Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (also known as Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer in Europe, Australia and New Zealand) is the second game in the original series developed by Insomniac Games.
A complete remake of the game was released alongside the first Spyro game and Year of the Dragon as part of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
==Plot==
The protagonist of the series, Spyro the Dragon, decides to take a vacation to Dragon Shores with his friend Sparx a few years after defeating Gnasty Gnorc. The portal he enters accidentally takes him to the land of Avalar because the Professor, Elora and Hunter are trying to bring a dragon to Avalar. A sorcerer, known as Ripto, has invaded the world of Avalar and is wreaking havoc on its citizens with his magic. Idols come to life and attack their creators, Eskimos are encased in ice cubes, and a civilization of seahorses has had its water confiscated. Spyro must travel through the land of Avalar, undoing the damage done by Ripto and ultimately defeating him.
==Setting==
Ripto's Rage! is set in Avalar, rather than the Dragon Realms, where the previous installment was set. The world of Avalar is split up into three homeworlds, all of them named after a season of the year: Summer Forest, Autumn Plains, and Winter Tundra. All three homeworlds feature a certain number of realms, one or two speedways, and a Boss Realm. Avalar's name may have been derived from the legendary island Avalon.
== Characters==
===Playable Characters ===
*Spyro the Dragon
===Non-Playable Characters===
*Sparx the Dragonfly
*Professor
*Hunter
*Elora
*Zoe
*Moneybags
====Bosses ====
*Crush
*Gulp
*Ripto
==Story==
In the land of Avalar, residents Elora, Hunter, and the Professor have been working on their latest and largest portal. During a test, Hunter persuades the Professor to enter his birthdate, 22475 (which either means February 25, 1975 or April 24, 1975) as the portal's target coordinates, inadvertently activating it and allowing a small sorcerer named Ripto into the realm, along with his two dinosaurs, Crush and Gulp. Sensing that the world he has landed in is free of Dragons, Ripto declares that he is going to "move in" and take over. He instructs Crush to go back and pack his things. However, Elora is able to deactivate the portal by instructing fairies to remove the orbs powering the portal and scatter them throughout the realms of Avalar. As Ripto begins to terrorize Avalar, Elora and the Professor plan to "catch" a Dragon in order to drive Ripto off.
Meanwhile, after the defeat of Gnasty Gnorc and the Dragon Realms have been experiencing rainy weather for some time, and Spyro declares that he needs a vacation. He locates the portal to the realm of Dragon Shores and enters it. However, he finds himself landing in the realm of Avalar, intercepted by a portal built by the Professor. Ripto immediately enters the scene and destroys the portal, objecting to the Professor's success in bringing a Dragon to Avalar. Ripto is, however, forced to retreat when Gulp accidentally swallows Ripto's magical scepter. Elora asks Spyro to help save the realm of Avalar by defeating Ripto.
Each of Avalar's homeworlds is captured by Ripto immediately after Spyro enters it, and either Ripto or one of his main minions await Spyro in a dungeon area at the end of each. Spyro must gain access to these dungeons by collecting all of the Talismans in the homeworld, and in the case of the final confrontation, collecting 40 orbs total also. The leaders of each realm are holding the Talismans. Somehow, perhaps using his magic, Ripto has succeeded in turning the citizens of the realms against each other, causing outbreaks of war between realms and races within realms. However, it's possible that Ripto did not terrorize these realms since Zephyr and Breeze Harbor have been in a war for some time. Mystic Marsh's trouble was only caused by a sleeping Water Wizard, and nobody ever mentioned Ripto at all.
In the end, Spyro is able to bring peace to the realms that have been corrupted by Ripto's machinations. After defeating both Crush and Gulp, Spyro is hurtled into Winter Tundra, where he finds out that Ripto has taken over the homeworld and holed himself up in the castle. The Professor instructs Spyro to gather up forty orbs, which will enable him to storm the castle Ripto has claimed and retake Avalar for the peaceful natives to whom it belongs.
Spyro successfully gathers the forty orbs and enters the castle. With the assistance of Hunter, Spyro fights Ripto to the bitter end. As Ripto spawns a mechanical Gulp, and later a mechanical pterodactyl (who could be one of Ripto's deceased henchman that died before the events of the game), Hunter dons his wings, flies over the arena, and drops orbs supercharged by the Professor to give Spyro enhanced abilities for a short amount of time. Spyro ultimately devastates Ripto, sending him sinking into the lava below.
After Spyro beats Ripto, he is congratulated by Hunter, Elora, the Professor, and Moneybags. The Professor opens a portal to Dragon Shores with the remaining orbs, and Hunter attacks Moneybags in order to retrieve the gems he took from Spyro throughout the events of the game.
The game's epilogue, which is unlocked by completing the Skill Points list in the Guidebook, reveals what happened to various friends and enemies that Spyro encountered in Avalar, such as Spyro and Elora missing their chance to kiss, Crush being taught by the Professor how to spell, and a list of dummied enemies that didn't make it into the game. The game closes with Spyro returning to the Dragon Realm, with Hunter joining him, setting the stage for the next installment, Year of the Dragon.
===Cutscenes===
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! has a total of eleven cutscenes, available at these links:
After completing the Minigames in Dragon Shores, you will be able to access the movie section.
*#1 We Need a Vacation
*#2 I've got a Dragon
*#3 I'm a Faun you Dork!
*#4 No Dragons?, Wonderful!
*#5 Bring it on Shorty!
*#6 Boo!
*#7 Gulp, Lunchtime!
*#8 Spyro, You did it!
*#9 You Little Fools!
*#10 What?! YOU AGAIN!
*#11 Come on Sparx!
==Gameplay==
Gameplay flows like the original game Spyro the Dragon, with few variations in control and Spyro's main abilities intact. The only notable difference is the removal of Spyro's side-rolling ability (previously activated by L1 and R1), which some would argue was useless in the first place. However, in the Reignited Trilogy, this ability was added back in.
===Controls ===
Button 	Movement
 	Jump
+ 	Glide
+ + 	Hover
Hold 	Look around environment
 	Flame
(underwater)	Paddle
 	Charge (in surface and underwater)
and 	Skip/Quick Charge
+ 	Sparx gem radar
or 	Move the camera
 	Pause Menu
 	Guidebook
+ 	Headbash (when unlocked in Winter Tundra)
===Returning Abilities===
Spyro retains the ability to jump and glide, and he is only able to fly (gain altitude) in speedway levels or with a certain temporary powerup.
Spyro can attack with his fire breath and his charge. 
He can take down many varieties of enemies with either attack. However, metal-armored enemies are impervious to Spyro's flame, and enemies much larger than Spyro are immune to his charge attack.
===New Abilities ===
Spyro also acquires a variety of new abilities throughout the game. Toward the beginning, Hunter teaches Spyro how to glide and hover at the end of a glide to gain extra height. Many levels were designed with this in mind, and this game accordingly contains longer glide distances than its predecessor, Spyro the Dragon.
Moneybags then teaches Spyro a few new abilities. Of course, all of these come at the expense of a "small fee" of gems.
Ability 	Description
Swimming	Swimming on the surface of water is an ability Spyro has from the beginning of the game. Swimming underwater enables Spyro to travel to new areas, recover gems and battle enemies. One level is even set entirely underwater. There is no time limit on underwater swmming.
Climbing	Using the climbing ability, certain walls bear ladder imprints and can be climbed. Simply jumping against the wall will make Spyro dig his claws in, and he can climb in any direction for as far as the imprints go. Spyro frequently must cross from ladder to ladder to reach new areas.
Headbash	The headbash enables Spyro to break certain rocks and special gem containers. The headbash is achieved by jumping into the air and then pressing the triangle button. Spyro will execute a forward somersault and launch himself downwards, horns first. Spyro can also drop into a Headbash from a glide by hitting triangle twice—first to Hover, then to Headbash.
===Powerup Gates===
::(See main article: Powerups)
In addition to Spyro's returning and new abilities, many levels in the game feature power-up "gates" which give Spyro a special ability for a limited time.
Back-tracking is often necessary to obtain all of the collectibles in certain levels. Clever and persistent players can, however, get around certain obstacles without the use of the intended skills or power-ups. For instance, in Glimmer, Spyro can reach the landing above the ladder in the crystal cave using the Superfly powerup outside.
==Features ==
After the success of Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2 went a little further to make the series bigger. These features were introduced in this game: 
*The Map: This was the first game where Spyro could call upon a map to find out where he was. The map feature was similar to The Legend of Zelda's map feature, except that it could only be viewed in the bottom left corner of the screen. Spyro's location appeared as a beam of light on the map, with the exact position of Spyro being the smallest point, and the largest point being where Spyro was looking. The map feature did not carry over into Spyro: Year of the Dragon, but was used in other Spyro games as an alternative pause screen.
*A Bigger Story: More cutscenes were used in this game than the previous installment; however some could argue that each dragon-release, as well as the 3-second scenes after flaming Gnasty Gnorc, counts for cutscenes. There were also shorter cutscenes that played when entering and leaving the various levels (which eliminated the animations of Spyro flying directly into the next level and doing an aerial backflip. Instead, after the cutscene plays, there is a blackout, and when the lights come back up, Spyro is waiting to move in the level). Ripto's Arena also had two mini-cutscenes between each battle-section. There was a more personal feeling to Spyro 2 than Spyro 1. Cutscenes continue to be a part of the Spyro franchise.
*The Dialogue Box: When speaking to characters in-game, dialogue boxes appear. In Spyro the Dragon, all of the dialogue (whether in-game or cutscene) was spoken without a dialogue box, except for the balloonists, which was followed by a choosing option. Spyro does not talk to anyone in-game in Spyro 1 (except when Gnasty is beaten (unless the scene is counted as a cutscene)), only in the cutscenes.
*Recurring Characters: In the first game, freed Dragons would disappear into the platform, leaving levels sort of empty. They always had the same dialogue if called upon again, except for Argus (depending on whether you've completed a level or not (however, still counts only as one dragon)). Spyro 2 introduced friendly characters that inhabited the levels Spyro visited and followed Spyro throughout the game.
*Safe Homeworlds: Enemies were removed from homeworlds, giving Spyro places to recuperate and explore.
*Mandatory Boss Battles: In Spyro the Dragon, you could skip the boss and go to the next level. Also, the boss resided in worlds that were similar to the normal realms, with enemies and gems and Dragons. The boss battles in Spyro 2 were required to progress through the game, and you fought in an arena, with no collectibles or regular enemies whatsoever.
*New Types of Death: Spyro now can die more realistically. There is actual lava in this game (whereas in Spyro 1, every level that had some kind of liquid was a different version of a drowning pool, even if it looked like lava). When Spyro lands in the lava, he is sent into the air with a scorched posterior. If he dies on the lava, he ends up burnt to a black, smoking crisp, where he will stand straight up and fall onto his back. Other deaths include getting spun by means of getting slapped or having something swung at you where Spyro will spin to face the camera, balancing on his right leg, only to fall forward shortly after, and getting eaten by a robot shark where Spyro will just disappear as the shark does a chewing animation. Also, the water in this game does not always kill Spyro. The developers took advantage of the Dragons-cannot-drown concept and applied it to this game.
*Ending Objective: Instead of finding all of the required items in a level, Spyro is given a one-of-a-kind item at the end of the first 14 levels. After that, he has to go after the less rare orbs.
*Gem Radar: Starting with this game, Sparx can help Spyro find any gems nearby by pressing the shoulder buttons. This is very helpful if Spyro is trying to find gems that are in clever hiding spots.
*Hover: This game introduces an extra action for the triangle button: a hover at the end of Spyro's glide. It gives Spyro a little extra boost so he can reach hard to reach platforms.
==Avalar's locations==
Level formation	Level formation 	Level formation 	Level formation	Homeworlds	Realms	Speedways	Boss Realms
Summer Forest 	GlimmerIdol SpringsColossusSunny BeachHurricosAquaria Towers 	Ocean Speedway 	Crush's Dungeon	 	 	 	
Autumn Plains 	Skelos BadlandsCrystal GlacierBreeze HarborZephyrScorchFracture HillsMagma ConeShady Oasis	Metro SpeedwayIcy Speedway	Gulp's Overlook	 	 	 	
Winter Tundra 	Mystic MarshCloud TemplesRobotica FarmsMetropolisDragon Shores - Bonus/final realm 	Canyon Speedway 	Ripto's Arena 	 	 	 	
==Cast==
Character 	Voice Actor
Spyro the DragonProfessor	Tom Kenny
Sparx the Dragonfly 	André Sogliuzzo
HunterRiptoCrushGulp 	Gregg Berger
Elora 	Melissa Disney
Zoe 	Mary Linda Phillips
Moneybags 	Milton James
==Reception==
GameSpot gave the game an 8.6/10, saying that it "injected a dose of soul and variety into a game that was already pretty fun to play," whilst a user score of 8.9 was given on the same site.Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! Review for PlayStation. (Date Posted - Nov. 2, 1999). Gamespot. IGN gave it an 8.8/10, stating that it is a fun, and excellent platformer.Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. (Date Posted - Dec 12, 2018). IGN.
In Japan, Famitsu magazine scored the game a 30 out of 40.
==Differences with Japanese version==
Like the original Spyro the Dragon, the main camera is significantly slower, and doesn't follow Spyro when he is charging. Fortunately, there is now an option to revert this change in the main menu's camera settings. The nerf of the charge's movement speed still remains, however, and can make missions such as chasing down the thieves of Shady Oasis or the Bucket Land Blubbers at the end of Breeze Harbor particularly more difficult, but the Supercharge remains untouched. When charging underwater, instead of holding down the charge, the player has to mash the charge button repeatedly instead.
Another addition from the original Spyro's port would be the signs that give more details to the world's denizens and the primary objectives, as well as other helpful gameplay tips and hints are scattered throughout the homeworlds. The map option is now open by default, but Sparx's gem radar has been removed.
Visually, characters with light eye colors, Elora, Handel and Greta, Hunter, the Water Wizards, and the Fauns of Magma Cone are changed to a darker color. The windmills of Robotica Farms have stopped. The Guidebook's English text has been removed and replaced with a blurred text. The ending cinematic of Zephyr now uses a giant "Boom!" sign to censor the explosion.
==Gallery== 
::Main article: Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!/Gallery
===Videos===
Spyro 2- Ripto's Rage - Trailer - 1999|Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! official trailer from 1999.
File:Playstation_Spyro_Riptos_Rage_Commercial_1999|Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! Commercial
File:Spyro_2-_Ripto's_Rage!_(PSX)_-_Commercial|Christmas commerical for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
File:Spyro 2- Ripto's Rage! (PSX) - Commercial-2
File:Spyro 2- Ripto's Rage! "The Blair Witch" (Sony PlayStation-PSX-PSone-PS-PS1-Commercial)
==Trivia== 
*Dan Johnson made his first cameo gag in this game. This gag is more common in the Ratchet & Clank series.
*The game's Japanese title (スパイロ × スパークス トンでもツアーズ) translates roughly to "Spyro & Sparx: Outrageous Tours" with "outrageous" possibly being analogous to the "Rage" part of the subtitle, "Ripto's Rage" and the "tours" part likely referencing Spyro's desire to go on vacation or possibly his exploration Avalar, which is fairly new to him.
*When the game was released on the European PlayStation Store on July 26 2007, it was pulled from sale less than two weeks later because of reports that Idol Springs and Colossus were not working properly. The game was re-released in Europe five years later, on December 12 2012, although as the NTSC version due to issues with the PAL version.Spyro the Dragon returns to PSN next week!. (Date Posted - Dec 7, 2012). PlayStation Blog.
*The level intros and outros were originally going to be narrated by Elora explaining the situations to Spyro, but was scrapped.Elora’s Cut Level Intros in Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! (Prototype from August 11th, 1999). (Date Posted - Apr 17, 2021). YouTube. However, the Japanese version of Ripto's Rage! keeps the narration, but is now narrated between Spyro, Elora, and the others instead.
*During gameplay, Spyro is seen in a constant frown, possibly to give him a tougher appearance. This was later changed in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Comically though, some fans believe Spyro is frowning because his vacation was ruined when he suddenly arrived in Avalar.
*As seen in the first cutscene, the Dragon Realms, more specifically, where Spyro and the other dragons live, has changed in appearance. In the first game, it looked like a combination of Stone Hill and Dark Hollow. It now looks like a mix of Stone Hill and Autumn Plains.
*Beginning with this game, Tom Kenny, best known for voicing SpongeBob SquarePants, became the voice of Spyro, and the Electrolls. He would continue to voice Spyro until Spyro: A Hero's Tail where he was replaced by Jess Harnell.
*The Italian voice of Moneybags (Riccone) is provided by Alessandro Ricci, the Italian voice of Solid Snake.
*The Ocean Speedway, Metro Speedway, and Icy Speedway are water except in Canyon Speedway which is lava. If Spyro lands in the water he angrily smacks his paw on the water.
*Contrary to popular belief, Insomniac Games never planned a fourth homeworld named after the Spring season. They have, however, jokingly stated that they added flowers to the introduction level, Glimmer, to reflect on the missing season.Clip of a live stream of original Spyro 2 developers answering a question about the spring homeworld. Twitch.
**It is later revealed in a game design document for Spyro 2 that Summer Forest was originally called Summer Spring Forest.Here is the 1.0 version of the Spyro 2 "Macro Design" showing the (very early) plan for all the levels.. (Date Posted - Mar 5, 2020). Twitter.
==References==
de:Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer
es:Spyro 2: En Busca de los Talismanes
pt-br:Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
ru:Spyro: Ripto’s Rage!
Category:Games
Category:Classic Series Games
Category:Spyro Reignited Trilogy