CLASSIC GAMING
Spyro the Dragon
Developer:  Insomniac Games/Universal Interactive Studios
Publisher:  Sony
Year:  1998
Genre:  Platformer
System:  Playstation

Being an icon in videogame culture as a character is difficult in this day and age.  Nowadays very few videogame characters seem to represent a true marksmanship and popularity within gaming culture with a few exceptions such as Kratos, Gordon Freeman and K.K. Slider.
But don't think that it was easy being an icon in the old days when those such as Ristar, Bubsy and Acro the Aerobat died out pretty fast.  One character however who has managed to somehow exist in the backdrop of games to the modern day, is Spyro the Dragon.

Story - In the world of dragons there lived five kingdoms.  Artisans, Peace Keepers, Magic Crafters, Beast Makers and Dream Weavers.  They became more united against the odious Gnasty Gnorc, a repulsive hateful beast who resented the dragons for their wisdom, looks and many many shiny gems.  After a few offhand comments on a documentary about dragons talking about Gnorc, he blasted all of them with a freezing spell to turn them into statues....except one small dragon known as Spyro.  Spyro, feeling quite miffed by this massive rebuttal, aims to free the dragons, take back their treasure and defeat Gnasty Gnorc.


Gameplay - The entire Spyro PS1 trilogy is built on the very basic ideas of gathering all the gems and rescuing everyone.  Other than adding actual missions in the later games, this has rarely ever changed in the PS1 era.  You have three things to collect in the course of the game.  Gems, Dragons and Dragon Eggs.  Gems are either found lying about everywhere, dropped by defeated enemies including bosses, or kept secure within containers.  Dragon statues lay across the land and usually a dragon will offer a little word of advice to you on what's up ahead.  Dragon Eggs are in the clutches of suspicious Arabian-stereotype thieves who run very fast and have to be hunted down.

Now that the basics are set, the controls are in order.  Spyro has a range of moves including charging, supercharging, fire breath, flying, gliding and superbreath.  Of these moves, only charging, fire breath and gliding are always with you.  The rest are only at specific points of the game.  Charging not only has you run faster at the cost of creating a tunnel vision effect with a closer-up camera, but also is the only way to handle enemies with metal protection against fire, but large enemies are immune to being charged
Fire breath is the main attack however enemies with metal on them are immune to it, though large enemies still succumb to being burnt.  Superbreath however can destroy any enemy but is only found at very limited areas of the game.  Supercharging is more common after halfway in the game and also can deal with any enemy but when supercharging Spyro is more difficult to control and can also glide further when he jumps.  Not only that but supercharges can be built up from running on several ramps.


Every world is a main hub essentially with various areas to enter including a race course and the boss area.  The levels themselves are rather linear but due to the exploratory nature of the platformer, it'd be like saying Super Mario 64 is linear.  It essentially is but there's enough freedom to wander without ever feeling you're walking along one straight line.  For starters you can start with any level in that certain world at your choice, as well as the fact there are certain areas in the levels containing secrets such as more gems or a dragon statue.
Dragon statues also serve another important purpose to encourage you to catch 'em all, to quote Gary Motherfuckin' Oak.  Dragon Statues also act as savepoints.  Not only do you start back at that statue pedestal if you died, but you can also save your game upon them.
Lastly there are the race courses where you hunt down 8 of four certain things in the course like boats, planes, chests and barrels.  Finding them all nets you more gems.
Here is a game that follows platforming rules to the letter.  Various areas with their own bosses, lots of collectibles to achieve obtaining all of and a very basic story.

Graphics - Naturally the graphics are rather blocky for being slightly more serious in their presentation unlike the slightly more cartoony style of the sequels which became more smoother and slightly more detailed in pretty much everything, but being a more cartoonish game there isn't so much emphasis on its look.
But that doesn't stop the fact the imagination and scope of the levels are great.  Each world has its own theme.  The Artisans have peaceful rolling hills, Peace Keepers live upon sunset cliffs, Magic Crafters reside high in the snowy mountains, Beast Makers traverse the dark swamp and the Dream Weavers live among the clouds.  The levels themselves while not as wide and more linear than Mario 64's levels, nevertheless make a great effort to not make you feel claustrophobic in following one single path, unlike Spyro's great rival Crash Bandicoot.
A solid attempt at the effort to make the levels feel large despite them being actually quite short if you took a direct route from beginning to end without picking up any gems or dragons.


Music/Sound - The music is definitely one of the finest soundtracks in videogame history.  Every world, every level even has its own specific theme.  Whereas most platformers including Spyro's own sequels, fell victim to repeating soundtrack, there is NEVER a repeated song in the entire game.  Every area has its own theme which makes for a wonderful experience in giving every level its own actual atmosphere as a place.
And better still, all the music of Spyro's first three games was composed by the legendary drummer and part-founder of Sting's 80s band The Police, Stewart Copeland.  Epic.

Spyro is one of the underrated but nevertheless respected icons of videogames, a representation of the purity of platforming games despite his more linear story-based sequels of this generation.  He may not be mentioned much in passing conversation between gamers, but if there was a pantheon of statues where great gaming mascots stood, a small purple dragon would be among them.  If anything he needs credit for surviving so long.

Fun and Innovation - 3
Replayability - 2
Gameplay - 3
Presentation - 4

Fire, fire, fire!

I loved Spyro 2. I 100%'d it because it was the only good PS1 game I had apart from Wipeout and Crash.

I still rremeber the commercials where he blows fire and says "Mmmm...BBQ!"