Spyro Adventure GBA ReviewWell, here it is, a Spyro game for the GBA. Well, I mean yet another one. The original one for the PS1 was a work of absolute genius. The graphics, the secrets, the music, the game play, all of which created a timeless piece of gaming that everyone should play if they have a PS1. And here they are, on the GBA *sigh*. Don't get me wrong, the Spyro series was great, while the first three games lasted, now they seemed to have lost it's charm (the new Skylander one looks really really good, like they went back to their root with this one. Yet, the huge pay-to-play feature it has puts me off from playing it. Why Spyro? Why?). I am being calm here, as my love for Spyro is almost making me blind to the abominations that future games show. Sure, the story in the Spyro Legends trilogy might be good, but I'm put off by it, giving Spyro new abilities that make me sick. I'm a die hard fan of the classic Spyro games, so you'll have to forgive m for the GBA.
The story is that the Professor (funnily enough, we never know his name) is taking you to his secret lab to show you something, blindfolded. One is that he has ripped open a small hole in the space time continuum, in the world that has Rypto in. The hole is small enough for him not to enter, but just enough to spy on what he is doing. The other surprise is a robot butler. the Professor asks him to get Spyro some cookies and milk, in which the robot malfunctions and goes hay wire and gets hell bent on getting Spyro cookies and milk. Now I have to admit, that always used to to crack me up when that was mentioned. The whole situation should be taken seriously, but it isn't. this is a good time to throw in a plot device here. Lets have a look *turns to a wheel of fortune sort of thing, each space labeled the same thing "Rypto escapes". Ok, lets find out what plot device will star in this game *spins wheel and lands on "Rypto escapes"* Yes, Rypto escapes, tries to get revenge on Spyro and kidnaps the Professor. You have to go into his world and defeat him, but you need some sort of "Heart" to get though.
You must collect these Hearts of the dragon land to get into Ryptos land. How do you do this? By collecting certain things (such as toys or fitness equipment) to make the people trust you and let you have it, because apparently saving the dragons from a crystal form and saving their dragon eggs isn't enough to let them trust you. They are all willing to let you have it, but there's normally a lame excuses like "you can have it, Spyro, but this is the only thing entertaining the young ones. Get me some toys and I'll let you have it". Well, I'll just take it for a bit, save the dragon land and you can have it back. "no, no, this is urgent. I can't afford to have it missing for a second, unless I get some toys." You're trying to tell me that entertaining young dragons is more important? Talk about features that are just there to prolong the game play. What, was a "trail" or "test" not good enough?
The areas you explore are small, but have a map system to let you know where you have and haven't explored, which is handy. You have an infinite number of lives, which annoys me, it just does with no explanation. You can come across these coloured chests which need certain keys to open. You need to get two halves of a key to make the key and open the locked chest. These are obtained by doing mini-games on helping your friends do things. These are annoying and poorly made. The penguin one has a vast area with no map, making is hard to know where you have and haven't been. Getting the last gem here can be frustrating, while the Agent 9 one makes you have to be silent and be invisible. This idea is cool, but has some flaws in the programing. You need to be spot on when hiding, and they don't take anything lightly. If they spot you with their feet, you will set off the alarm.
There are some unnecessary things in the game, such as racing a thief to get a reward, it just doesn't seem to make sense in a Spyro game. There are some cool collectables, which include dust that makes you the colour of what ever gem you collect. The graphics are poor to my eyes. I don't know why, they seemed decent at the time, but now, they make me sick when I look at them. The water looks too white, the landscape seems too repetitive, the enemies seem to have that 3D effect when clearly it isn't, it just....does! Granted, the animation of the attacks is nice and smooth, but the colours are just too pale and pastel.
The music is slightly better than the graphics. The music seems repetitive, annoying, and oddly enough like the stuff of annoying dreams (you know, the ones with stuff that annoys you for no reason, and you can't stop it no matter how hard you don't appear to try). This also makes me sick. The ice place has a Army March remix to it, which is terrible, and just repeats over and over. I get sick from going to that level. The boss music isn't that bad, and is probably the best music in the game. Kudos though for having a worm boss in the library level, then having the same boss but with one more bubble on it's tail in the cave, genius! *Sarcasm alert*
Overall, I give this game a 5.3/10 This game is awful. The level design, the music, the game play, taking everything that was Spyro and turning it into a sellout. Granted, the controls are very nicely done. I can really
control Spyro accurately here. The jumping and the gliding are really
well done here. The game, in Spyro tradition, has secrets hidden every
know and then for you to find them, even though it is a lot less than the PS1 game, still has that secrets element in it. But the game itself has lost a lot of charm by going on the GBA. I have no idea where to go, or even if this is the right way. I will often fly to one spot, but find out that it's a level up, and not on the ground floor, then die. It's a good thing that we have infinite lives, but if this is the reason for that, then that's bad game design.
The game irritates me to the nth degree, the ending sucks and is very lazy, and I don't know if I love it or hate it. One one hand, I hate it for everything it is, but on the other hand, it was one of my favorite GBA games at the time when I was young. Back then, it was a pretty awesome game, but now, I see the truth and scorn at the sight of this game. Ok, maybe I'm being a little hard on the game. The game play was pretty good, and the selection of power-ups were sweet at the time (even though they annoy me today), it's only really worth a play to Spyro fans that haven't played the first three yet. This isn't the best, but it could be a whole lot worse.
Graphics
5 Sound
6 Addictive
8 Depth
9 Story
5 Difficulty
4
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