Spyro: Season of Ice

Spyro: Season of Ice is a platformer game for the Game Boy Advance. It was developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Universal Interactive Studios in 2001. The game is a sequel to Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Spyro: Season of Ice received two sequels of its own, Spyro 2: Season of Flame and Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs. It is the first Spyro the Dragon game that was not developed by Insomniac Games. In 2002, the game was published in Japan by Konami.

In the United States, Spyro: Season of Ice sold 1 million copies during the Game Boy Advance's lifespan.

Plot
Spyro and Sparx are on holiday with Bianca and Hunter, when Hunter panics mistaking a balloon for a sheep in a flying saucer. Spyro finds on the balloon a message from Zoe asking for help from Grendor who is kidnapping fairies. Bianca left her spellbook behind in the library while she was looking for holiday pamphlets. Grendor had been browsing in Bianca's library and came across Bianca's spellbook. He tried it out, hoping to become a powerful magician, however, he read it upside down and became a two-headed Rhynoc with 4 headaches. He planned to capture all the fairies and use their wings to make a cure for his problem. Spyro and his friends head off to stop Grendor from carrying out his plans.

After Spyro traverses many levels (including a first confrontation with Grendor) and saves all the fairies besides Zoe herself, he confronts Grendor for a second time and defeats again, rescuing Zoe. Once free, Zoe lightly chastises Grendor for causing trouble, then uses her magic to cure him of his extra head and all his headaches. Grendor apologizes for his actions, and Spyro and his friends return to their vacation.

Gameplay
Spyro: Season of Ice is an isometric platformer, which means that the game is shown from a birds-eye-view. The objective is for Spyro, the player character, to release fairies from their ice prisons and to progress from realm to realm before defeating Grendor. Spyro starts off in the Autumn Fairy Home, one of the four seasonal fairy realms in the game. In each realm, gems can be collected, critters like sheep can be destroyed for healing butterflies (and some to grant extra lives), special objects (like pumpkins) can be ignited, baskets can be broken for more gems and Bianca and Hunter in various spots can give hints. Spyro can never die in the seasonal realms, with the fairy magic force protecting him from drowning in the water and no enemies present. The realms link to several places via portals. To access them, a number of fairies have to be procured, indicated next to the level name.

Some of the portals will go to levels which are similar in gameplay to the realms except they have enemies to destroy, dangerous territory that harms Spyro, water which Spyro can drown in and special encounters. There are always characters to talk with. One or two characters in a level will asks a request to do something in exchange for a fairy. Like the Dragon Eggs from Spyro: Year of the Dragon, the characters often mistake the crystal containing a fairy to be something else. In some levels, Spyro can catch thieves. When all enemies are destroyed, a portal appears and will take Spyro back to the seasonal realm he came from.

Some of the portals will go to a long stretching horizon landscape in which Spyro flies across. The game can be played in Normal and Hard modes, but both will have to be played and won to obtain two fairies. The object of these levels is to move around the screen, flying through hoops, destroying lines of enemies and scattered enemies in a set time limit. Destroying enemies with a different color from the latter and going through hoops grants Spyro extra time. At the end of level, Spyro must face a boss or two and destroy them.

Some of the portals, Spyro cannot go through with Moneybags guarding them, but he allows Sparx to enter for a fee. The fee is only paid once. Sparx enters a level with killer bugs and insects. Destroying the nests of those bugs prevents them from spawning. Keys will enable Sparx to access more of the level. Electric panels can be destroyed to disable barriers that protect certain nests. Weapons can be procured to give Sparx limited increased firepower. At the last room of the level, Sparx will have to face and defeat the boss bug to open a portal back to Spyro and save a fairy.

Spyro is required to defeat Grendor twice, the first time to progress after the first two seasonal realms and the second time after the other two seasonal realms to win the game. If the player collects 100% of all the gems and fairies from all levels and realms, a new portal opens to play the extra game Dragonfly X.

Autumn Fairy Home

 * Market Mesa
 * Lava Prairie
 * Mermaid Coast
 * Stone Age Speedway
 * Ant Farm

Winter Fairy Home

 * Hummingbird Fort
 * Panda Gardens
 * Honey Marsh
 * Ice Age Speedway
 * Wasp City

Spring Fairy Home

 * Time Machine Lab
 * Roman City
 * Twilight Bulb Factory
 * Aqua Age Speedway
 * Caterpillar Gardens

Summer Fairy Home

 * Dusty Trails
 * Star Park
 * Space Age Speedway
 * Beetle Burrows
 * Grendor's Lair