Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly was the first entry in the Spyro the Dragon series to arrive on GameCube, and it tried to follow up on the beloved PlayStation trilogy with a new story about dragonflies scattered across the Dragon Realms after the sorceress Ripto maliciously dispersed them during a celebration. Playing as the purple dragon Spyro, the player flies and hops through a series of themed worlds, breathes fire at enemies, charges head-first into attacks, and collects gems for the local inhabitants, once again aided along the way by his loyal friend, the dragonfly Sparx, who also serves as a health indicator that changes color depending on the hits taken.

The game tried to preserve the free, exploratory structure of previous entries, with open levels connected by central hub worlds, but development took place under heavy time and publisher pressure, which was noticeably reflected in the technical side - the game suffered from frame rate drops, minor bugs, and a less polished feel to the controls and camera than the earlier titles in the series, which were still made under the supervision of the original studio, Insomniac Games. Despite these shortcomings, it retained the series' characteristic colorful, fairy-tale visual style and a light, younger-audience-oriented atmosphere, with cheerful, melodic music accompanying the individual worlds and their inhabitants.

Reviews of the time were rather critical of the game, faulting it in particular for its numerous minor bugs and imperfect camera in enclosed spaces, and Enter the Dragonfly is still mentioned today as a weaker point in the series' history, especially compared to the polished and technically more assured PlayStation trilogy that preceded it. Still, it remains an interesting testament to the difficult transition of the Spyro brand to a new console generation, and for fans of the series it represents a historically interesting, if not flawless, chapter in its development, one later followed by further, more refined attempts.

Why play it: For fans of the series, this is more a historically interesting, imperfect chapter of Spyro's transition to a new console generation than a polished experience comparable to the technically more assured PlayStation trilogy.