Geoff Gower gets his cuddly wuddly self down with the dragon to review Spyro - Enter the Dragonfly on PS2.

Spyro the Dragon is a fluffy and cuddly platform games series, that whilst won't be de rigeur for the hard core gamer in your life, has enjoyed a lot of success and popularity - especially with the younger gamer. Not just cute, this game is also a little bit strange.

As you would expect the game looks a great deal better than its predecessors on the PSOne and starts out with the now inevitable tutorial. Why we can't have instructions in the little booklet provided like the good old days we don't know. The tiresome tutorial section - whilst vital in some games, as an option, to ease the beginner in - here just about knocks any enthusiasm left in you after the ludicrous plot setup.

Things do improve after you're left alone to start charging around with your sidekick Sparx, the dragonfly referenced in the title. His main role seems to be to buzz around your head like a wasp would around the cake at a picnic. He will however make very limited sorties to pick up gems you just miss and provides a steadying influence in an otherwise scary world. Having successfully identified a Dragonfly in need of assisting, you hare off after it as it taunts you and runs away. This behaviour is put down to them being 'shy' but you may consider it as simply annoying.

Spyro The Dragon makes his debut on the PS2 with a plot about as complicated as a French Art House movie. For the entire stage setting cut scene you may well do as we did and simply stare at the screen with a total lack of comprehension. There appears to be an in-joke relating to a large balloon and something to do with pairing up Dragonflies with Dragons - must be our age, because we missed it. Anyway, back to the plot. Disaster strikes when Ripto - Spyro's arch enemy - turns up and attempts to kill all the dragonflies. Fortunately he merely ends up dispersing them throughout the world by accident.

All this random plotting is merely an excuse for a scenario whereby you leg it around the place firing flames and catching dragonflies.

After a week or so of playing GTA Vice City, the childlike simplicity of Spyro is a welcome antidote and the old platform game basics of leaping onto ledges and collecting gems is unquestionably still fun. All the characters, and particularly Spyro and Sparx are animated really well. We're confident that if we were to meet a stunted purple dragon its tail would swish around in much the same way as Spyro's does. As in his previous incarnations Spyro can jump, glide, and hover - also in his repertoire is the ability to leap up and headbutt the ground which comes in handy for activating switches. It's very easy to knock this game for its glitches and imperfections and it does have the feel of being rushed out for Christmas. For all that though we have become strangely addicted, must be the lost sleep in pursuit of eight dragonflies.

If you're a fan of the series and can overlook some bugs, including a rare but very irritating freeze and overlong loading times then there are some fun hours to be spent with Spyro and his winged chum - though for chasing fun you can also consider Herdy Gerdy and for platforming genius, last year's Jak and Daxter does take the biscuit. Sorry Spyro.