
Spyro may still be purple and still breathes fire, but he learns new abilities here such as being able to swim underwater climb ladders and headbash downwards. The essential structure remains, each level is accessed via a portal in Avalar’s three home worlds laden with collectable gems and a hell of a lot of enemies. This sequel is substantially different to the original Spyro game, with a completely new set of characters and a graphical transplant. Moments later Spyro crash-lands in, and upon confusing everyone when asking for directions to the beach, he soon realises there was no time for a hero to rest yet. Upon realising his phobia of dragons, the super-portal crew divert a portal from the dragon realms to Avalar. However, Ripto and his Henchman, impressed by the super-portals power, decide to crash in and consequently Avalar’s fairies are ordered to dismantle the super-portals orbs and scattering them around Avalar to prevent Ripto returning home to “pack his bags”. In the land of Avalar, when Hunter (a leopard), Elora (a fawn) and the professor are at work on a super-portal. Itching his feet in a rain-drenched summer at the dragon realms, Spyro is fed up and sets off on a vacation at Dragon Shores.

A small, cute purple dragon but with an attitude, and, um, fiery breath, how could anyone hate wee Spyro? The original Spyro the Dragon was the start of what would become a hallmark franchise of the PSone platform genre, stripping 3D platforming to its fundamentals and demonstrated how they should be made. Out of absolutely pure coincidence, this was the same time when Spyro was made by Insomniac, who since moved on to Ratchet and Clank. There was a time when Spyro games were good. A small, cute purple dragon but with an attitude, and, um, fiery breath, how could anyone hate wee Spyro?." "There was a time when Spyro games were good.

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (PlayStation) review
