Sgt Byrd and Agent 9's shooter-based gameplay (complete with a then-novel first person camera) reminds me of how bad the genre was on consoles until Halo released the following year. Shiela the Kangaroo's jumping gives her verticality, but it means that you'll be flying through the air and losing control often.

Each overworld has one level dedicated to a side character, and none of them are developed enough to warrant this much attention. Of course, a handful of the game's levels can also be categorized in the same way, being complete departures from the basic gameplay of the series.

The constant tutorials and trial and error that these minigames provide made me dread having to complete them, and you need to clear a good chunk of them to unlock the final boss battle. The fact that most of them have strict time limits and a one life limit means that completing them requires instant mastery and frustrating repetition. The sheer number of these activities is impressive in its own right, but none of them control particularly well compared to the main action. There is even a collection of skateboarding sections, as it was the year 2000 and every video game released that year had a skateboarding section. These include sliding around haphazardly on ice fields trying to fend off attackers, battling a robotic shark, and swimming on a rocket powered manta ray. There just aren't that many tucked away areas in the main levels, as you're instead working to unlock hidden portals that will take you to one of the game's many many minigame challenges.īeyond each level's first egg, the rest are collected through participating in a variety of minigames. Spyro doesn't lose any abilities from the last game, but he doesn't really gain any here either, and it feels like Insomniac were going out of their way to come up with ways to get the player to do anything but charge around as the game's title character. There is platforming to be done, but exploring the worlds just doesn't feel very satisfying. See! Even the ursine gatekeeper agrees with the Sonic comparison! (Image Credit to DawnRansome)Ī typical level in Year of the Dragon consists of warping in, talking to an NPC, navigating down a linear path to the exit, and then getting to the meat of the levels afterward. Nothing out of the ordinary for the series, and the dragon eggs are a better choice for a collectible than Ripto's assortment of talismans and orbs. Hunter the Cheetah from Ripto's Rage is also along for the ride, and the team warps from world to world in order to recapture the eggs and overturn the rule of The Sorceress. Along the way, Spyro meets up with five new friends, including Shiela the Kangaroo and a laser gun toting monkey named Agent 9. Year of the Dragon finds Spyro traveling to a new realm to chase after The Sorceress and rescue the clutch of dragon eggs she has stolen from his realm.

Spyro year of the dragon reignited