The purple dragon grew up and flew out of Playstation's family nest right to Nintendo. At the time, it was her who was running the market for portable consoles - neither Microsoft nor Sony had a competitor at the time. The dragon found a cozy place and settled inside the GameBoy Advance. Digital Eclipse, which specialized in tiny handheld games and had little experience in the gaming industry, took on the development of a new project in the dragon universe. Well, it's a great honor to work on another part of Spyro the Dragon. Well, now that the rights are in the hands of the new guys, the question is, "Where do you want to move the universe next? We could go down a simple path and make a racing or party game in the manner of the Crash Bandicoot series. However, the authors considered it below their dignity and started to develop a full-fledged platformer in the best traditions of the series. The result of a long and hard work was Spyro: Season of Ice, released in the deep autumn of 2001. It's time to take a closer look at it.
Plot
The introductory video in the form of a series of static pictures with the text of the dialogues shows us how Spiro, Hunter and rabbit Bianca rest on the beach. Suddenly the attention of the heroes is attracted by a red balloon hanging in the sky with a note tied to it. The guys read the note and learn from it that some evil raynok named Grendor kidnaps fairies. Since Zoya (the sender of the note and the main fairy who kept Spiro's progress in the past) is too small to resist the villain, she asks for help from her big friends. And it's not for nothing that Grundor's fairies kidnap. The fact is that he, as a librarian, one day, gets at his disposal the book of the Witch and reads the first spell, in order to raise a huge power and rule all the lands. But in his stupidity, the antagonist reads this book upside down, and as a result he grows a second head and becomes ugly. Now, in order to regain his former appearance, Grundor must sacrifice all the fairies.
Honestly, the story pleasantly surprises the unusual villain. This isn't just another clever scientist who cherishes a plan to seize the world - it's just a weird loser trying to fix what he did. Well, and then to take over the world.
The story is pretty short, which makes us sad. At the same time, it does not contain any sudden turns of the plot and simply can not carry the player. Reach it to the end in the presence of classic games, no one will.
As you have already guessed, in Spyro: Season of Ice debut a new character named Grundor. It looks like a twin rhinoceros with a greenish left side and a red right side. Curiously, one of his heads is always in a declining mood, while the other is always angry. He also has blue caps and a magic wand on his head. The villain is tormented by incessant headaches, which is why he behaves badly. The game, obviously, is designed primarily for children's audience, because the outset itself is quite simple, and the ending is unexpectedly kind and nice. But you won't get any morals for yourself here.
Gameplay
The concept of the game remained the same - Spiro roams the open world and travels through special arches to different worlds. Each world has its own unique environment and structure. The main task of the purple dragon is to rescue the endangered fairies. In addition, it can collect gems chaotically scattered over levels. They act here as currency and each color has its own cost. Red stones are the most common, so they give only one unit for them. The green ones are two units, the blue ones are five, the yellow ones are ten, and the purple ones are twenty-five. You can buy something from Tolstosum, a local merchant and extortionist, on the stones you collect. For example, it is possible to get access to bonus levels for Sparks from him. In addition to him, you can meet other favorite characters, such as Hunter or Bianca. They will give you advice on how to go through the process and various tasks.
Spiro still has two attacks. He, like any self-respecting dragon, can spew flames out of his jaws as well as hurting his horns. These attacks are enough to kill any enemy. Keep in mind that each world is inhabited by a different type of enemies and all need to have their own approach. If rude, they can be divided into two conventional types - large and small. If the little ones are easy to make, the big Spiro can break their horns. So when you see a big guy in front of you, you'd better use the flame. There are, however, types of enemies that require you to attack together. For example, you may meet a big guy in fireproof armor. In order to defeat him, you will first have to hit him hard with horns to knock down the armor, and then water it with fire. Otherwise, you'll only make the bastard laugh. Spiro also knows how to soar thanks to his wings. Unfortunately, in order to fly it is still small.
The game itself is made in the form of an isometric platformer. Like the second part of the game, the worlds in Spyro: Season of Ice are divided into four sections - autumn, winter, spring and summer (however, Insomniac Games, had only three sections). Each section has five arches leading to the levels. We play the four levels as usual, and the fifth one offers us racing mechanics. The gameplay for Sparks is moving away from isometry to flat graphics with a view from above. Here, the mechanics of shooters - Sparks constantly have to shoot back from the pesky muscles. As a rule, such levels are very monotonous and quickly bored with the same uninterrupted action. The Spyro the Dragon series is still played primarily for research purposes, not for the sake of incomprehensible shooting. There aren't many such levels.
Unfortunately, the planning and design of the levels leaves much to be desired. Due to the lack of a map, the player is often lost and walks in circles in the same places. On many levels you can get side quests from locals. Most often their essence is to destroy or interact with a limited number of unique items. For example, all the coastal lighthouses should have been lit with flames on one level. This allows you to forget about boredom for a moment, but as soon as you find out that the tasks copy each other, bluntly changing the sprites and shuffling the conditions, boredom returns again. And here, it seems, it's a little too much with the gathering. I've always liked to collect jewelry in the first parts of the series, but here it doesn't give me much pleasure anymore. Well, finally, there's only one boss here, and that doesn't inspire fear.
Thanks to all this, Spyro: Season of Ice looks like a cheap Chinese fake, not a full continuation of the great trilogy.
Music and sound
The soundtrack tries to correspond to the chosen style, but it turns out it with variable success. I have to admit, it's hard for me to hide my dislike for the arrangements on GameBoy Advance. But the problem here isn't so much the arrangements, but the lack of a clear and memorable theme. Inside the game, the music lives in peace, but it's not at all adapted to life outside of it. As for the sound, it can not surprise anything. Part of the sounds are taken from past games, it seems, without any changes. Whether it's following the traditions, or just cutting off the angle and raspberry - it's not clear. But you can't impress with a soundtrack.
Afterword
Spyro: Season of Ice is a game that loses to the original on all fronts. It desperately tries to get caught up in the rays of other people's glory, stealing ideas and thoughts, but does it completely thoughtlessly. I won't argue that the idea of making a game isometric is a good one - it gives you a better sense of the world's openness. However, the filling suffers very much - numerous levels of the box do not excite in any way, and the music makes you sad by its secondary nature. Spyro: Season of Ice is an adventure that is not to be missed.