Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

Forse Shigeru Miyamoto designed the various Zelda, Super Mario, and Pikmin in a calculated way following this line of thought, but I am certain that the boys and girls at Insomniac Games when they conceived Spyro, the little dragon probably the most famous in video games, did too.

Protagonist of the first three games in the series, the first of which was released as far back as the "distant" 1997, under the careful supervision of the aforementioned development studio, Spyro managed to win over players' hearts thanks to an immediate yet non-trivial concept, a colorful game world full of secrets and gems to claim and, last but not least, an adorable protagonist.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly represents the penultimate piece of the original saga, before the reboot that came later and the return of the character on Switch in 2018. With Enter the Dragonfly, also released for Nintendo GameCube in 2002, a year in which the cube-shaped console was drawing excellent reviews and stellar titles to itself, the platforming nature of the saga is preserved, albeit with substantial differences from the previous titles, differences that made many purists turn up their noses and decreed the game as controversial; however, it deserves to be played because it also has its strengths, and we certainly cannot ignore them.

The game is a direct sequel to the previous chapter, Year of the Dragon, and the story takes off from there, with our brave little purple dragon ready to save the dragonflies that have suffered the inevitable kidnapping by the inevitable evil wizard, scattering them practically all over the most varied locations in the Dragon Kingdom.

If it is true that the plot certainly doesn’t shine for originality, it is in its distinctive gameplay that Spyro rises to the occasion, allowing us to move our winged hero by jumping, climbing, and even swimming when necessary. Spyro’s abilities are an added value to the game, being very varied depending on the power-up found: dragons breathe fire and everyone knows it, so being able to make Spyro spit out ice and other stuff from his mouth, all of it effective not only when attacking enemies but also useful for solving certain sections of the game, makes the experience enjoyable.

Yet the game is not without problems, many complained about the loading times or the absence of iconic elements of the series: the fierce controversy that hit the game after its release regarding the portals is still today the source of thousands of poisoned teeth in the mouths of fans, who may not spit fire from their jaws, but knew exactly how to criticize a title that, evidently, had disappointed them quite a bit.

Per me, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly still does its job: it’s playable and fun, to tell the truth quite a lot at certain moments too; however, this character and his world could still say a great deal today, because legends, as we know, are really hard to die.