Dino Mines (Spyro: Year of the Dragon)

File:Dino Mines.jpg

If you though Tree Tops was bad, try to play this level.

Dino Mines is a level in Spyro: Year of the Dragon and its remake in Spyro: Reignited Trilogy. It is one of the four main levels of Midnight Mountain, the fourth and final hub world of the game, is the fourth and penultimate level of that hub world and is overall the nineteenth and (if played in order) penultimate level of the game.

Although not one of the more boring levels in Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Dino Mines is often considered as one of the hardest levels in the game.

Why It Sucks

1. Much like Tree Tops, this level is a difficulty spike, granted it is the second-to-last level of the game, but even it can get too cheap at times.
2. The enemies you fight in Dino Mines (The Bailey Gang) are also very brutal.
   1. The Gunfighter Dinos can shoot bullets at the Player with guns, they are quit a pest as not only do the Gunfighter Dinos have good aim and can shoot at the player from a distance, but the bullets they fire are very fast and are hard to avoid.
   2. The TNT Dinos can throw dynamite at Spyro, while not as bad as the Gunfighter Dinos, they can reach a pro far.
   3. The Gattling Gun Dinos can shoot a barrage of bullets from left to right, which is hard to avoid seeing as they are on narrow-like areas.
   4. The Seahorses can launch bullets from their guns at Spyro, because Spyro is underwater, it can be hard to see were the Seahorses are and as such, can get cheap shooted off-screen, it also doesn't help that not only do Seahorses have a good aim and can shoot anywhere in a given area, but the bullets that the Seahorses fire go in a slow motion-like rate, making it even more tedious to avoid the bullets.
3. There's this one gem that is hidden in a level, and players won't know to look their unless they look it up.
4. Very few health pick-ups.
5. The missions that are in Dino Mines can get tedious.
6. This level has a mission that requires Agent 9, so unless you both unlocked and played though Agent 9's level first, you (as Spyro) are forced to back-track to Dino Mines after unlocking and playing Agent 9.
7. In both the PlayStation 1 and Reignited versions, this level has a glitch that if the Gattling Gun Dino on the bridge falls off, the player won't be given a gem, this will force the player to redo that stage just to get that gem.
8. The Reignited version is much more tedious, not only do the Gunfighter Dinos have more quicker reflects and will go into their shooting state the moment they spotted the player, but also Spyro's invincibility frames have been reduced, and as such, players can often get combo'd by the enemies.

Redeeming Qualities

1. The layout of the Dino Mines is interesting.
2. The music is quite good.
3. The idea of this stage is actually pretty cool.