The downward spiral continues.

If the overabundance of minigames resulted in Ripto's Rage being a lesser experience compared to the first game, then the introduction of shitty friends all but guarantees that Year of the Dragon will be worse than Ripto's Rage. And it is.

Ah yes, shitty friends. That classic platforming trope, when an established franchise decides it's a good idea to divide up playtime with some secondary characters who control way worse than the main character and have some kind of gimmick that isn't particularly fun to use. This is YotD's way of 'evolving' the Spyro the Dragon franchise I guess, but playing as the slow-as-molasses penguin or the gun-wielding monkey with basic ass shooting mechanics doesn't contribute anything beyond a middling diversion in gameplay mechanics.

There's less of the dreaded minigames that plagued the second game here, but the ones that do appear tend to be more tortuous. Insta-death wouldn't be such a bad thing if these minigames were short and snappy, but a lot of them drag for a long time. And the one where you have to take down two flying dragons that happen to have regenerative powers? That one in particular can get fucked.