The ninth Spyro the Dragon game, released on the PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube and Xbox in 2004.There's a new dragon in town named Red, and he's not exactly happy with the other dragon elders. He and his army of Gnorcs and other baddies are planting Dark Gems in the Realm—horrible things that radiate dark energy, warping the world around them! It takes a dragon with tough horns—like Spyro—to break them and return the land to its splendor. There's a bunch of kidnapped dragon eggs, too! By now, Spyro's just gotten used to the whole "world-saving" thing—now if only he could figure out what Red's problem is!
This game contains examples of:
Arrows on Fire: Hunter's limited supply of fire arrows can be used to destroy strong chests and breakable walls.
Boss Arena Recovery: Not only are there butterflies surrounding the arenas (with more appearing depending on your death count), but the game will actually save your progress in the middle of the fight when you hit the boss enough times, so if you die, the boss' health remains one third or two-thirds gone. The only time the game expects you to finish the boss in one go is with the final boss.
Bubble Gun: Water breath has a Secondary Fire which shoots a gravity affected bubble. This bubble can only damage two enemy types, both of which are small and float high in the air. It's about as useless as it sounds.
Degraded Boss: Gnasty Gnorc: Final boss in Spyro the Dragon, the very first boss in A Hero's Tail. ...Well, he takes more hits to kill in the latter. Heck, there are mooks on the very first HUB who take more hits to kill.
Dem Bones: The skeletons in Gloomy Glacier which can't be harmed by Hunter's arrows.
Door To Before: Appears often, sometimes multiple times in a level.
Dynamic Loading: This game ditches the portals and "Spyro flying through the air" loading screens in favour of slow moving lifts, long tunnels and other dynamic loading tricks. A more conventional Loading Screen is used when travelling between Realms.
Goofy Print Underwear: Gnasty Gnorc reveals his red polka-dot boxers when he's goaded into swinging so hard that his staff/club sticks into the ground. More humiliating is the fact that this is his weak point.
Strangely, in his first appearance, he wasn't even wearing pants.
Double Jump: Spyro, Hunter and Blink. Spyro needs to be taught how to do it, though.
Wall Jump: Spyro learns the Wall Kick Move from a Dragon Elder late in the game, but it only works in very specific areas. Blink can do this by default.
Man-Eating Plant: A few enemies like this appear in the first Realm. For some reason, they can shoot Fireballs.
Minecart Madness: Magma Falls, except you're in the Ball Gadget instead of a minecart.
Mineral MacGuffin: Light and Dark Gems. Light Gems need to be collected, Dark Gems need to be destroyed.
Money Multiplier: You can temporarily double the value of gems... by purchasing an item using gems. Seems kind of pointless in the long run, really.
Mook Maker: There are some which will spawn an infinite number of spiders.
Palette Swap: Flame is basically Spyro with red scales instead of purple ones. There are some subtle differences (a wider snout on Flame, for example) but they're still really similar. Without going into the Model Viewer, it's hard to notice.
Secondary Fire: All breath types have a longer ranged, ammo limited, secondary fire. Using this feature is completely optional and it's not difficult to beat the game without it.
Wall Crawl: Hunter and Blink can climb certain walls.
Warp Whistle: You can buy a Teleport Pass at any shop location, allowing you to teleport to a shop you have already visited in the current Realm. It's one of the cheapest items you can buy (only 100 gems) so there's not much of a limit on their use.
0 reviews