Dan's End of 2014 Awards - Part Three

It’s Boxing Day, which means it’s time for Part Three of my End of 2014 Awards. If you missed Part One and/or Part Two, you can find them by clicking through on their respective links. Today sees us reach the halfway point of this little awards ceremony, with two more awards going out to games that managed to define the last twelve months for me. Here they are.

Second Chance Award for Being Better with the Benefit of Hindsight

Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer (PS1 – Insomniac Games – 1999)

The second of these awards to be won by an Insomniac-developed game, I’d long considered Spyro 2 (subtitled ‘Ripto’s Rage’ in the States) to be the weak link in the scaly purple chain of PlayStation platformers. I had fond memories of the original Spyro the Dragon because it was one of my first platforming experiences on the old PlayStation, and even more fond memories of the third Spyro game (subtitled ‘Year of the Dragon’) because it such a huge game with a great deal of variety thanks to its various mini-games and the introduction of new playable characters. Somewhere between those two lay Gateway to Glimmer, all but forgotten because I believe it lacked the impact of its predecessor and the size of its successor.

Until now.

After playing through all three PS1 Spyro games earlier this year, I’ve been forced to reassess my stance on Spyro 2, and the result is a much more positive outlook. With hindsight to improve my judgement, I’m able to recognise Gateway to Glimmer as the game that pretty much completely rewrote the Spyro rulebook. It took the core collect-a-thon platforming gameplay of the original Spyro the Dragon and applied it to a mission-based structure, turning the collecting into something measured and purposeful, a means to an end rather than the sole purpose it had been before. The decision to gate player progress by locking away certain items and areas behind new abilities and Moneybags’ insatiable gem-lust was inspired too, making the game feel larger by sealing off earlier portions of the game until you were able to return later and access new areas.

It wasn’t just gameplay improvements, either. Gateway to Glimmer boasts a charming story full of great characters and driven by a much more likeable incarnation of Spyro, who’s nowhere near as much of a cocky, jumped-up little purple shit this time around. The level design is a huge step up from the first game too, both in terms of variety and playability. While Year of the Dragon does a fine job of building on Gateway to Glimmer’s foundations with a greater number and greater variety of challenges, I honestly think that game feels a little bloated and over-long by comparison as a result. There’s something about Spyro 2’s concise cohesiveness that just feels right. That’s why from here on out, I’ll be defending Gateway to Glimmer as the best of the original Spyro games. If anybody disagrees, I’ll meet them outside in five.

White Blank Page Award for Best Literary Adaptation

Alice: Madness Returns (PC – Spicy Horse – 2011)

As triggers of inspiration go, the one that got me to finally boot up the copy of Alice: Madness Returns that’s been sitting in my Steam library for the last two years is fittingly bizarre. I went to watch an amateur dramatics production of Alice in Wonderland, adapted and directed by a good friend of mine. Witnessing his own interpretation of Lewis Carroll’s wonderfully weird narrative unfold on stage was enough to renew my curiosity in American McGee’s adaptation of the same source material. So I downloaded the game, hooked up my 360 controller to my laptop, and leapt down the rabbit hole.

What greeted me at the end of my descent was a brilliant twist on the traditional perception of Wonderland, and one that has probably satisfied more than any other that I’ve seen to date. My friend’s stage adaptation reminded me that there’s definitely something incredibly dark and sinister about Wonderland - a mark that Tim Burton’s recent interpretation didn’t quite hit for me, and something that the famous Disney cartoon didn’t even try to capture. Alice: Madness Returns lands square in the bullseye by comparison, framing Wonderland and its inhabitants as a manifestation of Alice’s own traumatised mental state. The Gothic and Victorian motifs applied to Carroll’s world and characters result in something that’s at once strikingly unique to McGee and instantly recognisable as Wonderland.

Of course, all this would be for naught if the gameplay wasn’t up to scratch. Thankfully it was, combining a traditional style of exploration and platforming with a more contemporary approach to combat and character development. The fact the game wasn’t a chore to play meant I could focus on drinking in the aesthetic experience without getting hung up on minor niggles. When the credits rolled on Madness Returns I was still hungry for more of that wondrous incarnation of Wonderland, and although a sequel looks unlikely at this stage, inwardly I hope that this won’t be American McGee’s final trip through the mind and words of Lewis Carroll.

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Three days through and six awards down, with just four left to go. The next two will be coming some time tomorrow, and the final two on Sunday. As always, thanks very much for reading, and I’ll see you around.

Dan

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Currently playing - Pokémon Omega Ruby (3DS)