Spyro: Season of Ice

"Puzzling"

Spyro: Season Of Ice is the only Spyro game I have ever played, so I cannot say how it compares to other Spyro games. I would say that alone, this game still makes sense. It was a fun play for me; I was addicted to it at the beginning. Over time, I fell out of love with it.

STORY
An evil creature named Grendor steals your friend, Bianca's, spellbook. He tries to do a spell, but he reads the book upside-down and he grows an extra head instead. To fix his problem, he needs 100 fairy wings. So, he freezes all of the fairies and sends out rhynocs, his evil minions, to get them. Your mission is to free all of the fairies from the ice block they are stuck in and punish Grendor for his dirty deed.

GRAPHICS
If I had to grade the graphics, I would give them an 8/10. There are no bad points, but it does not look as good as some other games I have seen.

SOUND/MUSIC
Sound gets a 9/10 because it is clear and nice, but it gets repetitive. The music is basicaly the same, except it is not catchy and it sounds similar in different levels. Music gets a 6/10.

GAMEPLAY
The game starts in Autumn fairy Home. This place has five or six portals. Each portal leads to a level, except for one that leads to Winter Fairy Home, which is the same. There are four hubs with portals to other levels. Each portal has a required amount of fairies needed to access it.

In a level, the object is to collect all of the money and all of the fairies. To get fairies, you will have to do things like catch thieves, help people, defeat all enemies, light all candles, activate objects and more. There are also fairies lying in plain sight sometimes.

There are also other levels that are different. Each hub also contains a Sparx world and a Speedway. Sparx Worlds are 2D top down shooters. You access these by paying money, and these are fun. Speedways are Starfox-ish levels where you have a set time limit to get to the end and beat a boss. Being hit looses time and killing things gains it.

CONTROL
Contrary to many other reviews, I found the control to be good. Spyro can charge, jump, glide, flutter jump, and of course, shoot flames.

MORE GOOD POINTS
The game is fun, overall. If you collect EVERYTHING in the game (all fairies, money) and you beat the final boss, then you get a minigame called Dragonfly FX. Some puzzles are challenging, some are easy.

*There are other minor good points

BAD POINTS
Enemies are an annoyance rather than a challenge. Each level features two different kinds of enemies. They are sparse, annoying, and they all take one hit to beat.

In many levels, the thing is an array of floating platforms. This requires many jumps. Landing a flutter jump after a glide is easy, but to do it when you float diagonally while being precise, it is excessively dificult. Also, sometimes you misjudge how high a platform is that you are jumping to, meaning you will fall and die, rather than making the jump.

Everything is done diagonally (go look at screenshots, that would help if you are considering buying)

*there are other minor bad points.

BUY or RENT or NOT
I would not rent this game because you would get it. If you are a fan of Spyro or an RPG buff, then I would suggest looking into it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/20/03, Updated 03/20/03