Here’s the skinny on the story. As you would assume, you play the lead as Spyro the teenage dragon. It seems that another has accidentally (of course by some half-wit, forgetful scientist) summoned Ripto and his crew who, because there are no dragons, quickly takes over the place, making it their own. Now, you can imagine what happens after this. Since you are a dragon, albeit purple, you are quickly summoned, unbeknownst to you since you believe you’re headed off on some grand vacation. So the adventure begins.

As opposed to the last game where you had to rescue the dragons, obtain jewels and fight boss characters, Spyro 2 has you running around acquiring talismans and orbs in order to progress through the game. Of course you still have those pesky boss characters, but they’re spaced out enough to allow more time to enjoy the thrill of running around and torching whatever happens to cross your path. Spyro 2 also opens up a wider range of skills to develop and use through the game, namely swimming, climbing, and power-ups, which are items you are able to spit at your enemies, coals, electrical orbs, etc.

Let me tell you that the gameplay is pretty much the same as the last one. When you access the menu you’ll be greeted with a different format, but don’t let this detract you from the game. The control is fluid and it’s easy to move about the screen, though at times I found it kind of difficult to get the hang of the jump, fly, glide trick that is required in certain areas of the game.

Expect the graphics to be the same, but the worlds to be more complex with different missions to accomplish in each and ability to return if you don’t have the right skill to complete a certain quest. Some of these missions include racing a manta-ray through hoops or rescuing creatures from different places. Most of the time the many quests will involve gaining an extra orb, which you’ll use to open areas and find boss characters—not necessarily something you can pass up.

The only qualm I have with this game is that it is very easy to become disoriented when you’re in active camera mode. You are given the choice during the game to switch in and out of it, but I kept with it, since in the end it became more fun than frustrating to work with. The only thing is that I found myself memorizing the 3D levels in order to navigate to where I needed to go. For awhile I’d be confused, then slowly allow myself to drop into the game, the world and fun of Spyro.