Spyro 2: Season of Flame

Moby ID: 7651
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Description official descriptions

The Gameboy Advance sequel to Spyro: Season of Ice sees Spyro the dragon once again journeying through multiple worlds, this time in search of fireflies (which give dragons their fiery breath) which have been stolen by the Rhinocs.

All the old characters from previous games are there, with Hunter and Bianca, and the player can also control Sheila the Kangaroo and Agent 9 (who is a mildly psychotic monkey).

Spyro has a few unusual abilities in this GBA game, including a fire/ice breath toggle - some items can only be affected by one or the other.

Unlike the PSX games, Spyro is presented primarily in an isometric view.

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Credits (Game Boy Advance version)

131 People (87 developers, 44 thanks) · View all

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Game Design
  • Universal Interactive
  • Digital Eclipse Software Inc.
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[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 76% (based on 16 ratings)

Players

Average score: 2.9 out of 5 (based on 15 ratings with 2 reviews)

Not as good as Playstation Spyro

The Good
It's Spyro! On a handheld!

The same ridiculously addictive gameplay is there, again with all the sub-games and puzzles within puzzles.

The Bad
The best levels on PSX Spyro had large worlds to explore. The worst ones had islands in space you had to hop between or die trying (not much of a puzzle, is it?). The ONLY levels on GBA Spyro have islands in water (you can no longer swim) you must hop between or die trying. Granted, this is probably due to hardware limitations, but smacks of being unimaginative.

Of course, this is further compounded by the fact that Spyro now plummets like a meteorite, so you're going to be dying a LOT (although with infinite restarts-from-last-world-hub-position, it's just a pain rather than unworkable).

Sheila's levels are dull, Agent 9's levels are nonsensical. And there's no more of that lovely Spyro voice acting (again hardware, so no biggy).

The Bottom Line
Still Spyro. Still addictive. It'll occupy a fair few train journeys. But if you're new to Spyro and only want one Spyro game, get the PSX Year Of The Dragon instead...

Game Boy Advance · by Famine3h (399) · 2002

Flamin' Away

The Good
Just like the Season of Ice game, graphics are bright and colourful with much scenery and landscapes to explore, fight Rhynocs and gather gems. Also there's variety of fodder, not just restricted to sheep for some much needed health pickups. There are unique, catchy music tunes to go with most of the levels. The plot of the game has better depth than the prequel.

It's pretty neat that Spyro can now breathe more than just fire (albeit his lightning power only lasts for a short time) and the temporary supercharged versions of his breath are almost like a powerup. There are more levels to play (at least seven more than in Season of Ice) with a whole lot of interesting themes. To break up all the action and platforming, there's a portal to take you to another part of the current location with a mini-game to earn yourself some extra goodies in your pursuit of finishing the game. Some of the side quests you get also have some puzzle elements to make things interesting. There are also some other mini-games such as Agent 9's platforming levels, so you at least get to play as different characters now and then. All your efforts to beat the game perfectly, reward you with Sparx Panic for some arcade-styled fun.

The Bad
Many of the same problems from the first GBA game remain, such as the fidgety flying and indistinguishable altitude. Thankfully you now have access to a mini-map for navigation. The isometric mini-game Sheila is incredibly bad with this constant hopping around and the shaking of the camera, which is pretty disorienting after a while. The boss levels are a bit better, but the arenas look plain and much like previously seen levels, while defeating the bosses themselves requires you to use their own projectiles against them. Nowhere near as fun as they were in Ripto's Rage.
They could have made them a bit more challenging such as push Crush into lava three times.

Side characters in the game are still as dimwitted as the ones in the last game, so that they can't tell a glowing gem from a firefly. Also some sprite variety or at least palette swaps would make those NPCs more distinguishable so you would know which one to consult for side quests. And the human-looking NPCs like the leprechauns look awful and really don't seem to fit in the game, especially those huge googly eyes. As for recurring characters, I don't even know why Hunter and Bianca are here other than to give tutorials and information. They ought to have had bigger roles in the game, seeing as the two are lovers.

The Bottom Line
The game sort of feels like a rehashed version of Ripto's Rage, except that it's missing Elora the faun. While it's graphically better, the NPCs in the game are not. We don't really get to see Spyro fly in this game due to the lack of Speedways from the first GBA game. Disappointing, but what can you do? Since there are no allusions to other Spyro games, it doesn't matter if you play this one or a different Spyro title first. It's unlikely that we'll see a Season of Lightning game, but I think we got a dose of Spyro on a portable game system. Still you'll want a proper 3D remake of this game if that was an option. This title is just as good if not a little bit better than the first Spyro GBA game, so don't wait till next season to play it.

Game Boy Advance · by Kayburt (30010) · 2022

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Game added by Famine3h.

Game added November 1, 2002. Last modified March 27, 2023.