like. If you have never played Spyro and are playing this first, you may like this. The new things added don't play a massive role in this game at all. Could've been better. Score 6/10

The life span two, has been cut back. Rather than several hame worlds, you have one. Instead of the 40 levels off Spyro 1, you have 8. The levels are about approximately the same size as Spyro 3, in some sense, smaller. There is quite a bit to do with mini games and so on but you may complete it in no time, but it takes longer with lengthy loading times, and sometimes you can't be bothered playing it. I have had this game since Christmas and haven't yet completed it, because I haven't got round to it. Score: 6/10

Why so ought to buy the game

-Spyro was one of the greatest platformers on PSone and out comes another Spyro game.
-Lots of challenging levels to keep you occupied.
-You're rich, so you like wasting your money when there are better games for the same price or less
-An addition to your collection

Why you ought to say bye to the game

-Rehashed minigames and other things
-Glitchy graphics
-Not too much originality
-Long loading times

If there was an option between buy or rent, definitely rent it first. If you are going to buy it thinking it will be as great as the others, you may be wrong. Definitely rent first.

This game isn't bad, but it is rehashed. Maybe a better developer could've done a better job on this game. Buy if you must, but consider this, for £40 there are better games, like Ratchet and Clank, from Insomniac, the old developers of Spyro. There are games for half the price at £20 like Jak and Daxter, from Naughty Dog, the forme makers of Crash, both which are better games. Not really a game I recommend. Overall Score: 6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 05/06/03, Updated 05/06/03