Prerelease:Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!

This page details pre-release information and/or media for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!.

This article is a work in progress.
...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

To do:
Group each set of screenshots by build rather than the messy way it's arranged at the moment.

Sub-Page

Concept Art
Initial concept art released by animation director Oliver Wade, showing a few of the characters seen in the game.

Development Timeline

Conceptual phase (Late 1998)

May 13th to the 15th
- E3 1999 began, and a demo of the game was playable.
- VHS tapes and the like from the era, depicting games and footage taken from E3, often used footage[1][2] of a particularly early version of the game. However, contrary to popular belief, this is not footage of the demo shown at E3 - in fact, this version appears to be a bit earlier than the one seen at E3.

September 30th 1999
- Roughly the date that the PAL version of Spyro 2ː Ripto's Rageǃ finished development, according to the final game's WAD file.

October 9th 1999
- Roughly the date that the NTSC version of Spyro 2ː Ripto's Rageǃ finished development, according to the final game's WAD file.

November 1999
- Spyro 2ː Ripto's Rageǃ is released in North America, Europe, and Australia.

March 2000
- Spyro 2ː Ripto's Rageǃ is released in Japan, under the name Spyro × Sparx Tondemo Tours.

Conception

Spyro 2ː Ripto's Rageǃ soon started development following the positive reception to the first Spyro The Dragon game. Insomniac decided this time around to make the game more focused toward full-on completion, as opposed to the previous game's simpler "collect things" approach.[3] Another change to the first game's formula is an emphasis on minigames and other side-quests, which serve the purpose of fleshing out the levels and give the player a more appealing game experience, as well as a stronger focus on characters.

As said by Ami Blaire, SCEA's director of product development, "Spyro 2 isn't just another sequel. Players will surely be lured by Spyro's playful antics, but they'll experience gameplay that's more challenging and more fun [than] ever before".[4]

(Source: The Making of Spyro 2 Ripto's Rageǃ)

Scrapped Enemies

To do:
Add the images for each of these enemies and move to a sub-page.

At the very end of the epilogue in the final game is a section called "Faunus Mortas" showcasing "Extinct Creatures of Avalar". These "extinct" creatures are definitely enemies that were cut from the game at some point point but were 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 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 pseudo-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. Appears to 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. 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. It may have been cut due to its similarities with Crush, both of them being a big, dim-witted lizard using a club as their mean of attack.

Mister Fistus: A light green impish troll-like enemy with a giant fist made out of stone. As later revealed by Oliver Wade in an interview, this enemy was originally meant to appear in Cloud Temples, starting off trapped in stone and then attacking Spyro once freed, much like the Ram enemies from that level. The Wizards would have been the ones reviving this enemy type, with its body returning to flesh aside from its massive fist, which it would have used to attack Spyro.

Interestingly, this enemy seems to have been rather popular at Insomniac, as it would later end up making cameos in both Spyro: Year of the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal!, the latter also revealing its "official name", Mister Fister.

Armapillow: An angry blue armadillo-like creature with a pink belly and a pink horn. It's also likely that this enemy would have been part pillow judging from its name. It 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 grayish-purple monkey-like creature with a dopey face. It's unknown in which level this enemy would have appeared.

Announcement and Early B-Roll Footage

E3 began on May 13th, and a demo of Spyro 2 was featured. This would be the public's first introduction to the game.

VHS tapes and TV shows from the era, depicting previews of games (particularly ones announced at E3) occasionally used footage of one or two particularly early versions of the game. However, contrary to popular belief, this is not footage of the demo shown at E3 - as we can see in the footage, an earlier HUD font is used than the one shown in the E3 demo.

So far two B-rolls are known about - they do not appear to be part of the same B-roll footage and it is not entirely clear if they're even the same build.

B-Roll 1

E3 1999 Gamestore VHS

The E3 1999 Gamestore VHS features direct feed footage of Spyro 2, instead of footage of E3.

The game is simply referred to as "Spyro the Dragon 2" and the release date was first planned for January 2000 (as opposed to November 1999).
The music used throughout the video is different, with tracks from the first game being used as placeholders:
- Hurricos and Skelos Badlands use Wild Flight's theme.
- Fracture Hills uses Haunted Towers' theme.
- Sunny Beach uses Dry Canyon's theme.
The HUD font is different.
The bulb icon in Hurricos appears to be slightly darker than its final appearance, though this could be due to the low quality of the footage.
Around 5 seconds in, a fairy can be seen a short distance from the player. Whether or not this fairy is similar in appearance to Zoe is difficult to tell from the footage, but normally from this distance only the glowing effect around her would be visible - her model would be invisible until the player got closer.
For a short time around 7 seconds in, a power-up gate is shown. Instead of taking the form of two pyramidal towers which the player would walk through, its appearance is closer to the skateboard pads from Spyro 3, which the player simply has to walk over. The supercharge image is not a spinning wheel in this version of the game - instead, it's a grey swirl shape. The icon is held within a stationary circle. The sound effect that plays when walking through the powerup gate is also different.
The buttons in Hurricos are blue and rectangular instead of round.
Spyro's head appears to take on a very unusual shape whilst his mouth is full, as seen around 16 seconds in.
The aiming reticule is a red crosshair as opposed to a blue circle.
The spitting sound is different, as is the spirit particle sound effect.
The Lava lizards in Skelos Badlands don't make a sound when hit.
Around 47 seconds in, the invincibility powerup icon can be seen - it's a gold shield instead of a grey one. Once again, a stationary circle surrounds the icon.
The baby turtles in Sunny Beach have a slightly less saturated coloring.
The layout of the first room of Sunny Beach was quite dramatically different:
- The wall between the first area and the small area next to it containing one of the turtles is not present, causing the opening area to be much larger than in the final game.
- The first turtle and switch are not present, and neither is the first gate or the walls beside it.
- There is a gate covering the underwater tunnel. The baby turtles stop underwater and turn around when they reach this gate.
- After using the turtle to navigate to the upper areas of the room, it is revealed that there is another turtle on the upper left platform alongside a switch. This switch is what opens the gate covering the tunnel beneath.
The turtles have a target symbol painted onto their shells.
Enemies in Sunny Beach make no sound upon dying.

B-Roll 2

Superjuegos 2

The second of the Super Videos de Superjuegos VHS tapes also depicts footage of a similar (if not identical) version of the game.

According to the video, Spyro 2 - er, I mean, Spryo 2 - was 30% complete at this point in development.
At 13 seconds in, a fairy can once again be seen where Zoe would normally appear. The fairy appears to look similar to the fairies that hover above the dragon pads in the first game. Another such fairy can be seen around 26 seconds in.
Another look at the powerup gates can be seen 18 seconds in. Here, we see that the sides of the shield icon are actually red, and unlike both depictions of the powerup gates from the first demo, there's two spikes protruding from the base of the powerup (though it's possible that the camera angles used in the previous video caused these to go unseen), as well as a group of white particles orbiting the icon. There's also a single red particle in this group, too. It's unknown if this change in design is only indicative that the powerup is not currently active (for example, each red particle could represent another spirit particle that needs to be obtained - seconds earlier, it is shown that 9 spirit particles have been obtained, and 9 white particles can be seen orbiting the icon) or if this different design is due to this being a slightly different version of the game.
Crystal Glacier uses Stone Hill's music.

Templo Dos Jogos

Episodes and of Templo Dos Jogos featured footage from the same B-roll. This footage reveals some additional features that aren't so clear in the previous videos.

0:34 Text boxes are in a very primitive state, not even being rounded at the edges.
1:33 It appears as though there's a purple stain on the turtle shells just beneath the target symbol. Observations of the other B-roll suggest it's there, too, but it stands out a lot more here.
1:39 The headbash animation is clearly unfinished.
2:42 The next section of the level - which is only briefly shown - looks to be a lot different to how it does in the final, with the overhead bridge apparently looping in an entirely different direction.
2:47 The climbing animation appears to be a bit glitchy.
2:56 Very glitchy and unfinished looking respawn.
3:07 We get a closer look at the fairies than any of the other footage - they look just like the ones from Spyro 1. Furthermore, they make a gem sound when they zap the player.
3:10 Red and green gems seem to have originally had their colors swapped - the "1" gem is green and has the final red gem's mode, and the "2" gem is red and has the final green gem's model.
3:35 On the left-hand side is what appears to be one of the Spyro-1 styled baskets, despite the fact that there's a Spyro 2 and 3 styled basket immediately next to it.

E3 Demo

To do:
Ehh, I'll do this section later.

Not a huge amount is known about Spyro 2's E3 Demo, but judging by the HUD font that's seen in a few early videos and photos, it certainly would have been later than the builds above.

Screenshots

To do:
Regroup screenshots by build, rather than by source.

Manual Screenshots

Some screenshots from the game's manual which appear to be from a pre-release build of the game.

Title Screen

This screenshot of the title screen shows that it is missing the TM symbol, and that it uses the first game’s starting text, with “PRESS START” in yellow capital letters instead of “press start” in lowercase purple letters. The font matches Spyro 1's title screen.

Summer Forest

Spyro in the middle of Summer Forest, with some weird yellow text strings in the lower left portion of the screen. It's possible those are indicating some sort of debug information like in a few screenshots from the third game.

Crush’s Dungeon

Spyro fighting Crush, but with his health bar missing his head icon over the hit point counter.

EGM 122 Screenshots

Screenshots from EGM issue 122. It’s worth noting that in the screenshots show in this magazine Spyro has either very little gems or no gems at all, suggesting that a form of level select was used to access those levels.

Moneybags

Moneybags in what appears to be Summer Forest, in a different place than in the final - the building near the start of the level. Some early design documents indicate that Moneybags would have taught the player how to glide for free in Summer Forest, so it makes sense that this might have happened here, in the first area where Spyro encounters a gap he needs to glide across.

Colossus

The icon used in the hockey minigame is a simple blue circle, probably meant to represent the hockey puck, instead of Spyro’s head.

Hurricos

Spyro is in the area of the level after the first electric gate, except it hasn’t been deactivated, suggesting that cheats were used to access this area. Moreover, the windmill on the high up platform at the other end of the clearing is missing, and it's unknown if it's unrendered or missing entirely.

Crush’s Dungeon

Spyro fighting Crush, but with his health bar missing his head icon over the hit point counter.

EGM 125 Screenshots

Skelos Badlands

The skybox is flipped around, the suns normally wouldn't be seen at this angle (they'd be offscreen), moreover Spyro can’t fly this high from this direction, indicating cheats may have been used in order to get a nice angle for this screenshot.

Scorch

Here Spyro is seen supercharging in Scorch, which isn’t possible in the final game. Moreover, the Camel seems to be closer to the wall and the Rifleman is closer to the main path.

NEXT Generation 54 Screenshots

Hurricos

The Gear Grinder is shirtless as seen in some other pre-release material, and the electric barrier’s ray effect is less dense than in the final game. The giant fan in the background also either has a different lighting or is colored differently all together.

Zephyr

Zephyr appears to be missing a Breezebuilder Chick, but has an extra Breezebuilder Falcon flying over the little hill to the right.

US Playstation Magazine Volume 3 Issue 1 Screenshots

Colossus

The banner normally found next to the monk is missing.

The icon used for the hockey minigame is different, with it being a blue circle instead of graphic representing Spyro's head.

Autumn Plains

Moneybag’s dialogue is in all-caps, like in early versions of the game, plus "climb" isn’t highlighted in green like in the final.

Colossus

Spyro looking down at Autumn Plains from the castle's highest tower, this view showing us the rampart from above, revealing that it appears to have a little ridge on both sides and a blue floor. Another screenshot reveals that the blue floor appears to be water, and as such that the rampart was more akin to an aqueduct.

Icy Speedway

The icon for the Icebuilders, while it keeps the same pose as in the final game, is different.

PSM 25 Screenshots

Screenshots from PSM issue 25. It’s worth noting that in the screenshots show in this magazine Spyro has either very little gems or no gems at all, suggesting that a form of level select was used to access those levels.

Idol Springs

Spyro in the part of Idol Springs where he has to rescue the Hula Girls, with what appears to be an NPC behind the idol which isn’t there in the final game. Moreover, the magazine puts this screenshot alongside ones of NPCs Spyro can interact with like Hunter or the Faun at the start of Magma Cone, which may indicate that at this point in development you could still interact with the idol, like how you could in the build of the game shown in the early trailer.

Skelos Badlands

A 3D render of Skeelos Badlands, with its skybox arranged than in the final game regarding the position of the suns. An in-game pre-release screenshot of this level also shows a differently arranged skybox, but while it could signify that it got moved around during development it could also have been deliberately moved for the sake of having an even more visually appealing screenshot.

The counter for the Bonebuilder rescue minigame is different, with it only consisting of the Lava lizard icon and the number 8 (likely meant to decrease as Spyro takes them out) as opposed to a counter with the icon and then 0/8 (with the 0 increasing with each Lava Lizard defeated).

Magma Cone

The banner normally found next to the faun is missing.

Zephyr

The counter for the Cowlek gathering minigame is different, with it only consisting of the Cowlek icon and the nuber 0 (likely meant to increase as Spyro gathers them in their pen) as opposed to a counter with the icon and then 0/5 (with the 0 increasing with each Cowlek gathered). It's also worth noting that the counter tends to disappear rather quickly, but seeing how far away from the minigame area Spyro is it appears that it would have remained on-screen until the minigame was completed.