I distinctly remember playing through the original Spyro the Dragon. It had absolutely gorgeous graphics for a 3D PlayStation game back then. The gameplay was mostly a matter of collecting jewels, but the gliding added a nice bit of depth (I'm a sucker for flying in any game), and the actual free-flight mini-games were a blast, if not frequent enough.

Spyro: Season of Ice for Game Boy Advance is the little lizard's first foray into non-Sony territory, and fans of the series should be very pleased with it. The game is littered with references to the other Spyro games, and the cast of characters does add a lot of charm to the game, though they come off a bit generic on the small screen.

The main part of the game is played through an isometric perspective. The view is inherently unnatural to control in, and here lies my main complaint about Season of Ice. The control simply doesn't work well with the view. Moving diagonally with any consistency is much harder than it should be, and there's no option to re-align the control so that the primary D-pad directions move you diagonally. (Those familiar with Shadowrun on SNES will know what I'm talking about.) Jumping actually works pretty well, certainly better than I expected with the isometric camera angle. Charging forward head-first is accomplished via the R-trigger, which is fine except that hitting the trigger will automatically make Spyro move forward (at a speedy pace) without any input on the D-pad...this has led me to fall off quite a few ledges, making me wary to use the charge move at all except when absolutely necessary.

As for the gameplay itself...well, it's classic Spyro. Collect gems, collect fairies, flame-blast the nasty Rhynocs, and roast a sheep or two if you get low on energy. The emphasis is on collecting, which some people will love and others will hate. It does feel very much like a bonafide Spyro game though, which is admirable considering the much different hardware and viewpoint.

If gem-collecting gets to be too much for you, there are a couple of mini-games to break up the action. Sparx levels are essentially a high-speed update to the classic Gauntlet formula. You look down from an overhead perspective and shoot projectiles at drone enemies and the hives that produce them. The object is to collect various colored keys, which will open up new areas of the level and eventually lead you to the boss. Beat him and you'll earn another fairie for Spyro, which helps open new levels.

The "Speedway" levels are Spyro's famed flying levels, although they are executed quite uniquely on GBA. I expected this mode to be fully Mode-7, but it's actually a shooter played from behind Spyro. Enemies will enter the screen very tiny, very far away, and they'll quickly get closer (and thus look larger on the screen). Shoot them down and get extra time added to the game clock, which increases your chances of reaching the end of the level. Think Galaga tilted back ninety degrees, and you're almost there. It's very simple but surpringly fun...and quite difficult.

In fact, the entire game is far more challenging than I expected. Falling off ledges becomes a major concern for Spyro's isometric levels. The Gauntlet-like mini-game is just plain tough, especially the boss at the end. And, after three or four consecutive tries, I still haven't made it to the end of the first speedway level before time runs out. The difficulty will be good news if you're looking for a platforming challenge...I'm curious to see how Spyro's younger fans deal with it though.

So, despite some control frustrations, Spyro: Season of Ice is a very solid isometric platformer with some unexpected twists. There is a secret mode called Dragonfly X that only opens up when you rescue ALL the fairies, and supposedly it has its own special game engine...no telling how cool it is, but there's obviously some incentive to play through the game and most likely play it again down the road. This cart is definitely worth a look if you're into Spyro or platformers in general.