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Jan 12th, 2007 at 13:58:11 - Spyro (2): Ripto's Rage! (PS) |
Continuing on with the Summer Forest level, you gather more orbs from some other worlds and a Speedway/flying level and then you can go fight the boss, Crush.
One thing I did think was an improvement from the first game were the extra minigames in the flying levels. The first game had some pretty difficult flying levels from what I remember and Ripto's Rage does a good job of continuing the difficulty level while adding an extra minigame with Hunter which is usually fairly challenging.
Ocean Speedway is the first flying level and it's not very difficult if you've done it once or twice before and know the best way to go about it and after you get all the hoops, arches, cars, and boats, you can go find some fish lady and she'll tell you to race Hunter for an orb. In the race, you follow Hunter through rings that gradually shrink after he goes through. Not very hard since you're slightly faster than Hunter most of the time but some of the quick, sharp turns he does makes it slightly difficult. Even though I've played this game multiple times, the sharp turns still give me trouble. Not as much as when I first played the game but enough to make me a little frustrated. From what I can remember, the flying levels in the first game were a little more difficult but I haven't played that game in a while so I'm not sure anymore. I do remember thinking that once you finished all the flying levels you somehow gained the ability to fly. Afterall, the first time you're introduced to the flying levels in the first game, you are told that they teach you how to fly. You don't get flight power. ):
The boss fight against Crush isn't all that difficult if you know what you're doing. The first time I played Ripto's Rage, I think I died a few times before I got it because I was a noob but this last time took me about four minutes. Basically, you avoid the energy or fireballs Crush launches at you and try and flame him while he's not surrounded by an energy force field. After you flame him, he gets angry and smashes a huge club on the ground squishing himself with boulders. Get him to do that seven times and you get to go onto the next world, Autumn Twilight. I haven't really gotten far in Autumn Twilight this time so I'll save that for another entry.
One thing I really miss from the first game are the little guys who stole dragon eggs. Chasing them was usually a fun (and sometimes very frustrating) challenge. Ripto's Rage may have a couple of those guys but I was pretty disappointed to find that they didn't play such a big role in this game.
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Jan 12th, 2007 at 13:43:28 - Spyro (2): Ripto's Rage! (PS) |
The second installment in the Spyro the Dragon series makes some small improvements (like new abilities, puzzles, etc.) from the first game but, overall, the game does not measure up to the gameplay of the first game. While it's true that the first one was pretty easy (except for that Tree level), Ripto's Rage is even easier (I can usually beat it in under eight hours). There are about two minigames that are actually challenging (helping the little guys in Skelos Badlands not get eaten by dinosaurs and making sure the chef does not make soup out of baby turtles in Sunny Beach) but most of the levels leave something to be desired.
When a new game is started, you see Spyro and Sparx (his little dragonfly/health meter/gem collector friend) in the Dragon World about to go on a vacation to Dragon Shores. When Spyro and Sparx go into the portal, they are transported not to Dragon Shores but to another world called Avalar. Spyro meets the Professor, a silly old man who gives you kind of useful information, Elora, a fawn who helps and guides Spryo when he's lost, Hunter, a Cheetah who tries to prove he's more athletic than Spryo, Zoe, the fairy who saves your game, and Moneybags, the bear who's always trying to con you out of your money. They basically tell Spryo that Ripto came through a portal and is now terrorizing their world and hates dragons which is why Spryo's there. Then Ripto comes with his two goons, Crush and Gulp, and proves to be kind of an idiot and the game begins.
You find yourself in the world of Glimmer and you have to help these litle rat things so you can get a Talisman and move onto the next level. For being the intro level, Glimmer isn't such a bad place. You learn how to use "power ups" and the importance of orbs and Talismans. It's not a very memorable level though. When you go back to the first main world in Avalar, Summer Forest, you can learn how to swim if you have enough gems to pay Moneybags off.
Some of the levels I enjoyed the most in this first world were Colossus and Idol Springs. One of the minigames in a hidden area in Idol Springs involves using the Super Charge power up to knock all these hula girls off idols so they can do a dance and free one of their friends. While it sounds easy, it is a little hard to control the charging. The other minigame that I enjoyed was a series of three that you get to do after learning how to swim. The first part is a little puzzle where you have to illuminate all the squares. Not very difficult even if you don't know what you're doing. The second one is my favorite. You're outside in the beginning area and you have to feed the huge idol head in the lake fish but you can only feed him certain colors. Also easy but it's fun to mess around and feed the idol the wrong color fish. The third minigame is another puzzle where you have to push down some colored blocks in the right order. This one is alright and takes a minute-ish to figure out the pattern.
One small element in the game that I noticed was when Spyro is underwater chasing fish, the fish don't just sit there and pretend you aren't there, they swim faster and try and avoid Spyro. I think it's pretty cool and provides more of a challenge when trying to chase the fish.
In Colossus, you have to help some funny looking bear-like creatures defeat a Yeti who has decided to take up residence in a random temple. The level itself is pretty straight forward and you learn about the Spring power up. This level had a couple of fun minigames namely hockey and expelling demons from statues. In hockey you play one on one with some huge guy and a goalie and you have to score five goals in under five minutes. Next time you play hockey, you get a goalie too and it's more like a game. Expelling demons is a task given to you by the Professor and involves running around and flaming posessed statues. I think Colossus is one of the first levels you can complete 100% without needing to come back later with climbing abilities or something.
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