Really incredible visuals for the PSX and a noticeable improvement in control and game feel over the original. In terms of the core gameplay everything's in place for a true timeless classic and the whole thing's dripping with charm and personality. Unfortunately, along with the visual and mechanical improvements, Spyro 2 brings a big heaping helping of mediocre-at-best minigame challenges, and unfortunately you're going to have to do a LOT of them if you want to finish the game, as just running through each level and grabbing whatever orbs you get for doing pretty basic run-throughs will only net you about half as many as are required to open the final boss's locked door. It's, frankly, a nightmare. Many of these challenges are poorly designed or not balanced properly, and even the best ones I would describe more as "acceptable" than as anything I'd really want to take a break from the core platforming to focus on. Personally, I already had to give this game a fair amount of rope to get into it due to the structural change of not allowing the player to complete each level to 100% on the first visit, and the fact that it wants me to play a bunch of unfun minigames in order to hit bare minimum completion is just a little too much, especially since it didn't tell me that until I was already at the end. If you're less minigame averse than I am, you'll probably have a great time with this one, but I just can't face the prospect of having to turn around and play a bunch of them before being let into the final boss when the reason I passed them by in the first place is because I wasn't enjoying them when they were interspersed into my runs through the earlier levels.

Reviewed on Oct 28, 2023


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