Spyro: Season of Thunder
This was written in March of 2024 and was published on April 30, 2024.
I've had this article outlined for about a year, just never got around to writing it until now. With some free time I figured I could bang this out.
I've reached a point where I don't use video game genres to link games together or describe similar ones. There are too many examples of games in the same genre but completely different in other aspects. For example: Dungeons of Dredmor (2011), Nethack (1987) and Returnal (2021) are all roguelikes, but I wouldn't compare, nor would I even consider them 'kin'. I would put something like the Pixel Dungeon (2012) as closer to the experience you get from Dredmor instead of other roguelikes.
The Upturned (2022) and Gregory Horror Show (2003) are another example. For me, those games are linked. Both feature comedic effect, puzzle-solving, goofy-horror and set in hotels. These games are not considered part of the same genre, nor even part of the same movements. But alas, they are related and linked for me. (though I suppose you could call them both horror games but that's so nebulous it hardly counts).
Strangely enough I don't find this phenomenon in music genres but, unlike game genres, music ones have had decades to form instead of someone just tacking on a random name for a few games.
So while these games I'm going to talk about are collectathons and platformers I wouldn't put them in the same category as Mario 64 or Banjo-Kazooie. They occupy their own space. I wouldn't even put them into the same category as the rest of the series they are part of. That's how hyper-specific I am looking at this. I did the same with the 'Lozgbc' games and am doing the same for these 4.
I am referring to the Spyro Season games. I don't have a better title for them. They all use the same engine and 2/3 have the word Season in the title.
They are...
Season of Ice (2001, GBA)
Season of Flame (2002, GBA)
Attack of the Rhynocs (2003, GBA)
The Cortex Conspiracy (2004, GBA)
Ripto's Quest (2005, J2ME)
Though officially part of the series and using assets from the earlier three games I wouldn't really count The Cortex Conspiracy as part of this. I'm only keeping it here because of the asset sharing. That's why I have it struck-through. For the rest of the article let's just pretend it doesn't exist.
These games are all isometric platformers featuring Spyro the Dragon. In each one, he has to go around the world collecting gems, items, chests and so on. Each level has its own localized objects to find, minigames and sidequests as well. Each game has one central item that must be collected to complete the game. Ice's item is frozen fairies, Flame's is fireflies and Rhynoc's is hearts.
Each game also has gems scattered everywhere which can also be 100% collected.
Ripto's Quest is the odd one out (excluding Cortex, of course). It's an official Spyro game though poorly made. It's a cheap imitation of the Season engine and is set sometime after the events of Rhynocs. Really nothing more than a footnote I still believe it counts as it at least tries to replicate the gameplay of the 3 main games.
As for which one is the best I am torn between Ice (because of nostalgia) and Flame (because of its difficulty). Rhynocs is good but too but too easy. I loved the exploration in that one, however.
Being that these games only exist on one system there isn't much to say regarding definitive versions. I would enjoy a widescreen version or a zoomed out one like
DXHD but alas they don't exist.
The only modified version I could find was Spyro: Season of Ice DX, which is a romhack that supplies a bunch of quality-of-life adjustments.
Other than that these games stand on their own. The only one I believe needs a remake is Ripto's Quest. Hacking tools for the Season games don't exist but if they did, a remake of Ripto's Quest in that engine would be preferred.
Being that is a rambling post I may as well touch on the game most fresh in my head. Rhynocs. I beat it last March, in 2023. I started the run weeks prior but after catching a head cold in early March, proceeded to spend hours upon hours playing it. It's about the only thing I felt like playing at the time.
According to the game's save my full run-time was 9:14:19 or a little over 9 hours. I didn't intend to blitz the game over a weekend but when your delirious and sick such actions became erratic. Plus it made me feel better.
Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs is the third game in the Spyro-GBA series. It uses the same engine and gameplay styles as Seasons of Fire and Ice. It even has Spyro retain the ability to use multiple elements (though slightly nerfed).
My biggest pet peeve with the game is the name. It should never have been called Attack of the Rhynocs. I didn't even know a third Spyro-GBA game existed until early 2022 sometime when I randomly stumbled upon it, which I attribute to its horrible name. The game should have been called
Season of Thunder to keep up with the Season motif. Plus you get the thunder breath in it. It would have made so much sense.
Of course, if they did that I would instead be here asking
Season of Wind was. Either way, Season of Thunder is how I have the game listed in my notes now. It makes no sense to call it Rhynocs. Just stupid.
Anyways, I do have a few things to write about the game. Just dump my thoughts here.
One of the hardest aspects of the first two games were ledges. You could fall off anything, and if you did you'd have to restart the level. This meant things like keys and some other items would have to be completed in one go. It added a challenge to the games, forcing you to plan your moves and be careful.
In Rhynocs they changed it. You can fall to your death in certain areas but for the most part you weren't able to kill yourself as easily. It's like they added guard rails.
The simple level system was changed too. Instead of doors leading to each level, separated by some obstacle, Rhynocs allows you to traverse all over the place with small cave rooms being transitions.
Honestly, this game felt a lot more like Zelda than the others. Many areas required you to come back at later points with new upgrades to pass. Compared to the isolation of the levels in the first two games this was a good changeup.
Finding the virtual hideaways was enjoyable as well. Added a nice sense of exploration and a good reason to backtrack.
The final boss, while chaotic as hell was fun though it could've used a little more direction. But hey, I won't fault it for that. Nay the only area that actually pissed me off was Byrd's area. The backtracking, constant having to run through the whole 'this is how you freeze enemies' section over and over and the secret areas for gems was just painful. It didn't help that the hideaway in that level was also hidden really, really well.
Music was as eloquent as always. Robert Baffy composed the music for the 3 games. I don't know how he did it but Baffy's compositions on these Spyro games deserves an article of its own. In all the GBA games I've played I've never heard a soundtrack that even got close to capturing the cute hazy sound that the Seasons games. Electronic in origin, it had a heavy shoegazey sound to it with how each song bubbled by and fizzed with light distortion. The closest I have ever heard a soundtrack get to what Baffy did was the Cat in the Hat GBA game. And guess what? That was also composed by Baffy!
Then, coupled with the vibrative sound, it's just as vibrant with playful and happy melodies. Upon first listen you might think it from baby game or something. But when you see how the game's gorgeous graphics are designed and colourful stages you'll realize just how perfect it fits.
Hell I rapped over the cave music as the first song off my mixtape. I gotta remaster it at some point but whenever I hear that instrumental all the lyrics come back to me. It's just so mystifying it makes me self-reflective. It added a lot to the exploration when I backtracked.
I never minded going back of course. Good graphics, great music, no problem to go back and do some more sightseeing. For example until you get the red key off in some random area you can't complete like half the levels. So once you find it you better drop what you're doing and backtrack for some cleanup, only resuming progress once you've found all those chests. That's actually why my run took like 9 hours. Not to mention I made a huge doc with all the dead-ends I found, helping me go back and determine what I can do in what area.
I probably could have waited till I had nearly everything to do cleanup but nah. As I wrote. Good graphics, great music. I don't mind a little sightseeing.
Other than Byrd’s area and the name there was one other thing that bothered me. The difficulty. The game was way too easy compared to the other two. It should have been just a tad harder. Remove some of the ledges, make the puzzles harder, add more enemies, make the game more unforgiving. For example, in Season of Flames you have that hockey minigame. That was challenging and a complete pain to win and score. Rhynocs had nothing of the sort. The side areas were really easy if you just went slow or spammed. Flames also had a section wherein you had to grab an item one of the thieves. That was legitimately near impossible to complete, and I felt rewarded after it. That one section was harder than everything in Rhynocs. Rhynocs had a similar chase scene though it was piss-easy compared to Flames.
The only part I legitimately struggled with was in the thief school, where you had to race the guy. That was hard, but enjoyable. Too bad the rest of the thieves were way too easy to deal with. They really nerfed them, or one could make the in-lore argument that they were all students, so of course they weren't that skilled.
If a harder patch existed I would play the hell out of it.
However, with Flames, or the second game being the hardest of the 3 I was reminded of another series that had the same kind of trajectory. The Frogger GBA games.
First game was them testing the waters, learning the engine. - Season of Ice and Temple of the Frog.
Second game was them pushing the engine to its limits, implementing insanely hard levels. - Season of Flame and The Lost Wand.
Third game was more exploration based, bit like Zelda with the protagonist getting new abilities and backtracking. - Attack of the Rhynocs and The Forgotten Relic.
Shoot. The Pac-Man World trilogy went through a similar trajectory too...though I would compare that more to Ty the Tasmanian Tiger's 3 games...Nevermind. We're getting off topic.
It's pure coincidence but seeing the game through that lens allowed me to forgive Rhynocs being easy.
In conclusion, Rhynocs was a good game but just slightly pales in comparison to Ice and Flame. Of course, I was gonna say it was good. This is just forcing me to compare different sheens of gold.
Unlike the Lozgbc games I can't really constitute these games a specific style. I could call them 'Spyrogba' games, but I don't have anything else that fits the style they go for. If I did then I would be listing them here and outlining what makes a 'Spyrogba' game.
I don't know any games that are either directly inspired or give off the same feeling as the Season games. There are isometric platformers like Sonic Labyrinth and there's collectathons like the Pac-Man World games but nothing in that 16-32bit isometric platformer where you travel to levels and collect a bunch of stuff with glowing music and gorgeous static level design.
I don't have a good answer for why I don't just compare these games to the main Spyro games. The PSX ones have gorgeous graphics, good music and similar collectathons. But ultimately when I look at the Season games I'm looking for sprites, shoegazey ambient music and isometric platforming. Of course, both sets of games are great, but both have vastly different aesthetics. Spyro on the GBA has wonderful blocky landscapes and sprites that look like indie pixel concept art. Spyro on the PSX has gorgeous retro-3D landscapes with no shadows of beautiful shades of purple and green.
If anyone knows any, please do let me know. I get such a unique feeling from these games I'm sure someone else has done something similar.
I don't have the itch to play any more of these isometric platformers right now but if I see a game similar I might just give it a shot. I still feel there's a lot more than can be done with this style.
2024-05-04 - Interjection: Thanks to the wonderful people on Kbin's retrogaming magazine and the Spyro subreddit I have a bunch more games in this style. None that are exactly like the Spyro games but close enough. The game recommended most similar to this style was
Rayman: Hoodlum's Revenge (2003) for the GBA. Graphically it looks almost identical to the Spyro games. The only difference is that it's Rayman instead of Spyro but damn. You could have fooled me. So far it's the winner and I will be playing it soon. I can already see it becoming the "fourth game" in this series. Very excited to start it.
Digimon World 3 (PSX, 2002, looks more like the MegamanEXE games), Animaniacs: Lights, Camera, Action! (GBA/NDS, 2005, looks excellent, will try eventually), Conker's Pocket Tales (GBC, 1999, huh didn't know any of the kid-friendly Conker games were made, this looks good though not exactly what I'm looking for), Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge (GBA, 2003, looks good though lacks the beautiful sprites Spyro/Rayman has), The Chronicles of Narnia (GBA/NDS, 2005, I may just end up writing an article about the jank 3D licensed games of the GBA because they are their own style unto themselves) and Sonic 3D: Director's Cut (2022, PC, always though 3D blast was too jank for me but seeing that it got an update I'll definitely re-evaluate my opinions). Thanks to everyone who suggested similar stuff. I have plenty to go through now! It was a common trend, but it appears the GBA had the most of the "isometric collectathons" over any other console.
I was also given a link to a Mobygames search that brings up all the isometric platformers out there. Surprisingly nearly all of them are for the GBA. Didn't know you had that kind of granularity with Mobygames. I'll look into these later and link it below.
Further Reading...
