Spyro: Season of Ice

"A Great Game With A Few Flaws"

Spyro, the little purple dragon and his Dragonfly buddy Spyrax have received their own game on the Game Boy Advance and it is good but quite frustrating in places. Basically Spyro has to save all his fairy friends who have been trapped in ice because of the Rhynoc librarian who cast a spell, which messed him up too and gave him two heads, the only way to stop him is to have the wings of 100 fairies. Spyro sets off on his journey to save 100 fairies through the four different seasons (Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter) with his natural advantage of being able to spit fire and returning the world to normal again. Most characters from Spyro 3 for the playstation like Hunter, the cheeter who is a good friend of Spyro and likes to train him or have a little contest against him. Bianca, the former friend of the sorceress but now is part of the Spyro gang and is good at doing spells to open portals etc. Zoe, the Autumn fairy who managed to not get frozen and now helps Spyro save all her fairy friends by saving your progress in levels when you see her. Finally Moneybags, the money hungry bear who really likes to rip you off by charging you loads of gems to enter certain places.

Gameplay 3/5

The gameplay is good and the controls are simple, just walk around, B to spit fire, A to jump and R to charge. The only thing that I do not like is the view you get which is like on a diagonal angle which makes it hard to guess if you can make a jump across to another place or if it is to high to jump to. (Sorry it is kind of hard to explain) Also because of the view it is hard to run across straight because just pressing across because you run diagonally. Also what makes this game hard is that on a level there are five fairies to get and basically there are only five types of ways of getting them, kill all enemies, burn eight things, save five things, find a secret one etc. but if you leave a level and forget which ones you have got you have to go through them all again because there is no way to figure out which one you have got. They should have a little thing on the start menu, which tells you which ones you have got, for example:
Kill All Enemies: (tick)
Secret Fairy; (tick)
Like that, it would make it easier. Other than that the gameplay is good.

Story 5/5

As with all Spyro games the story is interesting and imaginative. This one is based after Spyro 3, after you beat the sorceress. Basically the Forgotten Land where the sorceress lived has turned to chaos and the Rhynoc librarian has decided to get revenge on Spyro for beating his master. He decides to freeze all the fairies, turning the seasons into chaos. Spyros' job is to unfreeze all the fairies and stop the evil Rhynoc librarian from doing any more damage. All the usual characters are back like Hunter and Moneybags who charges you to go to the special Spyrax worlds, which are fun.

Sound 4/5

The sound is very good and suits the levels. When Spyro breaths fire it sounds very realistic and all other sound effects are good but some times the music’s sounds a little muffled and does not sound good, but overall the sound is good and some of the best for the Game Boy Advance.

Graphics 5/5

The graphics is stunning. I have been impressed with all Game Boy Advance graphics but this is some of the best I have seen by far, it is more or less just like the Playstation graphics, if it was not for the camera angle it would be just like the Playstation version which would make Spyro perfect (and adding that menu to say which fairies you have rescued.) The fire that Spyro spits looks the same as the Playstaion, with those little triangles at the end of them. Overall the graphics is brilliant.

Replayability 2/5

Well I put two because the game is frustrating and becomes repetitive, which the same type of objectives to get the fairies, and you just can not be bothered to go through it all again. But no need to worry this game will take you a long time to complete and when you get into it you will be playing it for a few hours on end.

Rent Or Buy

I would buy this because it does take a few weeks to complete, unless you just play non stop and you are an expert at the game then maybe it will take about a couple of days, but I do not think any one is that good. Anyway you will come back to it eventually when you see it tucked away in you cupboard and you will say, ''Oh, I haven't played that in a while, lets play it!!!!!'' So buy it.

Overall 7/10

Few flaws, nothing too bad just awkward camera angle but still worth playing.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/10/02, Updated 11/10/02