Reviewed: December 16, 2002
Reviewed by: Mark Smith
Publisher
Universal Interactive
Developer
Equinoxe Digital Entertainment
Released: November 20, 2002
Genre: Platform
Players: 1
ESRB: Everyone
6
5
7
7
6.0
Supported Features
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly marks the purple dragon’s first appearance on the GameCube system. Spyro has been around for many years and three other games on the PlayStation, and now he makes the trip to the Nintendo camp in what is one of his finest games to date.
Universal Interactive decided not to mess up the award-winning formula that has made all of the other Spyro games a huge success. Playing it safe means you are going to get more traditional Spyro action but with no significant leaps in style or gameplay. Good news for those that want more of the same, but not so good if you want something revolutionary.
I recently played and reviewed the PS2 version of this title and while Enter the Dragon didn’t hold a candle to the bevy of next-gen platform games on that system, the GameCube is still lacking a decent selection of these games. But simply having no real competition other than the Sonic, Mario, Ty, and Pac-Man games isn’t enough to make a great game or even a good one.
In Spyro’s latest adventure you need to recover the new generation of dragonfly companions that have been stolen by your clichéd “evil forces”. You’ll get to join forces with Sparx and a few other favorites like MoneyBags, Zoe, Bianca, and Hunter as you explore nine enchanting worlds, each with ten dragonflies and several hundred gems.
The worlds are massive with each one breaking down into smaller sub-levels full of action and charming visual design. You will get to explore frozen tundra, tropical islands, Japanese Dojo’s (of course), and even quiet country farms terrorized by aliens. All of these worlds are connected via the standard hub-design that seems to be an unspoken rule in platform games these days. You’ll get access to new worlds as you collect more dragonflies.
While Enter the Dragonfly looks and plays like all of the Spyro’s before it, there are a few nice additions that give our dragon a boost into the 21st century. As you might expect, Spyro has plenty of new breath attacks including Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Bubbles…bubbles? Our dragon has a few new moves up his scales including a new climbing mode on certain walls and the ability to deflect incoming attacks.
Spyro now gets to pilot all sorts of vehicles including a Spitfire, Tank, and even a UFO. And when you aren’t breathing or driving you can tackle the amazing selection of mini-games Spyro has to offer.
But all of these additions still aren’t enough to conceal the true “collecting” nature of the title. You are still resolved to collect gems and the elusive dragonflies. These little guys represent the biggest challenge, as you have to chase them down and often use your bubble breath weapon to capture them.
It’s all a tried and true formula that fails to innovate but Enter the Dragonfly still gets the job done. There was enough challenging gameplay and interesting level design to keep me enchanted from beginning to end. My only minor complaint with the entire title would be some insufferably long load times between the levels. In its defense, the levels are huge.
While this version of Spyro was marginally better than the PS2 version there are some things that are simply unforgivable considering the power of the Cube. Much work and detail have been put into the 3,000 polygon-model of our hero. He moves in a very lifelike manner and his subtle animations and lip-synch are near perfection.
The game worlds are massive with unique weather and environmental effects specific to each level. There are a few new visual effects such as reflective surfaces and realistic vegetation and the textures have been slightly improved over the PS2. There are also some excellent real-time lighting and fog effects and some of the best water you will see in a GameCube game.
All of this splendor is lost as soon as the scenes are set in motion. The framerate is absolutely horrible and unforgivable. Considering the power of the Cube versus the PS2, the framerate mysteriously dips to half of Sony’s system. They designers either tried to do too much or just did a sloppy job of porting the code. I’m guessing the latter since there are dozens of GameCube games out there than look better and run faster than Spyro.
The music is excellent in Enter the Dragon, as you might expect from composer Stuart Copeland (formerly of the Police). It suits the game on a whole and blends in wonderfully with each of the unique levels. While it does get repetitious it never gets annoying.
Sound effects are creative and fun and many of the hilarious characters are voiced by noted animation stars such as Tom Kenny (SpongeBob) and Billy West (Ren & Stimpy). It gives the entire production a very professional feel. I was disappointed that the Dolby Pro Logic II format was not utilized. This should be required for all 3D games.
Experience Spyro fans will probably blaze their way through this game in 20 hours. My trip took around 12 but I had just finished the PS2 version, so I knew my way around pretty well. There are more than 25 levels to be explored and thousands of collectibles to keep most gamers busy for quite a long time.
The game unfolds the same way each time you play it and there is no real incentive to make a second pass once you have finished it the first time. You can probably play and enjoy this game comfortably in a normal rental period, but if you are a true Spyro fan you may want to make this a permanent addition to your GameCube library.
Spyro is a fun, yet unsophisticated game that never wanders far from the proven path of his PlayStation ancestors. It doesn’t seem to take advantage of any of the power the GameCube has to offer. In fact it performs worse than it’s PS2 cousin. The younger crowd may be able to forgive the annoyingly bad framerate but all serious platform gamers will want to steer clear of this title.
I was really hoping for more from Spyro’s first outing on the Cube. This was obviously a rushed port of the PS2 original and no attempt was made to optimize or improve the code or the game itself. If you absolutely need a 3D platform game for you or your kids then make sure you try all of the others before giving this one a shot and then rent it first just to be sure.