Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage

Today I play my first sequel this year (that wouldn't sound as bad if it wasn't the the eighth) Spyro the Dragon 2: Ripto's Rage.  Once again developed by Insomniac and published by Sony, Ripto's Rage was released early November of 1999, just a little over a year after the original.  The game carries on from the original with lots of collecting. 

Spyro 2 takes place in another world called Avalar where Elora, Hunter and the Professor has accidentally pulled Ripto through his portal.  Ripto, deciding he likes this world because it has no dragons, decides he wants to take control of it.  In hopes of driving off Ripto, the Professor teleports Spyro to Avalar to defeat Ripto.  So the plot is more fleshed out then the last and they develop it using cut scenes as you move through the different realms.

I'm once again started from a saved game, though not as far as the last, I'm still within the first world (Summer Forest).  Unlike the last game, the home world in Ripto's Rage have no enemies, giving me a chance to simply run around and explore before having to worry about combat.  Eventually I found a portal to enter a level I haven't played in this save: Hurrics.  The portal is dark and stormy clouds, looks dark and creepy (it won't be but it still looks like there might be the possibility). 

So I enter Hurricos and discover that the Gear Grinders (large burly guys with monkey wrenches) are making life difficult for the Electrolls (small nerd looking fellows) by creating force fields to keep them apart.  Dastardly, aren't they.  So it's Spyro's job to beat the Grinders into submission and make them play nice.  Much like the last Spyro, the levels are straight forward to the end if you just want to run through but Ripto's Rage allows a bit more exploring so you can't simply finish the level and be done.  So to collect everything, you actually have to get off the beaten path.

So about half way through the level I stumble upon an Orb Challenge.  Orb Challenges are small missions where you complete a certain task to gain an orb (one of the many collectibles in the game).  In this one, the Gear Grinder Thieves have been stealing the lightning stones from the generators and it's my job to replace all the stones and stop the ten thieves.  So it starts off easy, grab a stone, put it in it's spot.  After placing a few stones, the thieves start knocking them away, so just run them down.  Once you take out all ten thieves, it is just a matter of putting the stones in their place and collect the orb. 

So after the challenge, I finished off the Gear Grinders in the next area and deactivated the final force field to gain the talisman.  Now the level is free to explore and finish the remaining Orb Challenges, but at this point, I'm not sure I really want to simply run around doing more collecting, so I'm outta here.  And so another game is down and it's done until later.  Adios for today though.