Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

2023-07-23
It's certainly more Spyro. More fun, cute little worlds with weird creatures and pretty fun platforming. The problem is the novelty is mostly worn off after you've played the original and Ripto's Rage doesn't do much to spice things up. You have little abilities you pick up as you go through the game that unlock new areas as if to ape Zelda or something but they're not interesting to use. There's a ladder which if you pay money you can...climb up. It still has the absolutely godawful frustrating boss design. They have too much health, often involve a lot of RNG (egg/ability drops), and have insane tracking to hit you. Except this time the bosses aren't cool personalities like the first one. I mean Ripto and his goons are some of the most generic characters I've ever seen. Like one of those second rate Max-Steel-ass animated shows you'd see on like Fox or something in the morning as a kid.

Other complaints: a lot of water levels which handle fine in the remake but are still kind of tedious. The music is not nearly as good as the first games. In fact some of the songs I actively disliked. The weird moaning noises on some of the tracks was...an odd choice. Kind of can't believe Stewart Copeland composed this one as well.

I will say I love some of the monster designs. The little dudes who hit themselves in the head with hammers in one of the first levels. And then one of the last levels has an uprising by the farm animals against robots. So you're fighting cows in space suits with laser guns and pigs with rockets strapped to their backs. Awesome.

Another thing that ruled is you have a couple minigames that are pretty fun. The ice hockey minigame in particular was SO fun.

It's an incredibly mediocre followup to the wonderful Spyro and I'm kind of glad I missed this one as a kid.