Mitsota's Awful Spyro the Dragon Review (First Review)
I recently played through Insomniac Game's Spyro the Dragon, a Playstation classic from late 1998, and let me tell you: it still holds up just fine today!
Spyro the Dragon is a 3D platformer following the adventure of a young dragon on his quest to save his fellow dragons from a spell that his frozen them in crystal; cast by the evil "Nasty Gnorc". Now normally in my reviews I only like to give away a glimpse of the story, but here that 1 and a half sentence summery is all you get in terms of cutscenes, with 1 or 2 line exchanges happening with most dragons you free.
Coming in on the heels of Crash Bandicoot and 2 years after the release of Super Mario 64, Spyro Builds on the foundation of the two games, offering the player 18 beautifully crafted levels across 5 hub worlds, featuring hundreds of gems to collect in each level and 80 dragons in need of rescuing from their crystal prisons. In your quest to save your fellow dragons, you'll visit grassy fields, scorched deserts, frozen caverns, and high mountain peaks, most with their own themed enemies and unique level geometry.
Gameplay is basic, with only two means of attack and puzzle solving; Namely making use of the classic fire breathing, or by charging at foes in an attempt to headbutt them with Spyro's horns. However, these mechanics are used to their fullest, with a huge variety of enemies that require their own tactics; some immune to fire, some immune to headbutts, some with certain weakpoints, etc. In particular, I'd like to praise the many fun ways that gems were hidden in this game. Gems are liberally tossed in everywhere, lying loose all over the ground, in metal and wooden chests, inside cases of fireworks, and even hidden inside soup pots! The constant stream of collectables in the level ensures you always feel like you're going the right way, even if you've never played the level before; And the variety in ways you obtain these gems breaks up the usual monotony of "collect the magical floating garbage" that so many other platformers suffer from.
While you're running around these intricate levels fighting enemies and collecting treasure, you'll get to listen to some amazing tunes by former Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who's done an amazing job composing a beautiful rock soundtrack that pairs incredibly with the fantasy landscapes on offer. I even find myself listening to some of these jams while not playing the game!
I very much enjoyed my time revisiting Spyro the Dragon, it's a fun, challenging romp through a fun cartoon fantasy world. I'll admit that there could be some bias, as this is one of the first video games I've ever played, but I feel like this is the pinnacle of what the Sony Playstation has to offer in terms of child friendly mascot platformers. A truly amazing experience and a must play of the system, I give it a 9 outa 10!
Spyro the Dragon is currently available for sale from Sony on the PS3, PS4, PSP, and PSVita systems, and the ROM dump is widely available for download on file sharing websites.