E3 2001 Hands-onSpyro: Season of Ice

Spryo has been a fixture on the PlayStation over the past several years, but Spryo: Season of Ice for the Game Boy Advance will be the first game starring the purple dragon to appear on a Nintendo platform. Many wondered just how good games could look on the GBA, and Spyro's isometric, pseudo-3D look is yet another example of what is capable on Nintendo's fledgling handheld.

Spryo is enjoying a vacation on the dragon shores when Zoe alerts him that a Rhynoc wizard who requires fairy wings to reverse a spell gone awry has frozen her and all the fairies in the dragon realm. As any hero should, Spyro sets out to rescue his friends, restore tranquility to the dragon realm, and send the conniving wizard a message. Spyro won't go it alone, however. Hunter and Sparx will aid Spryo on his quest through the game's 30 levels of gameplay. Among the levels included in the game are Lava Prairie, Hummingbird Village, Honey Marsh, Roman Holiday, Star Park, and Age Speedway.

The majority of Spyro's moves have made the transition to 2D with no hitches. He may breathe fire to defrost the fairies, hover, spit objects, and glide. The main objective in the game is to rescue 100 fairies and, ultimately, Zoe. If Spyro collects enough gems, bonus missions are unlocked including top-down missions where you control Sparx the dragonfly. Including Sparx's bonus missions, there are three main types of gameplay included in Season of Ice. The most obvious is the exploration-rich platforming levels found in the PlayStation versions of Spyro. And the third type is the mode 7 powered racing sections that ask Spryo to fly through a series of rings.

Season of Ice's graphics are representative of a second-generation GBA game, yet it is Digital Eclipse's first effort on the platform. The game plays from an isometric perspective and navigating the semi-3D platforms can be challenging at first. The colors are bright, and each level has its own unique visual theme. Spyro himself has plenty of frames of animation for each move with a nice visual fluidity. Being that Season of Ice is a brand new Spyro game; it includes a wide selection of bosses that have never appeared in previous games starring the spunky dragon.

For a game that's not scheduled for release until November, Spyro: Season of Ice is already showing a great deal of promise. We'll have more on Spyro's first handheld adventure when Universal sends us a ROM.