Spyro: Season of Ice

Just when we thought we have seen the last of that purple dragon Spyro, he has returned to the gaming scene--this time on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance. Since his last adventure on the Playstation, Spyro has been taking it easy on the beach with his buddies. However, his rest was short lived as the evil Grendor seals 100 magical fairies into a frozen sleep. Spyro and his dragonfly buddy, Sparx, must locate these fairies, use fiery breath to unthaw them, and ultimately stop the evil Grendor along the way. While the adventure can be frustrating at times, it ends up being an ultimately satisfying experience.

This time around, instead of a 3D platform adventure, developer Digital Eclipse has transformed our favorite purple dragon into an isometric adventure. However, with the new look comes a very high learning curve. It will take players quite a bit of practice to get used to jumping, walking, fighting enemies, and avoiding walking off the edge of the game world. Nothing is more frustration than almost completing a mission objective and then falling off the game world.

Controlling Spyro in Season of Ice is reminiscent of the controls on the Playstation. Holding down the L button will allow you to use the D-Pad and look around the game world. Hitting the R button will make Spyro ram forward towards whatever direction he is facing. A jumps, while B will shoot fire from your mouth. If players press and hold down the A button, Spyro will glide for a short while. Be careful though... if you fall off the edge of the screen or into a pit, you turn into a dead frustrated dragon. For the sake of our little buddy--be careful out there.

Each level has a certain number of hidden jewels to discover and different mission objectives to accomplish. If this sounds familiar to past Spyro games--it is because Digital Eclipse has done a marvelous job of retaining all of the elements that made the past Spyro titles successful and transferred them over to the small screen. While certain objectives like "hunting down all the bad guys" or "finding all the gems" can become repetitive, this is still easily one of the best non-Mario platformers on the GBA.

Do yourself a favor... if you a fan of the Spyro series or just like Platform games, pick up Spyro Season of Ice. It is a fun-filled adventure that will keep you busy for many, many hours.