A few days ago I was going through some of my old games and happened upon Spyro the Dragon for PlayStation. A sense of nostalgia immediately coursed through my body as I was brought back to the times of playing Spyro’s sequal’s Ripto’s Rage and Year of the Dragon. However, I realized I had no recollection of the first game. If memory serves I believe my aunt had picked up the original Spyro at a flea market around 2005 and since I was encompassed in playing the Sly Cooper series I didn’t think much of it. So I figured better late than never and popped the game into my Playstation 3.
BACKGROUND
Spyro the dragon was released to the world in September 1998 for the PlayStation. Insomniac Games innovative 3D platformer took the world by storm with Spyro’s novel moveset and unmistaken purple finesse.
STORY
The game starts out with a televised interview of the dragons stating their years of peace in their world and non threatening status of Gnasty Gnorc. Gnasty had happened to be watching and in a fit of anger froze all dragons, except for Spyro, and sent out all his minions to collect their treasure. With Spyro the only one left it’s up to him to save everyone and gather back the dragon clans fortune.
GAMEPLAY AND GRAPHICS
For a game that came out in 1998 it holds up decently for today’s standards. The graphics are unrefined and very bulky, but this is to be expected of a PS1 era game. After playing for a while I could look past the shotty graphics and really dig into the game. Spyro is fun and sometimes difficult to control. His moveset is spot on with his ability to glide, jump, breath fire, side roll and charge at enemy’s. However the controls were pretty loose. I found it hard at times to direct him where I wanted to go especially when using a super charge attack which made Spyro run incredibly fast. Plus the camera angles were awful. Since back in 1998 no one yet thought of connecting the camera to the right analog stick, I was stuck using the R1 and L1 buttons as controls for the passive camera. The active camera wasn’t much better since anytime I had to jump around a corner I was going in blind cause the camera wouldn’t follow me. I am able though to look past these flaws since the game is incredibly enjoyable to play! Collecting all the items, attacking enemies, and exploring all areas of each level never felt dull since there was always a new way to approach each world. It was obvious the great amount of time and effort that went into this game.
STATS
At the end of playing Spyro the Dragon I accomplished…
-120% Completed
-80 Dragons Freed
-14,000 Treasures Collected
-12 Dragon Eggs Found
FINAL THOUGHTS
I love Spyro the Dragon and its Insomniac Games sequels! I definitely recommend picking this game up if you can and trying it out. You will not be disappointed!
It’s a great time to try out the originals now since a remastered version of all three Insomniac Games Spyro titles will be coming out in September 2018!!