Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly Screenshots The Final Say! Gameplay 6.5 Graphics 6.7 Sound 6.7 Value 6.2 Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly  - reviewed by Tory Favro Review Date: 11 January 2003 Review Score: 6.3/10 Score not based on an average  Distributor: Vivendi Universal

At last everyone's favourite purple dragon rears his horned head for the first time since his last adventure on PSone. Some of you may know him, for others he'll be  a stranger, nonetheless here is Spyro in his latest adventure; Enter the Dragonfly.   Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly Features Players 1 Memory Card 8 blocks Classification: G8+ Game Type: Platformer Skill Level: Beginner - Intermediate   Let's get one thing out of the way, I was hanging to play this game and have been for about 4 or 5 months, maybe longer. The disc showed up at the impulsegamer offices and was immediately put into our GameCube.   The game started and with anticipation I made my save files and got into it and here's how I found the game....   Disappointing. Although you can see that the game has made minor steps toward the next gen console market, there is really nothing new on offer. Fly Spyro and Sparx around, collect gems and other things and help to save the dragons. Same as last time and borrowing heavily from the last game of Spyro on PSone, Year of the Dragon.   It has to be said now that Insomniac Games, who created Spyro in the first place are not in the picture anymore and this game has been developed in house by Universal Interactive. They have taken a winning formula and rehashed all the good points to make a game that is essentially the same as it ever was. And to be honest I did not care one iota. The original series was brilliant and I was happy to continue on in the same vein.   This is when the review takes a bit of a plunge as the title really doesn't show the power of GameCube one iota and the game has clearly not been optimised for this system which would leave me to believe that the game was made for PS2 then ported over to the Cube with all the same textures and effects.   The framerate in this title is shocking and unacceptable in a machine with the sheer processing power available to the Cube. At some points it appears that the game totally freezes up and Spyro limps around the level. There are a number of effects used but not to great effect. Once again, considering this is on the Cube, I did expect more. Even the water, which for some reason, normally looks perfect on the Cube (see Mario Sunshine), fails to impress and looks like PS2 graphics. .

The storyline to this title is pretty similar to any other platforming game and does not break any new ground. Spyro's nemesis, Ripto has returned and stolen all the Dragonflies that accompany dragons with the exception of Spyro's buddy Sparx. Dragonflies play an essential part in the life of a young dragon so the continuation of the species is at hand.

As a platformer, Spyro is a potentially good game that encompasses huge levels for Spyro to explore. He has a range of breath weapons which is a first for the title and pretty well animated. The whole game looks nice until you start moving around and the frame chops up.

To be perfectly honest, to the very casual gamer or a child, the framerate issues may hardly be noticed however for a dedicated gamer/reviewer such as myself, I did expect more out of this title. Kids will absolutely love Spyro, as do I. I just hope that his next adventure is put through a lot of quality assurance testing before release. That's all that it would have taken for this game's final score to be in the high 8's as opposed to the score given today. The game has a lot of untapped potential. I would suggest renting this title before making a purchase.

- Tory Favro