Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Also known as: Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (EU), Spyro X Sparx: Tondemo Tours (JP) Developer: Insomniac Games Publishers: SCEA (US), SCEE (EU), SCEI (JP) Platform: PlayStation Released in JP: March 16, 2000 Released in US: November 2, 1999 Released in EU: November 5, 1999 This game has unused animations. This game has unused areas. This game has a hidden developer message. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

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Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! is the second Spyro game in the famous Spyro franchise where our favorite purple dragon is sent out the world of Avalar in order to save its inhabitants from, you guessed it, Ripto's Rage.

Developer Messages

The following text, which contains quotes from several renowned authors, can be found in the game's files:

Now is the winter of our discontent...

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Call me Ishmael...

Stately, plump Buck Mulligan...

Call me Jonah.  My parents did...

Gaily bedight a gallant knight...

Beware the ides of March...

Tyger tyger burning bright...

...

I always get the Shemp...

This paragraph is also present in the files of the first and third game. The last sentence, "I always get the Shemp...", refers to a joke among the developers, in that whenever they messed up, they "got the Shemp" (the joke even made its way into the first game in the form of the name of the boss Dr. Shemp).

In the PAL version of the game, amongst the German dialogue strings for Foreman Bud (or Vorarbeiter Kalle as he is known in German) are the following... unusual messages (written in English, despite their location):

Don't fuck with this message.

Don't fuck with this message either.

It's not clear why these messages are here, and they don't appear in the dialogue strings for any of the other languages.

Unused Graphics

An unused Guidebook logo for Dragon Shores. In the final game this level actually lacks a corresponding page in the Guidebook.

Unused Guidebook text related to the unused orb mission in Shady Oasis. (see #Unused Orb Mission)

Unused Music

Bizarrely, there exists two tracks exclusive to the European releases of the game which go totally unused. Both tracks are distinguished from the rest of the other ones by their comparatively poorer sound quality:

An unused duplicate of the "Save Them Again!" theme used during the second Lava Lizards Orb mission in Skelos Badlands. The composition and instruments are identical to the final track, with the only difference being the aforementioned poorer output quality.

A faster version of the theme of Hurricos, except with a similar instrumentation to that of Aquaria Towers' theme. Based on the length of the track, which is significantly shorter than any of the level themes used in the game, this one was likely intended for an Orb mission, most likely in Hurricos.

Unused Dialogue

There are parts of the game where the dialogue didn't get a chance to be used.

Dialogue for Inactive Power-Ups

There are a few instances in the game where a Power-Up Gate used for a minigame that is found later in the level has been set to a low enemies-defeated counter so that it will be activated by the point Spyro reaches it. Getting to these points without defeating any enemies is very difficult, if not impossible during normal gameplay. However, through the use of cheats, the player can get to these points without defeating any enemies. If so, then the player gets to see the inactive power-ups as well as the possibility to hear dialogue from the NPCs that otherwise never end up being seen.

These two such instances are in the levels "Magma Cone" and "Metropolis". The number of enemies they need to activate the power-up are 2 and 1 respectively.

It is interesting to note that the dialogue for Magma Cone can technically be seen as you can simply walk right past the Earthshapers without killing them, but it is very unlikely that someone would do that. An updated version of this line can still be heard in the game's remake.

As for Metropolis, it is actually impossible to access the Gate without killing any enemies during normal gameplay as there are self-destructing ones put on your path.

Unused Orb Mission

There is leftover data in the level Shady Oasis for a harder variant of the "Free Hippos" mission where Spyro would have had to rescue Grundy's 15 cousins.

The text "Help out again?" also goes unused.

Dialogue oddities

Zoe

It appears that some of Zoe's voice clips contains some inconsistencies regarding the pitch of her voice. The voice clips in question are namely her dialogue in Colossus where she explains how Spirit Particle gates work and later as she reminds us how Gliding works, as well as the one used at the start of the fight against Ripto.

Strangely enough, the Crash Team Racing Demo of Spyro 2 has one of Zoe's voice clip ("Remember Hunter's advice... you will glide farthest etc...") using the correct pitch and tone. It is likely that the developers tried to pitch-shift Zoe's lines in a later stage of development in an attempt to make Zoe sounds more cartoony or cuter, but that the idea was dropped in fear that she would sound annoying. As a result, they simply forgot to replace the lines used in Colossus and in Ripto's Arena.

Brother Ned

In the level Colossus, Brother Ned's first dialogue box states that he think Spyro should "torch that yeti" even though the voice actor clearly says that he thinks Spyro should "kill that yeti". The developers may have wanted to replace the voice line in order to make the dialogue sounds less off, but ultimately forgot to do so.

This inconsistency isn't present in the game's remake, where Brother Ned's voice line and dialogue text both say "Torch".

Mayor

In the Metro Speedway, the character of the Mayor, which gives you the secret Orb mission of this level, refers to Hunter as The Hunter. Upon booting up the demo hidden in Crash Team Racing, a “preview guidebook” is shown, depicting screenshots of various activities which you will be able to do in the game, wherein we see Hunter being referred to as “The” Hunter. This would then suggest that the Mayor's dialogue was recorded early on and that they simply forgot to change it, or didn't want to change it seeing how small the mistake is.

This inconsistency isn't present in the game's remake, where the Mayor simply says "Hunter".

Characters referencing early level names

At the beginning of Crystal Glacier, Widgie the Icebuilder informs you that Shaman Tuk has been captured by the Ice Wizards and that he and the others need you to rescue him, as he has their tickets to the hockey game in Colossus Valley. While the Summer Forest homeworld contains a level named simply Colossus, "Colossus Valley" is nowhere to be found. The earliest demo actually contains a list of early level names hidden within its code, and there we can see that what was then known as Colossus Steppes later became Colossus. It is then unclear as to whether Colossus Valley was another early level name or if it is canonically an alternate name for Colossus.

This inconsistency is still present in the game's remake.

In the level Zephyr, upon rescuing Juliet for the Landblubber Romeo, he will mention that they can now finally have their honeymoon in Colossus Springs where they can see the idols. The Early demo mentioned earlier confirms that what was then known as Colossus Springs later became Idol Springs.

This inconsistency isn't present in the game's remake, where Romeo instead says that he and Juliet can take their honeymoon in Idol Springs.

Near the end of Cloud Temples, Murgen the Wizard refers to the level as "Mystic City". Once again, the list of early level names from the first Demo reveals that Cloud Temples indeed used to be known as Mystic City.

This inconsistency isn't present in the game's remake, where Murgen instead gives Spyro an orb from the Cloud Temples gift shop.

Unused Animations

The liveliness of the characters and enemies is something that is clearly one of the game's strong point, yet it seems like at one point in time Insomniac wanted even more animations to be seen.

To do: Try to see if some of these can be seen in-game Add high quality rips of these animations. Maybe add filenames for clarification? Are there more?

Hockey Player Room

The level Colossus contains a hockey mini-game in which Spyro can compete against Riptocs in hope to gain orbs. When a match starts, goalie(s) and/or the opponent will come out of a room that Spyro can't normally access, yet it is possible to access this room through the use of glitches.

This simple area contains the models for the goalies and opponent (which constantly cycles through his ice-skating animation, as opposed to the goalies who are stationary) as well as being entirely textured and with full collision.

Early entrance to Ripto's Arena

It appears that the cutscene model of the entrance to Ripto's Arena uses a copy of the pit similar to the one leading to the other bosses in the game (namely Crush and Gulp) instead of the signature corridor. It is most likely a remnant of before the final entrance was chosen.

Cutscene model	World model

Epilogue

Inconsistencies

The cylindrical tower shown in the background of the page named "Agent Zero found some new recruits to train." is missing its roof.

Cut enemies

At the very end of the epilogue is a section called "Faunus Mortas" showcasing "Extinct Creatures of Avalar". These "extinct" creatures are most likely enemies that were cut from the game at some point point but where put in the epilogue so the models wouldn't go to waste. Most of these creatures have an aureole and/or angel wings as a way to show that they are "extinct", and almost of all of them have seen pseudo-latin suffixes (like -us, -um, or -ae) incorporated into their names to give this section of the epilogue a comically scientific side.

• Guardus Fioritum: A beige skinned muscular enemy wearing a turban and white shorts, tattoos, and brandishing a scimitar. Would have most likely appeared in Scorch, as it bears similarities with the Riflemen and Guard enemy (especially the latter).

• Catabatus: A pink cat-like enemy with green eyes, and long purple ears/wings with yellow streaks on them. May have evolved into the Catbat enemy seen in Skelos Badlands.

• Farmae Robotum: A robot enemy wielding a shovel. Bears some resemblance with the robot scarecrows seen in Robotica Farm.

• Druidus Schnikum: A druid-like enemy with white skin and a purple robe, it also appears to be holding some kind of scepter. It's possible this enemy may have appeared in Fracture Hills (seeing how the level is centered around folklore and magic).

• Varmintium: A rodent-like enemy hiding inside a trashcan which appears to have attacked Spyro by throwing garbage at Spyro. This enemy may have appeared in Metropolis, seeing the "animals invading a city" theme of this level.

• Lizardum Fat Slobae: A large light-green lizard with big dopey brown eyes and wielding a large club. This enemy may have evolved into the Brown Lizard enemy from Glimmer. This enemy may have been cut due to its similarities with Crush, both being big dumb lizard using a club as their mean of attack.

• Mister Fistus: A light green devil / troll-like enemy with a giant fist which appears to be made out of stone. May have appeared in either Fracture Hills or Magma Cone as part of the Earthshaper enemies.

• Armapillow: An angry blue armadillo-like creature with a pink belly as well as a pink horn, it's also likely that this enemy would have been part pillow judging from its name. May have appeared in Mystic Marsh alongside the other "chimera-like" enemies.

• Nervous Tickus: A green nervous looking fly enemy with what appears to be purple wings. May have evolved into the Draclets from Crystal Glacier or maybe even the Flying Geckos from the third game's level Enchanted Towers.

• Wuss: A large grey-purple monkey like creature with a dopey face. It's unknown in which level this enemy would have appeared.

Regional Differences

Japanese Version

Alongside the first Spyro game, the game underwent massive changes when it was localized in Japan. These changes, while less bothering than in the first game, still have proven unsuccessful as the third game and most subsequent entries never got localized in Japan.

Audiovisual Differences

• Like in the Japanese version of the first game Spyro makes cute high-pitched grunts every time he jumps, charges, or loses a life.


• An aspect that also comes back from the previous Japanese version is that Sparx always appears as green, regardless of how many hits Spyro has sustained. The shade of green dulls each time Spyro gets hit. The reason for why Sparx is always green in the Japanese version is because in the Japanese version you can obtain other dragonflies that have different colors by finding dragonfly eggs scattered throughout the game.

• The short level cutscenes shown at the beginning of every level now have full voice acting, with several characters like Spyro or even Moneybags narrating some of them.


• The eye texture of some characters were made darker (namely Hunter, Elora, Handel/Greta, the Fauns and the Water Wizards now having turquoise or dark purple eyes).


• The "Guidebook" label on the Guidebook was replaced with small unreadable pixely characters


• The explosion effects either were replaced with an image saying "Boom" or were simply dulled out in order to reduce the risk of epilepsy.

Gameplay Differences

• Much like in the Japanese version of the first game, Spyro appears to be much slower. His charging speed is similar to that of his walking speed in the international releases.


• The camera, alongside that of the localized version of the first game, appears more zoomed out. It is worth noting that you can change it in the options menu.


• Multicolored signposts are scattered throughout the game, providing textual "hints" if interacted with. However, as opposed to the ones from the previous games they are now only found in homeworlds. They also use the Triangle button to be interacted with instead of having to be flamed by Spyro.


• You now have to mash the Square button in order to swim underwater, as opposed to just holding the button down in every other version.

• Sparx's ability to detect gems by holding R1, R2, L1, and L2 was removed.

• The map is put in by default when you start the game.


• The "Double Jump" glitch was fixed in this version.


• Most of the windmills in Robotica Farms are now stopped, presumably to make the level easier.

• In the same fashion as with the Japanese version of Spyro the Dragon, if you connect the PocketStation device to a PlayStation, a total of twenty-one dragonfly eggs will appear throughout the game. Each level and each homeworld contains a dragonfly egg hidden within it, with the exception of the Speedway levels, Boss arenas, and Dragon Shores. Successfully hatching a dragonfly egg through the PocketStation device will let you have various types of dragonflies, and some of them even let Spyro take more damage from enemies.

To do: Add quality pictures of where the dragonfly eggs are located.

European Differences

Audiovisual Differences

• Upon being localized in Europe, the name of the game was for some reason changed from "Ripto's Rage" to "Gateway to Glimmer" (Glimmer being the first level you explore). As a result, a different title screen graphic is used, the "Spyro" part being of a way lighter shade of purple while the subtitle "Gateway to Glimmer" is written in small light green text underneath.

US	Europe

• In this version, the "PRESS START" was replaced by an option that allows the player to change the game's language to either English, French, German, Spanish or Italian.


• The level "Breeze Harbor" was renamed "Breeze Harbour" to fit the spelling of the word in British English.


• The track which plays during the final fight against Ripto lacks the opera-styled vocals in the background.

Gameplay Differences

To do: Investigate - everything here might actually be a result of the frame rate difference between NTSC and PAL.

• The loading time and general speed of the game has been slightly decreased.


• The jump's height has been very slightly augmented, nothing extreme though.