Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly [PS2]

The collection bit of Enter the Dragonfly is not terribly annoying, though it's clear this is a 32-bit platform model, based on predominantly on collecting. The only slightly interesting wrinkle, which involves collecting dragonflies (each with its own name), is that you have to, um...catch them all. Yes, it's a little Pokemon-ish. You also collect different kinds of breath, which add a little bit of newness to an otherwise familiar palette. You get flame breath, and earn bubble breath, with which to capture dragonflies, ice breath, to freeze things, and electric breath, with which to shock enemies. Each performs best on the level it's designed for (with the exception of bubble breath, which is solely for capturing dragonflies). Spyro can also now protect himself with a deflect ability, and can perform similar moves from previous games, such as gliding, head bashing and hovering. Climbing, however, is new. When Spyro sees a wall with ladder likes lines on it, by pressing X he can climb it. And those familiar magic spirals are back again, enabling Spyro to return to higher platforms by simply stepping into them.

Level-design wise, you'll experience nothing new. There is a hub section, gates to open up after having collected enough dragonflies, and more arenas and sub-worlds to explore, all opened up when you have collected enough dragonflies. With regard to characters, numerous pals from Spyro's past have returned, including MoneyBags, Hunter, Zoe, Bianca and Sparx.

The load times are long, there are various little glitches here and there, and essentially, the game doesn't change its course from the beginning to the end. Like I said, it's the comfort food of videogames.

Graphics While many Enter the Dragonfly's visuals are worth noting on their own, overall, Universal's game looks like a high-res PlayStation game, and it's not impressive by any means.

Many of the animations have improved over previous games. Spyro zooms around with excellent motions, and the particle effects, as always, create a magical, Fourth of July-style feeling. Stalks of corn sway back and forth as do tall grassy patches when Spyro moves through them, and there's a rich fantasy-style look to the worlds. Flowers, bushes and trees all look substantial. The icy levels show off great reflective surfaces, and the underwater locales are rich with ornaments, too.

But after that, the visuals quickly careen downhill. The framerate suffers often, chugging from around a maximum of 30 fps downward, depending on the area. Which is kind of strange, because these worlds aren't much bigger than those on the PlayStation versions of Spyro. There aren't many more enemies on screen, and the textures are still the same, simple flat shaded swaths of primary colors, just like the others. Oftentimes, entire areas pop in because of weird problems with load issues.

Sound Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of Universal's game is the music. As with the previous games, the music has been a big plus, with the first two games featuring former Police drummer Stewart Copeland. Here, the musical scores seem to continue the trend of lush musical landscapes, but this time, the themes tend to flow with mellower flavors. The music is actually soothing, and though I listened to it for hours on end, the repetition never bothered me once. The sound effects are decent, too, as are the voice actors. All of the characters are cartoony is sound, but they're cute, goofy and enjoyable to hear.

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