"Red hot"

The first installment of Spyro on the GBA was a fun and impressively vast adventure, but it was too flawed to truly live up to Insomniac's excellent Playstation originals. This, however, is a marked improvement and eliminates many of the original's worst problems and builds on everything right to the last minor detail. Esteemed handheld developers Digital Eclipse should be congratulated for probably the most improved sequel I've yet to play on the GBA.

Ripto, a well-known villain to veterans of the series, has returned to the dragon worlds and stolen all the fireflies. Spyro must travel across the lands and retrieve the dragonflies by way of tasks, mini-games and bosses. You aren't at any point likely to swoon at the story's originality, but that's hardly important.

The format of the game is very similar to the playstation versions, having you explore huge, cartoony, isometric worlds to collect gems and find fireflies. The levels are accessed from three hub worlds and many need gems or a certain number of fireflies to open. For those of you expecting a fast-paced platformer with brow-sweating timed precision jumps and combo-based enemy combat will be disappointed, as spyro is a much more relaxed affair. The levels are sprawling and filled with hidden islands, blocked off caves and all manner of intriguing distractions from the main path.

Spyro is much easier to control this time round and tends to fall off ledges less (An incredibly infuriating problem in the first game). His moves are limited to breathing fire, charging, jumping and gliding. Now that control is tighter, the developers have taken the liberty of playing around with the level design to create some interesting challenges and visually staggering set-pieces. Whereas before you would make do with flat (If nicely animated) islands, now there are towering Mayan temples, boulder-filled chasms and cascading waterfalls. As well as making them more interesting to navigate, the distinguished architecture means you will almost never get lost, even though the levels often stretch around for miles.

Simply exploring and idly torching enemies is half the fun. The shiny gems are very satisfying to pick up thanks to their glinting loveliness and a great sound effect played when collecting them. Usually collecting in a platform game is tedious, but here it is more idyllic. The fact that the levels are so beautiful probably has a great deal to do with this. The addition of further quirks to the formula such as the temporary ability to freeze lakes with ice breath and skate across them also makes the exploration process much more varied than before.

But like I said, that's half the fun, as the other half comes from the truly excellent side tasks and mini-games that have been added. At one point you must rescue a talking skull (Called Yorrick. Ahahaha) and escort it back to it's owner, all the way the skull with blurt out mock shakespearean quotes or comment on how difficult life being a skull is. Also characters from past Spyro games will turn up which gives an air of familiarity to the character of the game. Spyro:SOF is quite often genuinely funny and likable. The side tasks always give you lots to concentrate on at once without overwhelming you, and problems with them in the first game (having to flame all the objects hidden around a level, but having to start over each time you die, for instance) have been fixed completely. I can't think of one niggle I had with the last game that has carried over to this one, there's even a map to help you find your way around.

Other fun things to do include a surprisingly difficult game of ice hockey, and some rather frenzied thief-catching and fairy-freezing. As well as spyro's mini-games, variety is on hand in the form of Sheila's and Agent 9's levels (Two popular characters from Spyro 3 on the playstation). Sheila's aren't so exciting and are simple isometric hops along cliff-tops defeating enemies and smashing key objects, but Agent 9's 2D side-scrolling shooter levels are a blast. Now that there are so many different things to do it is much harder (but not quite impossible) to get bored while playing.

The only real problem is that the rather sedate feel that the bulk of the game has can only hold your attention for so long. The level design is definitely inventive and undeniably accomplished, but when you are doing £D on a handheld system, there is only so far you can go. While it is fun, the levels' don't have the awe-inspiring quality that made the playstation games' levels so spectacular. It is nice to explore them, but it never really goes beyond 'nice'. The extra stuff goes quite a way to making up for this, but I still can't help feeling that it is too unexciting to be truly great.

No fault, however, can be found with the graphics. Not only is character animation more detailed and fluid than before (when you first move Spyro around, you will really notice the difference), but the environments have been improved beyond belief. As well as taking on more inventive themes (Ireland?!) everything is just much more detailed, every level will have numerous decorations from giant horseshoes to rocket ships to snow cabins that are just there to enhance the atmosphere. They are unashamedly colourful and busy (Twinkling lights, shimmering ice breath). As a visual experience, the game is a joy to behold. The sound effects which are quite rich and numerous for a handheld game (Sliding on ice actually sounds like you are doing just that) and the often excellent mythical beats that accompany each level also help to strengthen the mood.

The game took me between eight and ten hours to beat 100% which I don't think is so bad for a handheld game that is actually pretty easy all the way through. Although it still isn't as glorious as the series' pique (Spyro 2 on the playstation, in case you're interested), Season of flame is a must for fans of the series and an excellent, astoundingly polished game in its own right. And look! I made it all the way to the end without making any dragon/fire puns. Well, apart from the tagline...

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/02/03, Updated 04/02/03