Spyro on the original Playstation was more than just a childish platformer game.
All three titles were among the most polished and enjoyable games released for the console
and they're fun even to this day.
I can vouch for this since I recently played through all of them again, alongside my good
friend VeXXSie.
Both of us had fond memories of the series as children and I can happily say that they
haven't aged one bit.
Well... the gameplay hasn't.
The graphics aren't exactly cutting edge by today's standards but their cartoonish nature
has aged better than anything else on the platform.
This video will serve as a nostalgic review, as well as a summary for anybody who wants
to know a bit about the series without having to play them.
I'd urge you to give them a go though as you're really missing out.
You can easily play any of them in any order, though after playing the later two I find
the first game feels a bit lonely in comparison.
As for later games...
well, I wouldn't know.
I'm old.
I only played the first 3 then jumped to PC gaming.
I'll hold my judgement of them until I play them.
Time to move onto the trilogy.
First off: Spyro 1.
Gnasty Gnork has turned the dragons to stone and it's up to our little purple friend and
his mysterious but VERY helpful dragonfly, Sparx, to save the world.
In short, you rescue dragons and collect gems to unlock later levels until you can reach
and defeat the final boss.
You have a number of home worlds which act as places to regain lives and to choose which
level you'd like to undertake next.
Once again, it sounds simple but MOST games of this age force you through a linear series
of levels where once you're stuck, YOU'RE STUCK.
Spyro isn't like this.
It's a very forgiving game in comparison- it's easy to reach the 'end' of the level
but hard to get everything.
You'll often be left at 90% complete on a map, running about for a while, looking for
the last few gems or stone dragon.
The early levels are small and simple enough but there are some later on that are down-right
ruthless, in particular the Treetops level which includes THIS monster of a speedrun.
How I figured this one out at the age of 10 I do not know.
How about the graphics, considering that the game's 17 years old?
Well, when replaying this recently, my first impression was: wow, it's really smooth!
I had just completed Spyro 2 when I moved to this one and it feels as though it's running
at double the frame-rate.
Despite this, it doesn't look bad at all.
We take unlimited view distances for granted today but on the Playstation 1 they were a
luxury.
Most games would replace scenery with fog after a certain distance.
Spyro by comparison leaves them in the dust and makes itself comparible to far more recent
titles on much more powerful consoles.
A big thumbs up to Insomniac for this!
I remember this level in particular being impressive.
When stood still it's hard to tell where the level ends and the skybox begins!
Gameplay-wise, it suffers from being the first game- Insomniac really improved on its strengths
and ironed out its weaknesses for the later games.
It laid the important ground-work for later titles and it's impressive how many of its
features remained in future games, such as the different stages of Spyro's health, the
speedrun levels, the homeworld hubs and how Spyro's attacks interact with the enemies
and objects within the levels.
The enemies that Spyro confronts are varied and the levels are beautiful to the end but
they feel lonely and empty in comparison with later titles.
They're really gagging for some minigames and friendly characters.
It's the hardest game of the three- even after all this time I found myself running out of
lives on later stages.
Some of the dragons you have to save are put in some brutally difficult locations.
It wouldn't be allowed today!
I'd like to quickly mention Spyro's voice actor.
It doesn't work and thankfully was changed for later games.
He sounds like a brat.
He's annoying, cocky and embarrassing to play as.
This was a deliberate design decision and apparently in the Japanese version of the
game he had a less edgy, more likeable personality.
I give the first game a 7/10.
For its time it was a Godsend, but its sequels are so good that they make you aware of problems
in the first game that previously didn't bother you.
Let's move onto Spyro 2, which is the big jump up.
I did this game a HUGE injustice, since although the demo levels were the first I ever played
of Spyro, I didn't get the second game until after I had completed the other two!
Because of this I can't agree with people who say that it's the best of the trilogy,
but if it's any help, I'd say that I can't tell the difference between the quality of
this game and the third one, which is something I respect.
Spyro matured since the first game and his voice no longer makes me want to set fire
to my face!
There are also other characters who aid him on his journey.
The first game was ahead of the competition, but this game made the world feel so much
more alive and friendly.
You get to aid people in their struggles and really feel that this is a world worth saving.
Insomniac games did an excellent job with this game.
It's a well known fact, but the enemy of this game is named after what Spyro looks like
in Japanese!
If you were to glance at Spyro 2 you could easily mistake it for Spyro 3.
The graphics and gameplay are that similar.
The biggest change over the first game is that the controls have been improved.
About 75% of my deaths in the first game were from control issues with jumps, often leading
to me plummeting to my death or sinking into oil pits through no real fault of my own.
These problems now no longer occur thanks to a combination of better controls and fairer
level design.
This reason alone makes Spyro 2 vastly superior to the first game.
Spyro can now finally swim, as well as more easily charge his way through the levels,
making it a lot faster and more fun to navigate.
The home-world hubs are now a lot more friendly and inviting and the levels themselves are
fleshed out, rather than a dangerous and samey gauntlet from start to finish.
The side-missions give you a lot of variety and reward you with orbs which unlock things
for you as the game progresses.
I'm not always sure whose side Hunter's on- he knows you're trying to defeat the evil
Ripto and yet withholds valuable orbs from you until you beat him at annoying and often
unnecessary quests that he thinks up seemingly to frustrate Spyro.
I admit it, I've never been fond of the music in Spyro, but this has the best of the bunch,
with the home-worlds sounding particularly atmospheric and dreamy.
I find it interesting that the sound effects in this game sound relatively low quality
when compared with more recent titles, but it doesn't detract from the experience.
In fact, it's the sounds of smashing pots, flaming trees and clinking gems that makes
it such a rewarding experience.
And finally, there's a reward for beating the game.
I won't spoil it but it's a welcome surprise.
In Spyro 3, as usual you get gems and have to collect dragon eggs.
But that's doing this game a major injustice.
There's a huge amount of stuff to do.
The mini-games from the previous game have been expanded upon and have entire levels
to their own, meaning that you have levels within levels within levels.
You also have 4 other playable characters as well as top-down Sparx shoot-em-up quests.
There are also skate and race levels.
It's this that sets it apart from the second game, as the gameplay mechanics in the levels
themselves are very similar.
The flight missions from previous games also make a return and were NIGH ON IMPOSSIBLE
with my gamepad.
I had to remap them to my keyboard and suddenly I became a God at flying.
Be wary of this.
If Spyro 2 is Unreal Tournament 2003, Spyro 3 is 2004.
It's bigger and better in every way.
Even the order of your upgrades is more intuitive- Spyro starts with all of the abilities he
gained in the second game and it's his dragonfly who gains additional powers as this game progresses.
I even prefer Moneybags in this game!
In the second game he was an irritating way of unlocking things and draining you of the
gems you worked so hard to collect.
As Insomniac are so good at doing, they went back to the drawing board and fleshed him
out a lot more in this game as a comic character that we love to hate.
In this one, he patronises Spyro from an early stage in a new, more irritating voice.
It gets worse as it goes on to the point where he's blatantly taunting Spyro at every opportunity.
But you know it's leading to something big, and sure enough it does.
It's one of the biggest highlights of the series when you're allowed to exact revenge.
It's a major step-up from the second game's puny resolution where the cowardly Hunter
beats him up.
Spyro 3 replaces the second game's orbs with eggs which everybody seems keen to destroy-
it's a miracle that none were broken (Show the billy goat about to cook one for an omelette)!
The environments are well designed and memorable.
There's even a swamp where everybody speaks Haiku.
I don't know why.
But it's cool.
I like how self-aware the characters are.
Moneybags moans about speaking in Haiku and it's obvious that the developers find the
bone dance from the second game just as annoying as I did.
I can only assume that there are many other easter eggs that I haven't noticed.
The bosses are a bit weaker than in the second game.
Some of them take a few attempts but you soon master the patterns.
The monster to end all monsters is particularly weak.
That's not to say that this game has no challenge.
The first-person shooting sections had me raging for hours and it's always painful to
spend 20 minutes searching for the last 5 gems on a level.
Unfortunately my play-through was cut short when the final, FINAL level I attempted wouldn't
give me one of the eggs, meaning that at some point I'm going to have to play through the
entire game again.
Sigh.
I genuinely wonder how fun these games would be if I played them for the first time today.
Maybe I only enjoy them because of the memories I had of them as a child.
Would I appreciate how ground-breaking and polished they were?
Would I still want to complete the game 100%?
If this is the first time you've heard of Spyro, firstly congratulations for reaching
the end of this video, and secondly, please give it a go and let me know what you think.
I hope it gives you as much fun as it has to me.