Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Sometimes it's difficult to slap a number rating onto a game. I can think of no game where this is more true than this one.
Year of the Dragon is the third Spyro game, and it shows, for better and for worse. Spyro controls better than ever before, perfecting the already brilliant gameplay from the first two games. Unfortunately, Insomniac decided that that wasn't enough, and added six more playable characters. Yes, this game features seven distinct playable characters, and six of them are utter garbage. Around 70% of the game is spent playing as Spyro, who plays perfectly. On top of this, around 55% of the game is just minigames. This is bullshit.

See, Spyro 1 was difficult, but in a fair way. The entire game was spent with one set of abilities (flight levels excepted, but they also set up their own set of consistent rules and abilities, so it makes sense). You had to use these abilities and your own detective skills to complete the challenges the game put forth. Yes, Tree Tops and Haunted Towers stood out as being way harder than the rest of the game, but it was fair. The game didn't switch the rules on you, it just put something far off, so you'd have to sit down and figure out how to use your abilities to complete the challenge. The entire game set up these moments, and if you couldn't do it, it was your own fault for not inspecting the level hard enough, or not understanding your abilities.
Spyro 3's difficulty is completely in sudden gameplay shifts. The hardest parts of the game are Agent 9's levels, which are not platforming, and are certainly not built up to. They throw a new set of rules and challenges to you and say "good luck :^)". You're no good at first-person shooters with awful, barely responsive controls? You're terrible at rail shooters with the slowest aiming known to man? You're bad at boxing? Well, then you're never getting 100% completion in this platformer.

If you're a completionist, you'll hate this game. If you just want to play through, doing what you want and leaving what you don't, you'll really enjoy it. It's got some of the best standard Spyro levels, in spite of some bullshit minigames.