Wednesday, June 26, 2013

angryponcho plays Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! - Part 2 of 41

We collect some orbs and check out the first home world of the game.

Glimmer

(continued)


You may be wondering what that thing that Spyro is standing in front of at the beginning is. This is a power-up gate, and it allows you to use a certain superpower for a limited time. You'll glow a certain color, a timer will appear on the right-hand side of the screen, and you have as much time as the timer allows you to use the power to perform a certain task that you usually wouldn't be able to do otherwise. In order to activate these, though, you'll have to kill a certain number of enemies beforehand. That number will show up at the power-up gate if you haven't done so.

Here, we have the Superfly power-up. This allows Spyro to actually fly for a brief period of time. In case you land on the ground, just double tap the X button like you would for the glide, and then you'll start flying again.

Controlling Spyro when this power-up is in use is just like flying a plane - up and down are inverted.

You may also be wondering what the ladybugs running around are for. They're the fodder for this level, which means that they basically work just like the sheep. Hitting them with a ram or flame attack will release butterflies, which Sparx can eat to replenish a unit of your health. Just like in the last game, you can only take four hits. As you do, Sparx goes from gold to blue to green to nonexistent. If you don't have Sparx with you when you get hit, you're dead. Unlike the last game, however, Sparx will chase them down and eat them even when you're at full health. This time around, there are sparkling blue butterflies that completely refill your health and grant you an extra life. Make a habit of destroying fodder every time you see it, as you can farm lives rather quickly doing this by simply destroying 10 fodder creatures. Heck, I had 30 or 40+ lives when I was done with the first world. There are also blue butterflies in glass bottles, which you can destroy with either attack, but unlike the fodder extra lives, the ones in the bottles are a one-time thing. Get used to flaming stuff to farm, everyone.

Anyway, you won't be able to get all the orbs and gems right away. Once you get the two orbs that you can get (check the listing at the bottom for orbs), go through the exit portal to teleport to Summer Forest. You'll get a cutscene where you meet Elora and find out what's going on, after Ripto takes over the palace in Summer Forest. You'll have to beat Ripto here to free this land.
 

Summer Forest


Love the ambient sound here for the BGM. You'll hear nothing but that in the homeworlds, which I like.

Anyway, run around, hit the sheep and frogs to farm on lives, grab gems, hunt for orbs, explore. Of course, once again, you won't be able to find everything right away.

You'll find Moneybags near the pool surrounding the palace. You can still swim around the water if you like, but you won't be able to dive down and collect everything under the surface until you fill his coffers with enough gems to learn how to swim.

Elora will be useful later to teleport you to a world where you haven't gotten the talisman yet (she won't do that for a while, though) while Hunter will teach you the basics of gliding and hovering. (You'd better pay attention to this, because that's how you get one of the orbs.)

There are other portals here besides the one that takes you back to Glimmer at the beginning. There are other worlds like Colossus and Idol Springs around the home world, but don't worry about getting confused. We'll cover them all one at a time.

The metal vases with the stripes can only be destroyed with the ram attack. These vases carry gems, so smash them when you see them.
 

Orbs

Glimmer

 

1. Near the exit where you find the Superfly power-up, go through the Superfly power-up, fly around and hit the six gem lights with your flame. Hit them all quickly, as you don't want one of them to suddenly turn off on you. It's pretty easy, and it gives you some much needed practice with Superfly, so do it as soon as possible.
 
2. There is a cave near where you got the first orb. Follow Bounsa, and hit the lizards with the rocks to get this one. This one's also pretty simple, and also teaches you how to aim and shoot with the rocks: hold down Triangle to aim, use the D-Pad/left analog stick to move the target in the center and press Circle to spit the rock. You won't run out of rocks, so don't worry and take your time if you need to. This is definitely good practice for learning to aim not only with the rocks, but also with Superflame (we'll see that power-up in action later).

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