What Made Spyro 2 So GOOD?

For Spyro Community Day this year, I decided to do a followup on "What Made Spyro 1 So GOOD?", which also serves as a 25th anniversary video for Spyro 2!
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[MiharuTheFox]

Apologies for my voice, I was still quite sick when I recorded this.
Special thanks to Muggonny for editing!

[georgemather]

My dad brought home Spyro 2 instead of the Bugs Life game when I was little. I didn’t really like the look of it, but I played it and here we are over 20 years later and I still love the game.

[Synner]

Spyro 2 is my absolute fave of the entire series, no question.

When I was a young, relatively poor lad with a single mom, said mom worked her butt off to make sure me and my sister never realized how poor we really were. One of those methods was giving us a monthly allowance. One day, about half a year after we had gotten a PS1 for Christmas with a demo disk, a racing game, and a bunch of CD-R bootleg sports games, Mom asked me a question. Did I want my allowance, or did I want a gift? I could only pick one.

Finding more value in gifts over cash, I opted for that, thinking it was probably a cool new Spider-man or Beast Wars toy. Instead, I was given a brand new copy of Spyro 2 (Greatest Hits Ver.). I had previously played the demo dozens upon dozens of times, and while the game initially didn't quite feel like the demo of the first game, I very QUICKLY grew to love it to bits, playing and beating it so much and so often that... the original disk started to have audio syncing issues (I had since replaced the disk with a shiny, nearly new one).

I absolutely loved that game, the memories it brought me as a little lad, and the sheer sentimentality it carries with it, on top of it just being one of the best the little purple boi had to offer, hands and claws down.

[forcesmuggler]

Agreed 100%. Spyro and Ripto interacting always made things interesting.

[Zenlore]

I’ve personally always preferred Spyro 3, but Spyro 2 is absolutely a great game! There’s so much to love!

[mpg]

Not sure what it is but Spyro2 just has the vibes. That's it. Peak vibes.

[DestinationMarc]

Thanks for the shout-out on the "Spyro Bosses" vid! Great video on why Spyro 2 is very fun! x)

[Alex_Mander]

Fantastic vid Miharu! I think you absolutely nailed why Spyro 2 was such a standout memorable game! It was always my personal favorite of the trilogy! I adored the first game so much. So when the sequel came out, I felt like it injected so much more life to this fantastical world which I already loved. And I'm tempted to say it was thanks to Spyro 2 that the purple dragon has gotten to endure for decades since!~

[negligible_reality]

The thing that bothers me the most about Spyro 2 is how the Talismans are hyped up to be the most important collectable in the game, but they don't actually matter at all and just end up gatekeeping us from rushing straight into the Crush and Gulp boss fights. By the time we reach Winter Tundra the Talismans are completely irrelevant and are replaced completely by orbs, which were set up as being a secondary collectible during an earlier cutscene. It's really weird how the Talismans are basically worthless and don't end up serving any real purpose in the story, so honestly they might as well not be present at all. Elora literally tells us that they're magical and can be used to defeat Ripto, but then they just get slapped into the Guidebook and never get used again. She also says that there are 14 of them, but Spyro 2 has more than 14 worlds, so it's also unclear if Winter Tundra even has Talismans since we get orbs for completing the levels at that point in the game. Idk, that's just always bothered me.

[Graywyck]

Goodness I was just showing the game to my niece and nephew today, not even realizing it's the day when the first game was released.
It's been a little over 20 years since I first played Spyro. The memories of playing the games are some of my dearest memories from my, mostly difficult childhood.

Thank you for the video. It was great.

[Kranjcan]

Well, my opinion is that each of the original Spyro parts really has its own beautiful vibe. all 3 are wonderful games. but in my opinion nothing comes close to part 1 and 3

[matheusmoura]

Great review!
For me, the best advantage with the permanent super flame in the new game+ is OBLITERATING those Earthshapers in Fracture Hills before the Alchemist passes through them hahaha

[NathanCalabria]

Oh my gosh I love the second Spyro game too. I love everything about it! The beautiful worlds, the fun challenges, and the loveable characters especially Moneybags. This is my best BEST favorite childhood game from the late 90's and I played it after school everyday. It tells a great story and the gameplay is awesome! I also used to come up with my own stories of Spyro and his adventures in Avalar. I even used to pretend I'm in the game and Avalar was my childhood home. If you want to see how I reimagined the story of Spyro 2, you should see my videos I made with the game. I added my own scenes and added some of my favorite characters from Disney movies. It was the same imagination I had from when I was eight. You can find the story in my playlists. I'm so glad we enjoyed Spyro 2 so much.

[JellothePallascat]

This game literally was my childhood on the PS1. So many sounds and moments forever locked in my brain. Great video!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[SlyCarey]

My favourite spyro. Love this game so much especially the soundtracks

[ZAPIMATIONS]

Plus Spyro 2 Is home to an abundance of memorable levels by many for better or for worse.

[austin_the_brimstone]

I always liked the cast of characters in 2 more. Elora, Hunter, the Professor and Zoe. They’re like old friends! (Granted they all are in YotD but for the most part have reduced roles.)

[df]

Although I have had Spyro 3 since at least 2001 and beat it many times, it actually was not until this year I finally played Spyro 2 and I got to say, this game blew me away! I found myself enjoying it a lot more than I anticipated and it has some features I honestly wish had made it into the 3rd game. I am thinking about replaying it sometime before the year is over.

[zenicehero]

Wish you Get Better and be on Good Health!

[wallaroo]

It was Gateway to Glimmer down under too. :)

Yeah, all points correct. Lot more fun and humour. Cool adventures and characters with all their quirks made it a memorable childhood game.