Spyro: Year of the Dragon

The Good
Graphically it hasn't improved much but it doesn't matter since Spyro 2 looked pretty amazing, too. There is a lot of detail and everything is colorful. I liked the little shiny gems scattered around. The gameplay is the same as in the first two episodes. This doesn't matter, too because this was, just like the graphics, an already very good aspect of Spyro 2. It's smooth and easy to pick up. You can charge, glide, jump and, off course, breathe fire. Sparx the dragonfly is once again your life-bar and most trusted pal, as long as you feed him butterflies. Thankfully there have been some improvements. During the game you can get to release some friends willing to help you. However you must pay the super greedy moneybags some gems. Moneybags is back from Spyro 2 and you need to give him some gems to pass certain areas in each level, just as in Spyro 2. Not only moneybags is here again, but also Hunter the Cheetah, the Mole Professor and Zoë the fairy make a return. Spyro meets new enemies including the evil Sorceress and her mysterious servant Bianca, who's not so scary and evil as she was meant to be. That brings us to the story. There has been found a way too get to the forgotten worlds, and the Rhynocs, the servants of the Sorceress have kidnapped the dragon eggs. Now Spyro and his pal Sparx start a new adventure to find all of the 150 eggs. This is once again done by a main quest in each world, plus mini-games. These include, riding a manta ray, skating and much, much more. But again counts, some of them were also in Part 2. Each time you get an egg a new dragon is born. Once you beat a few levels a cutscene may appear to build up the story. There are four worlds, and if you collect enough eggs you will open up more portals in each homeworld, some of which require you to fly. Spyro is not the only playable character, there's also a level for each of those new animal friends. There's Bentley a Yeti, Sgt. Byrd the penguin, Sheila the kangaroo (note that she sounds Australian) and Agent 9, a monkey. Some of the mini-games can only be played with a certain character so you need so save them first to play all mini-games. There are also Bonus Worlds with Sparx. This game has big worlds that just beg to be explored until you collect all eggs and find that very last gem. This game is highly replayable since there is a bonus world to unlock at the end with some very challenging areas in it. The music is excellent, since it's once again composed by the Police drummer Stewart Copeland. The voice acting is great and each of the many friends, enemies and people-in-trouble have an own voice recorded for them.

The Bad
It's much like a rehash of part two. There are also less cutscenes and no difficulty ratings for the mini-games. And, although longer, Year of the Dragon is a little bit less challenging than part 2.

The Bottom Line
Another long and incredibly fun platform game fun for both young and old.