Spyro: Year of the Dragon

The Good
It's Spyro! Again!

Spyro has a whole new bunch of moves and tricks to try out. The skateboarding levels in particular are absolutely brilliant fun, as you'll see when you pull your first "Twisted Lime" (don't ask). Sheila's levels are great, Sergeant Byrd's levels are brilliant and there's even a hint of the Metal Gears in there with the Agent 9 sniper-a-thon levels.

There are in-jokes coming thick and fast, with a particularly funny "The Matrix" gag being amongst the best parts. The erudite yeti, Bentley, is pretty funny too.

The Bad
There's a few points where you really must have a guide to hand to complete a part, and that's never a good thing. There's also a few too many cases of "Let's stick in a long, death-defying leap to a distant platform".

Bentley and Sparx's levels are a little dull too, but little else is wrong.

The Bottom Line
If you like Spyro, this is a must-have. If you like Crash, this is a must-have. If you like war games and tanks, this is a must-have, if only to get you to lighten up a bit. Easy to get into, tricky to master (always a good sign) and a laugh a minute.

The Good
1. The story is that dragons are in the dragon world and something was wrong, Bianca and her rhynocs came into the dragon realms and grab the 150 eggs but while Bianca was carrying an egg, she steps on Hunter's arm and up he wakes and oh, no, she have been spotted. Bianca was under the command of the Sorceress, and Spyro and Sparx have to enter the forgotten world and rescue the 150 eggs.

1. The gameplay and controls are the same thing in Spyro 1 and 2, you move around, collecting gems, and rescuing dragon eggs. my favorite part is the speedways and certain challenges that awesome.

2. the music and the sound is just like Spyro 1 and 2, you just can't with any certain sound effect or music tune in the game.
   
   The Bad
   1. I really hate the snowboarding part in the Super Bonus Round level because you're racing against 7 Yetis and every time I wanted full rocket power and I go down to my doom. I just don't like it back when I was a kid and finally got past that part and I felt happy about it.

3. the other part I don't like is the second boss battle Spike. The first part is alright 'cause if you know the pattern, you've got him on the first part, but the second part is where he jump and stumps the ground where you have to pick up the red crystals and blue crystals.
   
   The Bottom Line
   This game is awesome and I shall say that this game is so prefect just like Spyro 1 and 2. The flaws doesn't matter because you are enjoying the gameplay and listening to the music.

The Good
Graphically it hasn't improved much but it doesn't matter since Spyro 2 looked pretty amazing, too. There is a lot of detail and everything is colorful. I liked the little shiny gems scattered around. The gameplay is the same as in the first two episodes. This doesn't matter, too because this was, just like the graphics, an already very good aspect of Spyro 2. It's smooth and easy to pick up. You can charge, glide, jump and, off course, breathe fire. Sparx the dragonfly is once again your life-bar and most trusted pal, as long as you feed him butterflies. Thankfully there have been some improvements. During the game you can get to release some friends willing to help you. However you must pay the super greedy moneybags some gems. Moneybags is back from Spyro 2 and you need to give him some gems to pass certain areas in each level, just as in Spyro 2. Not only moneybags is here again, but also Hunter the Cheetah, the Mole Professor and Zoë the fairy make a return. Spyro meets new enemies including the evil Sorceress and her mysterious servant Bianca, who's not so scary and evil as she was meant to be. That brings us to the story. There has been found a way too get to the forgotten worlds, and the Rhynocs, the servants of the Sorceress have kidnapped the dragon eggs. Now Spyro and his pal Sparx start a new adventure to find all of the 150 eggs. This is once again done by a main quest in each world, plus mini-games. These include, riding a manta ray, skating and much, much more. But again counts, some of them were also in Part 2. Each time you get an egg a new dragon is born. Once you beat a few levels a cutscene may appear to build up the story. There are four worlds, and if you collect enough eggs you will open up more portals in each homeworld, some of which require you to fly. Spyro is not the only playable character, there's also a level for each of those new animal friends. There's Bentley a Yeti, Sgt. Byrd the penguin, Sheila the kangaroo (note that she sounds Australian) and Agent 9, a monkey. Some of the mini-games can only be played with a certain character so you need so save them first to play all mini-games. There are also Bonus Worlds with Sparx. This game has big worlds that just beg to be explored until you collect all eggs and find that very last gem. This game is highly replayable since there is a bonus world to unlock at the end with some very challenging areas in it. The music is excellent, since it's once again composed by the Police drummer Stewart Copeland. The voice acting is great and each of the many friends, enemies and people-in-trouble have an own voice recorded for them.

The Bad
It's much like a rehash of part two. There are also less cutscenes and no difficulty ratings for the mini-games. And, although longer, Year of the Dragon is a little bit less challenging than part 2.

The Bottom Line
Another long and incredibly fun platform game fun for both young and old.