Spyro 2 is definitely geared more toward the hardcore gamer compared to the first game--it gives you tons of stuff to do above and beyond the regular old stuff.
Copycat games soon flooded the market and before you knew it, you could hardly walk into a videogame store without noticing all the cute mascot games that were out for the N64 and PlayStation.
Spyro's having a private party and wouldn't you know it, none other than Ripto crashes and on his way out he takes all the dragonflies with him. Now it's up to Spyro to rescue all the fireflies and save the Dragon Realms once again.