Basically just Spyro 1 again (<- compliment). The addition of Orb objectives was quite good, since it made each level feel fairly unique. Level and boss design felt like a notable step up from Spyro 1, except for the final boss which was incredibly frustrating (almost certainly because I went for the flawless run skill point). I also really enjoyed the hub worlds for this game, felt like the secrets were actually challenging to find and rewarding. The post-game theme park area was also super cute. Just a fun game!

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! is my favorite Spyro game of the original 3. Welcome to the World of Glimmer where Ripto has taken over the kingdom to claim as his own and made himself king, its up to Spyro to stop him. The game has new fun character to learn about and love, Elora the Fawn, Hunter the Cheetah and Moneybags the Bear (you may not like him by the end). Just like the first game the levels are great with even more to do now, each level has its own mini-story plus more things to collect like gems, talismans and orbs to progress further into the game. The game has more direct boss fights that are unique and fun to fight.

95/100

First time beating Spyro 2. Here we go!

The Good
- Great Level Design
- Fun Platforming
- Great Music
-Vibrant Visuals
-Great Quality of life improvements
- Fun Bosses (Better than the ones in the first game)



The Meh
- The minigames were hit or miss. Mostly miss.


The Bad
- Long Loading Times (Might just be because I played on Switch)
- Choppy Frame rate at times (Might just be because I played on Switch)
- Not as fun to 100% as the first one due to skill point challenges with the flying missions.
- Unlike the first game, this one isn't as replay-friendly, with you having to recomplete objectives every time you exit a level. Its made easier with the unlimited superflame, but still a hassle nonetheless.

Conclusion
Unfortunately, I didn't really enjoy this one as much as I did the first one. Really a shame too because I was told by many that this was the best of the trilogy but I just don't see it. The only thing this game does better is the bosses but as for everything else, the first game does it better. The game just tries to do too much to improve on the first game, and it ironically results in it being inferior. The game is still pretty solid for what it is though. I guess it just goes to show, sometimes less is more. Let's hope Spyro 3 is better.

My thoughts on Spyro 2 are kind of similar to my thoughts on Banjo Tooie. I enjoyed both games the first time I played them, but the more I've thought about them the less I've liked them.

Unlike the first game, spyro 2 felt like a slog to 100%. The biggest contributor to this is the introduction of backtracking to previous levels in order to 100% them. This makes going for 100% super tedious and boring and greatly reduces the replayability of the game.

I also just didn't find the orbs satisfying to collect unlike the collectibles from the first game and what I've played of Spyro 3.

The game still has some charm, and I like the new characters introduced, but the backtracking and boring missions just make the game a slog to get through.

I still need to finish Spyro 3, but from what I played it seems to have fixed most of the issues I have with 2.

I do not understand how this is the best one. It feels like it threw out almost everything that worked about Spyro 1 from my perspective and replaced it with a bloated and overly complicated stand-in. Progression is bogged down far too much, just general navigation, getting to and from levels etc is much slower. Levels are fine, but begin to fall into the trap of being frustrating just for the sake of it at the end, and bosses just take too many hits for how much BS they throw at you.

Collectables are unnecessary and at times badly explained. I had no idea I was meant to even be collecting Orbs and only find out when the game hints in the final world that you were supposed to be collecting them. At absolutely no point was this explained, only that I needed the Talismans. Since the Orbs were usually just slow fetchquests, I missed them and only had 15. The game requires 40 to beat, you can imagine how much fun that was. This really needed a better explanation.

Every defense of this game I've heard is that "I never had an issue with the padding as I was 100%ing anyway". Every positive angle comes from the completionist perspective, which leads to the question in my head that if beating the game is so unsatisfying on its own, why is it not 100% or nothing in the first place? The requirement to finish the game is honestly so close to 100% as is and any time I went through with a completionist mindset the stages became way more fun, but I shouldn't need to apply a mindset if that's not the only condition I can finish the game under.

Really disappointed honestly, and it only gets worse from here. Hoped for better, got about the standard bloated mess of a collectathon that the majority of new entries in the genre try to emulate rather than the cream of the crop.

Played via the "reignited" trilogy on PS5
So........ realistically I'm not going to officially beat this game LOL
It makes you basically (almost) "100%" the game to get to the final boss and I'm not doing all that. It requires 40 orbs and at the moment I'm typing this review I have 10 LMAO. The "side quests" are lowkey SO hard in this game and SO not enjoyable that I'd rather pluck my eyelashes one by one then pour lemon juice in my eyes... That may sound a little extreme but this game is NOT good, I played it mostly because it's Spyro and I love Spyro.. just not this one. Also because I really want to experience the original trilogy and I need to get through it. Sucks I won't actually beat it but... I mean I made it to the end and have played every other level except fighting the final boss, Ripto. Really cheap and annoying that you have to have orbs to access him... like just lemme beat the game yknow? The characters in this game were very annoying, very ugly and very unnecessary.. They tried to make it more "story based" but tbh Spyro doesn't need some crazy story to be "good". That's why I liked the first one, you have one simple mission: save as many dragons as you can and defeat Gnasty Gnorc. I'll also mention: so. many. cutscenes. AND tutorials for things I already know? And even if I didn't know, lemme figure it out. Plus they give you so many things to do in this game that it's like: what do I even do in this (certain) level? Very very overwhelming at times and some levels were just waaaay too big and confusing. Felt like there really wasn't a real purpose to it all, which sucks to say. Don't know what the creators were thinking with this one but it ain't it... What a disappointing sequel to a pretty solid game. Hopefully the third one is better but so far I don't have the highest expectations. I'll start it sometime in the near future, hopefully, but for now I'm all Spyro'd out.

The original was my favorite of the Insomniac trilogy, back when I played through those, but I actually think the remake feels the least touched up of the three in Reignited.

It's in little things. It probably would've been too much to expect every NPC get a custom redesign this go-around, but I feel like besides the major players, there's mostly only token updates to the character models, with obviously necessary changes to stuff like the NPCs of Scorch. Animations of characters talking loop more obviously than they did in Spyro 1. The Easter Eggs involving Insomniac staffer/kids are absent (though I guess that'd be a bit weird to preserve as a different company). The reference to Hunter's birthday wasn't updated, so either he's 43 or that one skeleton is flossing in 1999. Stuff like that. I'll acknowledge that it's ultimately nitpicking, but given how much care Spyro 1 (and Year of the Dragon, kinda) got in Reignited, it really jumps out at you if you're looking for it.

But maybe Toys For Bob didn't mess with Ripto's Rage too much because the base game was so rock solid. This is where Insomniac started experimenting with alternate gameplay modes and other odds and ends to spice up the experience of each of the worlds. There's a lot to love here, with the increased emphasis on scenarios and eccentric NPCs - of course Spyro playing both sides of the war between Breeze Builders and Land Blubbers is great, Handel and Greta are a ton of fun, Robotica Farms makes for a fun contradiction, etc. You still mostly have the purity of form that made Spyro 1 good, but you also have a variety of mini-games to spice things up. The boss fights are unilaterally improved from Spyro 1, and while Gulp and Crush are just kinda there, Ripto is perhaps the closest a PS1 platformer ever came to the brilliance of Gruntilda in Banjo-Kazooie.

I got a couple complaints, but the only substantial one is that you have to unlock the new moves. I didn't mind it playing the original version, but replaying it in Reignited after "getting" Spyro 1, it sorta feels stifling, having chunks of the levels cut off because you don't have all the moves. At least in Year of the Dragon, tying level chunks to absent characters makes it feel a lot less arbitrary when you're unable to do everything on your first run. At least that's sort of the joke they're playing up here, with Moneybags coercing you into giving him all your hard-earned Gems.

Dragon Shores is the least interesting of the original trilogy's victory laps, but even then there's some cute stuff, like the Skill Shots, the dunk tank with the most annoying NPCs, and the permanent flame upgrade. Could be worse.

Also, on the subject of the remake, I definitely fall into the camp of preferring Original Hunter. Surfer Dude Hunter's a cute enough take, but I feel like it's juuuuuust a little funnier to have Hunter be just some guy who's a dopey moron. On the flipside, everyone else's redesign does wonders for them, especially Elora. Took her from an easily-disposable character rightly forgotten in later games to... maybe my favorite supporting character? Holy moly.

With the original games, Ripto's Rage was definitely my runaway favorite. But I dunno, I think it's about on-par with the first game on revisit. The flaws are a lot more obvious this go-around, but it's not enough to detract from the overall experience, which I still find quite excellent. Good comfort food game, through and through.

A random story to close this out - I had never never never never never never never never never understood the European name, "Gateway to Glimmer", until this playthrough. Like, I dunno, it'd be like assigning Gen 1 Pokémon the subtitle "Grass Outside Pallet". But while playing this game with my father watching, he made a reference to the overall game world as "Glimmer". Obviously he meant Avalar, but since the game places so much focus on Elora/Hunter/The Professor warping Spyro in to the Glimmer subworld, I get where the confusion comes from. ...still a silly name, though.

I owned all three Spyro PS1 games but only beat the first and only dabbled with the third. Ripto’s Rage is a fine 3D platformer but is a messier and lesser Spyro sequel. World design and narrative hardly has cohesion. Spyro was also light on both as well, but it had a cogent through line. Level design also took a hit in Ripto, the majority feel far too enclosed and are littered with invisible walls. Having swimmable water and death water that are visually indistinguishable in the same level is a crime. I loved the floating island design of levels in the first game. Areas felt more open and keeping the player in bounds was simple since you’d fall off the edge of the world.

The boss fights ranged from inoffensive to very annoying. Levels resetting so when you revisit to 100% the collectables you have to redo most everything again was an infuriating choice. Don’t get me started on the atrocious mine cart mini games. Gliding isn’t well utilized or challenging. Very inconsistent overall.

I have a great appreciation for the original.

I was rather surprised to find the original Spyro a really fun time. Not sure why, but I expected a middling, slow experience that just saw you mindlessly collecting gems in nice looking worlds. While I still enjoyed Spyro 2, the experience I expected from Spyro 1 is more apparent here.

I will say that I was impressed by just how big this game is. Not only are there a lot of worlds, they're all visually diverse, which includes the enemy and character designs. The most joyful part of entering a new level was seeing the theming, which was always something totally unique to Spyro 2. From robot farms to Hansel & Gretel in Arabian Nights, there was little to nothing missing from the selection.

What you do in these levels is where the game lacks. My average experience was a casual stroll through a nice looking environment with little to no friction. The first title didn't have tons of friction, but the inclusion of the supercharge meant that some gems acted as navigational puzzles that required some level of critical thinking and experimentation to acquire. Now it's been a few years since I played Spyro 1 so it's possible it's better in my head, but there was nothing close to this feeling in Spyro 2. I was often having a good time, but it almost never engaged me beyond that.

There's also the issue of the minigames which were greatly hit or miss. At their best, they were decently fun breaks from finding gems. At their worst, they were tedious affairs which were torture to complete despite offering no challenge. The infamous alchemist escort is not hard, but it is finnicky, and if you've never played the game before, it's highly likely you'll have to do it twice. On the other hands, I found the bosses pretty good. The final boss was a fair level of difficult with a distinct gimmick, and the second boss even took a life from me (though dragged on otherwise)! I also want to give some credit to the characters and story, especially Ripto who was suitably pathetic for a Spyro story. I think they nailed the tone that a narrative of these games should have and I'm hopeful the next will be an equally fun time in that regard.

Spyro 2 was an overall good time. Although I don't find much of a reason to score this one any higher than the first game. Despite it being close to a year since I played spyro 1 I'd like to think that my memory on it is still pretty good. Spyro 2 definetly improves and adds upon somethings from the original although some of its additions were not my cup of tea. Some levels and objectives were not very fun and some of the mini games were just a chore to playthrough like that trolley in breeze harbor. But overall this was a pretty enjoyable game that I can see myself coming back to eventually.

Hey it's more Spyro. What you wanted me to expound? Well fine. It's more Spyro BUT I ACTUALLY ENJOYED IT??

Yeah I dunno why but this one is way better to me. Maybe it's because I knew what I was getting into with controls this time? Maybe its the level structure and the side quests? Maybe its the weird furry bait faun girl? Something about it hit. I do like the characters in general more this time around. Bumbling would be hero cheetah guy and sexy faun aside there's also the main villain, the titular Ripto, who I delighted in seeing chew up every scene he was in. They make him so cartoon bad guy and his deaign is just short little chaos gremlin that I just wanna smack around.

As I mentioned before, the levels have changed a bit. At least it feels like they have. They're certainly more interesting in theme with there being robots who have farms or like a village with some underwater passages and even a future city type thing. There's also three hub worlds that have some surprises in them instead of just being big ovals with a couple enemies spread out.

In addition to that, levels have side-quests now that have you doing various things for an orb collectible along with the gems you're used to. Some of these quests are simple things like mini games but others are a bit more robust like a mini escort mission or a lengthy trade quest. They add a good amount of variety and expand on what a level has to offer without feeling tacked on or bloated. They're great!

In fact, the only thing not great are flying levels. Sigh. Anyone who knows me and my experience with the last game knows I hate the flying levels in these. It's not even the flying specifically but the timer. Get things to increase the time left but if you flub up even one thing in a level where you move in a way that isn't like most other levels in the game and you start over. WHY. It feels so bad. Also underwater stuff was annoying too. Not as bad but it controls like the flying and the inverted controls for swimming were something I never got used to.

So yeah, they made a Spyro game I mostly enjoyed. The actual game and side-quests are fun and the characters are at least neat to look at and kinda funny. I almost even cared about the story. Flying levels are shit though. Otherwise a solid game and I might even recommend it to fans of the genre. I'm now cautiously optimistic for the third one next year!