Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer - My Top 5 Orb Quests

Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer was the first game I played on my Playstation, and was the first game I completed to 100% - yes, in Europe it’s known as Gateway to Glimmer, hold your comments. Anyway - one of the objectives required to achieve said 100% is to collect all 64 orbs - each one being rewarded after completing a task or quest of some description. Some are fun, some are tedious - some I replayed over and over, as they were awesome - some I avoided like the plague, as I hated them so much. Today I’m counting down my Top 5, my personal favourite orb quests from Spyro 2.

5 - Icy Speedway, Parasailing

When I first played Ocean Speedway, I thought that I was going to hate all of the speedway levels - and I was right, except for Icy Speedway - a refreshingly simple speedway challenge, which also includes a fun orb quest. Hooked to a parachute, you must maneuver through a set of 50 colourful rings - you may screw it up once or twice, particularly when the rings come quickly at the end - it’s the fun kind of frustrating, not the sort of frustrating that makes you want to quit the level.

4 - Crystal Glacier, George The Snow Leopard

At first glance you might think, “ugh, an escort quest,” but George the snow leopard is quite possibly the cutest thing you'll ever have to escort in a game. He's rather obedient too - easily persuaded by fish - all you do is to wait by the fishing holes and torch the fish for George to eat - then he’ll happily follow you - and he purrs!

3 - Zephyr, Cowlek Corral I & II

Bo Peep is by far my favourite Spyro 2 character, she's absolutely hilarious - I'm totally on the side of the Land Blubbers in the Blubber VS Breezebuilder war. The quests are simple enough, charge or flame the cowleks and round them up into their pen. What I like about the cowleks are that they're unlike most creatures you have to herd in games - they're actually obedient, they don't wander around or walk off of edges - these ones even walk to the edge of this ledge ready for you to butt them across the gap!

2 - Idol Springs, Foreman Bob's Puzzles

This quest is actually made up of three smaller quests, all of which involve some sort of logic puzzle. Firstly, we have a classic “turn all objects to one colour puzzle,” jumping on blocks to turn them all to yellow. Next we have to feed a hungry idol 10 fish, but only the types of fish he likes, feed him red fish and he’ll vomit up the other fish you've already fed him. And the last puzzle is a memory puzzle in which you need to work out the right order to press coloured stones. It's incredibly satisfying solving each one.

1 - Mystic Marsh, Trading Quest

This quest is one that requires you to explore the level and use logic to solve each piece of the puzzle. The Professor has lost his pencil and gives you an egg that you may be able to trade for a pencil. What ensues is a string of trading one item for another - an egg for a seed, a seed for a rubber duck, a rubber duck for an onion, an onion for a coin and finally a coin for a pencil. What I love about this quest is that the first time I attempted it, I had to really think about the objects and areas in Mystic Marsh and figure out where I could use each item. The egg in the bird’s nest was straightforward enough, but figuring out to add onion to a soup and using a coin in a wishing fountain to wish for a pencil - pure genius.