Spyro the Dragon

I'll always love this game; it's been a favourite of mine since it first came out (when I was six for the record) however even I can admit that there's a few things missing here that prevent it from being a perfect game like it's sequels.

The biggest issue here is how easy and basic it is, the developers really thought that the novelty of playing a cute dragon would carry an entire game which it does for the most part, however there aren't any special gimmicks to break up the monotony of collecting gems and rescuing dragons in these admittedly beautiful looking worlds. The only exception comes from the speedways (known as flights in this game) where our hero completes a course of destroying objects within a time limit to earn more gems. It's basically how primitive this game is compared not only to its sequels but to other 3d platformers of the day that drag it down, not by much though as there's still a ton to love about this game. The biggest win here is how gorgeous the visuals are, I know these worlds are fairly small, but they make up for that by having beautiful sky boxes and inspired colour pallets which is something most games didn't put in the effort of doing back in the day. The enemies are also fun as they're not only varied in each level (something else other games didn't put in the effort of doing) but are heavily stylised likely to make up for the low budget this game clearly has (insomniac games were originally an indie developer until very recently.) The controls are also great, Spyro is very responsive whether he's charging, gliding or spitting fire at enemies. Admittedly it can be a bit hard to control him whilst he's supercharging due to him obviously using tank controls when doing so, but you get used to it fairly quickly and these stages are few and far between. The only other negative I have are the bosses, they're pretty weak and serve as little more than slightly harder roadblocks for our hero to overcome. The fact they're only required to defeat for the 100% ending is also a bit of a disappointment save of course for our main villain gnasty gnorc.

It's a great gateway to the platforming genre for little kids, adults will probably find this too primitive to be a classic, however it's a fun nostalgia trip to take due to how well it holds up.

Um jogo muito simples que praticamente não oferece desafios, mas ao mesmo tempo bastante eficiente.

As fases funcionam muito bem como pequenos ambientes exploráveis que tornam do jogo uma espécie de “lite-collectaton”. Do gameplay aos visuais e a música, é tudo muito colorido e alegre. Spyro é um comfort game.

(Jogado na versão da Reignited Trilogy)

The series has seen some reinvigoration with the Reignited Trilogy which I've not played. I have played the first two games in their original form though. I no longer own my original PS1 copies (or any of my PS1 stuff for that matter) but I did decide to buy this game for my PS3 from their PSone Classics section (I'll get around to 2 and the one I never played, Year of the Dragon, and perhaps the Reignited Trilogy afterwards eventually). Game was a childhood favorite, as was the second one. After replaying it, how does it hold up after so many years? Mostly, pretty well. It does have its annoyances...

Levels are fairly compact but well-constructed. They mostly follow a linear route with some branches. You'll never get lost but there is still some enjoyment had from exploration. The game is a collect-a-thon but it doesn't fall into the trap of having an overwhelming number of objects to pick up or "where is that last damn gem" problem games like these tend to stumble over. Gems are obtained from enemies, treasure chests (some requiring keys) or just found lying around in bunches. Sometimes you might have to turn your camera around to find ledges to the side where some gems might lie, glide to somewhere off the beaten path or attempt some tricky super-charge ramp maneuvers but that's as hard as it gets. It's unlikely you'll find yourself backtracking or spending a long time in a level looking for a solitary gem or two you overlooked. The levels here are actually well-designed.

I had issues with the way the game controlled or "felt" a number of times. Spyro moves a little too loosely and slippery for my liking which can be hazardous in the later stages and worlds where the death pit-to-platform ratio starts to increase. Particularly troublesome when you're in charging/super-charging mode and maneuvering around doesn't feel as tight as it should (it seems using the d-pad allows for tighter controls and turns while the analog stick has more variance but less precise). Sometimes the simple act of gliding to another platform can be a pain, if you don't jump quite high enough and glide at the exact right moment you'll bump into the side of the next platform and fall. Sometimes to your death.

The worst part though are the Flight levels. On a timer you have to fly through rings, arches, use your fire breath to turn on lighthouse lights, destroy planes, boats, explosive barrels, chests, the like. These are mostly about finding the best route around to completing the objectives before the timer runs out but many issues, like the finicky turns, flying into water to try to destroy something, bumping into the side of an object and falling into the water that way also, your sense of orientation being off and the pitiful range of your fire breath missing objects all the time, these levels are just flat-out not fun. Their only redeeming factor is that you can approach them in multiple ways until you find a route that doesn't insta-fail you every single time.

If I'm being honest I'd say that the game held up better as a childhood memory (even then it's funny as I barely remembered many of the levels here) than as something to play today but I'd also be lying if I said I didn't garner a decent level of enjoyment from this still. Tighten up the controls and excise those awful Flight levels and you have a real winner here.

There's a certain amount of doubt that goes into a review when the game is one that sparks intense feelings of nostalgia. The concern that it may be overrated due to fond memories crops up at times like these. But when a game is so enjoyable from start to finish that you replay it every single year like clockwork, it's a true testament to how it stands up as a game. Yes, Spyro the Dragon is one of the earliest games I can remember beating from start to finish, and it continues to be captivating over two decades after it came out. The reasons for this are simple. Exceptional art direction and atmosphere combined with a simple back-to-basics approach to platforming.

For a 3D platformer to stand out, there needs to be something that separates it from the competition. Reskinning a protagonist and putting them in a basic environment with standing jumping just doesn't cut it. Spyro the Dragon's differentiation is right in the name, however. By putting the player in control of a dragon, a whole new school of level design is opened up with new gameplay mechanics. The first immediate concern would be that a platforming game would be undermined by dragon flight. This is resolved by making Spyro a young dragon who can not yet fly, only glide. So with the built in ability to flame, charge, and glide across long distances, you have the blueprint for what the rest of the game is going to look like.

The levels themselves follow a collect-a-thon approach, with dragons, gems, and eggs to collect. The levels are more contained and condensed than what you might find in a Rare game of this era, however. You begin each world in a general hub area with portals to the other levels with each world harboring a general theme. Right away, the charm of the game is apparent. Whether you're charging through a lush pasture, punked out swamp, or dreamlike towers, there's a lot of variety to love with the level design and art design. There's a fairly natural difficulty curve as well. Each world more or less gets trickier as you continue. But the general theme remains the same. Explore every nook and cranny possible to collect every gem and save every dragon in each level.

There are a couple of hang ups with this. The flow of the game is enjoyable enough to keep this samey formula from becoming too dragging, but there are a couple elements that attempt to break this up. With varying degrees of success. First off is the flight levels, which are timed challenges that honestly have always felt more stressful and in the way than fun to me personally. Secondly are boss levels in each world, which play out like standard levels, but with a boss at the end. All but one of these are completely optional if you're not going for full completion, and half of the bosses are honestly poorly designed. Three of the five bosses boil down to simply walking up and flaming them a couple of times. Even the final boss of the game, Gnasty Gnorc, is a series of tedious chases. For all the wonderfully crafted exploratory levels in the game, it really falls flat with its boss design.

In the end, the games shortcomings are snuffed out by just how charming the rest of the package is. Spyro the Dragon has one of the greatest soundtracks I've personally heard in a game, and each track matches the environment perfectly. For a game of the time with such limited graphical capability, it makes the absolute most of what it can do to provide one of the best atmospheres in a platformer you'll find. It's not scared to play with whimsy, and this absolutely works in its favor. Spyro the Dragon is a simple package, but its execution is so overall excellent that it can't be denied as one of the finest gaming experiences on the Playstation.

Spyro is one of those games that brings back a ton of nostalgia. The order I played the games in is a bit weird. So the first Spyro I played was the 3rd (Year of the Dragon), and it was actually my brothers he got it as a birthday present. Then around then I played Spyro 2 maybe a month or 2 after. Then only a few months later my dad took me to Gamestop after visiting my great grandpa in the hospital and we picked up the original Spyro game there for PS1. I have tons of nostalgia playing this game in the early 2000s, and remember most of the levels and bosses, and even replayed it years down the road when I was older during the Thanksgiving break of my Freshman year in college. The first Spyro is probably the most basic and straightforward, all you can really do is glide, ram, and blow fire. The enemies are mostly basic and either throw projectiles or try to hit you.

The levels are decently designed, and the best part is looking around and collecting all the gems. On the other hand, the design of the levels is competent, but some levels do start to feel similar and most of the levels just require you to kill basic enemies and glide to platforms, and that's about 80% of the levels in the game. There are a few levels that do try to do new and unique things, a few levels use speed ramps to solve puzzles and reach harder platforms and of course there are boss levels in each World, although the bosses in this game are so easy and basic they really don't feel like bosses. There are also flight stages where you have to collect and destroy things in a time limit, these are more frustrating than fun do to the camera. That's also another issue the camera in the first game is kind of bad and you can't get it in a good position ever, it feels awkward and stiff. But the game is never too difficult. The other thing is Gnasty Gnorc is the main villain but unlike the other Spyro games, his presence is very minimal and he only appears at the start and end of the game, and he feels like a very minimal villain that sort of feels forced into the game just because they needed a villain. You can tell the creators didn't care much for him either because he doesn't really appear in any Spyro games after this. He's just so generic and has no personality.

But despite these flaws, I still really enjoy the game and its a lot of fun. Collecting the gems and eggs are fun, there is some humor in the dragons you rescue. I could still remember a good amount of the levels from this game when I replayed it years ago. Plus the enemy design in this game is pretty decent and each level you go to has its own set of enemies, which is impressive considering many games liked to reuse enemies. The overworlds in this game are fairly well done, and the music is incredible, its catchy funky organ music composed by the drummer of the Police. I mean Spyro might not be as smooth as its sequels or have as strong design or bosses, but its still a solid first entry and a good game in its own right.

Varied but naturally developing world with different thresholds of progression that test understanding of the game elevates what would still be a solid platformer with a nice progression of complexity, if without a progression of mechanics. Plus, Stewart Copeland soundtrack. Can't beat that!