Spyro: Season of Ice

"Definitely Not As Good As Its Playstation Siblings"

The first time I played Spyro The Dragon, I instantly knew I would love the series to the game (Of course, the sequels weren't out yet but that's not the point). So when I heard about Spyro: The Season of Ice, I instantly got it. Boy...it was very good, but it wasn't as good as all the Playstation ones. Let's start the review, shall we?

Story 10/10: I love all the stories in the Spyro series. This one doesn't give me a different opinion. Grendor, a rhynoc (you know, the enemies that came with the Sorceress from Spyro 3), has gotten hold of the Sorceress's Spell Book. With it, he planned to be the smartest rhynoc ever! Unfortunately for him, the spell went wrong and he ended up with two heads (how unpredictable). Now, to reverse the spell, he needs the wings of 100 fairies. You know Zoe and her friends, right? Well, they're the fairies Grendor is after!! Now, Spyro must rescue all the fairies with the help of Sparx, his trusty dragonfly friend, Hunter, a cheetah who's really athletic, and Bianca, a friend that was introduced in Spyro 3 and the owner of the Spell Book. Of course, there's also Moneybags, the bear who's always making Spyro purchase things from him. The story is different, I have to say. That's why I like it! Great Story!!!

Sound 9/10: Hmm...well, the music is nice, I have to admit. It's not so good that you'll be singing to it but it's not so bad that you'll turn off the sound (but you should be doing that anyways so you can save the battery power!). The SFX is good, too. Unfortunately, there's no actual speaking but then again, it is on a Gameboy Advance. Anyways, the SFX is good. The same sound is used for the fire breathing. Good Sound!!

Graphics 10/10: The graphics are spectacular!!! I just love the graphics! Is it just me or is it more polygonal? Well, doesn't matter. Everyone looks just like they should. Nothing wrong here. Great Graphics!!!

Controls 9/10: The controls are very good. They're just perfect, too. A is for jumping/flying/hovering and B is for breathing fire. L is to look around and R is to charge. The good thing about that is that you can hold R and still have good control over jumping and moving. However, there's one problem with the charging. It's very hard to control. You can't press the diagonal directions before you can charge. It gets very complicated and you'll die a few times trying to get used to it. But don't worry, when you do get used to it, it'll be easy! Good Controls!!

Gameplay 10/10: Like most, if not all, Spyro games, you're going around worlds and portals to collect the main item. For this, you're after fairies. When you find one, just melt the ice it's in and you've just rescued a fairy! It's easy. This time, though, there's not as much bosses as usual but it's all cool. You'll be spending most of your time worrying about the rescuing anyways. Let's not forget the gem collecting, too. It's just like the Playstation Spyros. There's just one difference: the levels. Instead of the levels just like in the Playstation Spyros, these levels are as if they're all floating over an bottomless pit or surrounded by hazardous water. You get around by gliding to each...err...well...land part and just get fairies, gems, and kill enemies. I hate the flying part because it gets very hard like that...which leads to my next topic...but...Great Gameplay Anyways!!!

Difficulty 7/10: The enemies are easy to get rid of. The gems and fairies are easy enough to get. So why is the score a 7? Well, it's because of the level lay-outs. Like I said above, every level is as if it's floating over a bottomless pit. That way, you have to glide to every part and find new parts to glide to so that you can get all the fairies or gems. It gets very annoying, especially because of the fact that you need to die a few times before you can know where to glide next. I've died loads of times...it gets very tedious and annoying...Bad Difficulty...

Replayability 8/10: There really isn't anything to replay. You might replay it if you haven't collected all the gems and fairies (because you need all of them to unlock something). But that's about it... However, getting all of those gems and fairies are very hard, which is why you'll be playing for a while. Nice Replayability!

Length 10/10: Just long enough. You'll be playing this for a while because of all the exploring (and dying). Great Length!!!

Other: Not really...just that...Spyro is so cool!!!

Buy or Rent? Definitely BUY. You won't be able to beat it by rent anyways...

Overall: 9/10

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/03, Updated 06/08/03