Following the tradition of a series steeped in simplicity, this installment of Spyro's legacy never lets itself get past the old collect-gems-and-bugs-until-the-next-level model, yet somehow, it still works. This time, Spyro travels the Realms in search of 100 elusive fireflies, scattered by Ripto in an attempt to rid all dragons of their magical flame breath. Along the way he'll recruit help from Sheila the Kangaroo, Sparx the Dragonfly, and Agent 9 the Space Monkey to complete his quest, stopping occasionally to fight a boss or two before repeating the same objectives in the previous levels. Sounds boring, doesn't it?
Well, that's how it stays throughout most of the game. It is kind of fun trying to collect every firefly and treasure in each new area Spyro uncovers, but after just three hours of same-old gameplay, older players may tire easily of Spyro's antics and move onto something like Yoshi's Island. Fortunately, some of the monotony breaks whenever Sheila or Agent 9 come into play, since their levels are distinctly different from Spyro's angled top-down view.
Sheila's stages look almost the same, but the kangaroo herself can only move by jumping in four diagonal directions, playing more like a puzzle game than Spyro's usual fare. In a welcome change of pace, Agent 9 brings us into a full side scrolling action mini-game against the crafty Rhynocs. It's only after collecting every gem and firefly in the game that players gain access to 'Sparx Panic', the dragonfly's exclusive mini-game -- but it takes an iron will to play all the way through Spyro 2 without getting bored, much less discovering every secret in the game.
