I've decided to do a new review of the first three Spyro games for the same reason I do
most things on this channel: I thought it would be fun to go play these games again
and talk about them.
Also I feel I can definitely improve on my original review of the Spyro trilogy, since
it was one of my earliest videos and isn't that great.
I tried my best to do a good review, but I was just inexperienced back then.
Hopefully I can do better now.
Positive
Controls To this day, I love how Spyro controls, even
in the first game.
It's not perfect and frankly Crash controlled just a bit more precise than Spyro, but it
is still so much fun.
The fun factor, besides being a result of my nostalgia, comes from gliding and charging.
It's just great to run around very quickly or fly through the sky.
And the gliding is useful, I could imagine, for younger kids or people unused to platformers,
because gliding and platform placement gives you a little room for error in how you judge
your jumps.
It would be useful for me, given that I am bad at video games, but I've played the Spyro
trilogy so much that I pretty much know most of the jumps by heart.
But what's also great about gliding is that it gives the creators a way to challenge players
in later levels based on how the player had mastered gliding, especially when you combine
gliding with charging, and later with super charging.
Anyone who's played Spyro 1 should remember the Treetops level and the challenge there
combining gliding and super charging.
Now, some issues with the controls: Pressing the triangle button causes Spyro
to drop.
This works fine if you need to stop gliding quickly and can prevent Spyro from gliding
over the edge of a small platform you need to land on.
But I'm so used to Spyro 2 and 3's controls, where triangle causes Spyro to hover and get
a bit more height to his gliding before also causing him to fall, so occasionally I would
press triangle thinking Spyro would hover, before remembering.
Another issue is that water apparently hurts Spyro.
I really never understood why he couldn't swim.
At least Spyro 2 fixed that.
I call these issues because Spyro 2 and 3 do exist so going back to Spyro 1 can be difficult.
But sequels are supposed to improve on the original, and that's just what happened, so
that's good.
Really, my only problem with the controls is the roll move, just because it's not very
useful, since you can dodge enemies without it and I never really needed a quick roll
to avoid enemies in Spyro 1, and it's not a very fun move in part because it doesn't
change Spyro's mobility as drastically as say gliding and in part because like I said
it's not often necessary.
The background The closest level to where you start the game
in the Artisan home world is Stone Hill, which is such a good first level because it introduces
you to the basics in a safe environment, and also shows you what helps Spyro 1 stand out
so much.
In Stone Hill, you start on the ground surrounded by walls, but on top of the walls is grass,
just like the grass Spyro is walking on.
Plus you can see gems on top of the walls, which indicates that to collect everything
you need to get there.
I love that about Spyro 1.
Games like Croc Legend of the Gobbos had beautiful backgrounds, but what set Spyro 1 apart was
that the backgrounds so often were fully part of the level to be explored.
Just realizing you can explore even in the background is so great.
Exploration I also loved how the game guided you without
closing exploration.
The path to the exit in each level was often linear, but there were also areas past the
exit that looped around to the beginning of the level, areas that you could see when you
started a level but not get to until you reached the end of a level and if you looped around.
Replaying the game now, the levels don't seem nearly as long to me as they did before.
The levels never seemed so long as to be annoying, but I did the remember the levels being longer
than this.
I suppose that would have to do with how young I was when I played the games, and also that
I probably spent longer exploring when I didn't know the levels as well as I do now.
Difficulty I also liked the gradual increase in difficulty
in the level design.
Early levels would have an occasional gliding portion, while later levels would have large
areas Spyro would need to glide over, often made more difficult by having moving platforms
or enemies directly in your path.
There was always time to see the danger and plan a way to avoid falling or a way to defeat
enemies, so it never felt unfair, either.
A lot of the challenge in Spyro comes from finding every collectible: the dragons, the
gems and the dragon eggs.
Some gems can be cleverly hidden and require being very careful about how you explore,
though admittedly, I can no longer honestly analyze how hard it is to find every gem.
I've played this game so much I pretty much remembered where everything was.
I just don't know how difficult or how easy it would be for someone who had never played
the game to find everything.
Having said that, when I replayed the game I realized how much the game tried to give
you clues, whether visual clues with the sparkling gems or how enemies are presented or audio
clues like the rattling crystals where the dragons are trapped.
The biggest challenges in regard to levels were the flight levels.
I'll probably make or have made a Quick Thoughts video on this, but every time I enter a flight
level I think it'll be relaxing to just fly around collecting things rather than having
to worry about platforming and enemies, but it is never relaxing.
Every other level I finished fairly easily on my first try when I replayed the game now
in May 2017, but the flight levels I replayed over and over until I had a specific route
for collecting everything that I could efficiently follow.
This is no complaint, though, in fact, I think the flight levels are a great addition.
There's no time requirement in Spyro 1, so you can take as long as you need to on any
level.
This encourages patience and exploration, but too many levels like that would be boring.
The flight levels give the player a fast-paced challenge and welcome variety to the gameplay,
while still sticking to the core gameplay style of finding collectibles.
I also like how some flight levels were hidden, making the flight levels feel a bit more special
than the rest of the levels.
What I can say is that the boss fights are fairly easy, and that was a bit of a disappointment.
I'm going to replay Spyro 2, but as I remember, Spyro 2 really made the boss fights more memorable
by having an actual battle in arenas, whereas in Spyro 1 you just have a normal level where
you collect gems and free dragons until you find the boss.
You attack the boss, he runs away, and then you chase him and attack him, and this repeats
a couple times and then you win.
Even Gnasty Gnorc, the final boss and the enemy that trapped every dragon in crystal,
follows this pattern.
You chase down thieves to take keys that allow you to approach Gnasty Gnorc, and then you
chase Gnasty Gnorc, first along a safe but winding route, you attack him, and finally
Gnasty Gnorc rans away along a path with platforms that recede into the walls, so you need to
be quick.
But you don't really need to be that quick.
I remember this made me very nervous when I was younger, but now as an adult I can finish
this section in one try.
I don't know if it would be harder if I had played this game less during my life, but
even so, it just seems like a fairly simple challenge for being the final boss battle.
I do wish the boss battles were more challenging and more varied.
There is a bonus level where Spyro can fly freely and collect treasure that Gnasty Gnorc
had stolen in his vault, but that's more about giving the player the prize of a big open
level with lots to collect and the ability to fly everywhere for the player having completed
the rest of the game.
And it is a very fun level.
You could say that a prize of having more to collect after collecting everything is
annoying, but I disagree.
If you enjoyed the previous levels, this is like a normal level but even better, with
more to do and explore and collect and fly without a timer like in the flight levels.
It's a great reward for getting 100%, and when I was younger I was always so proud to
get 120% by completing this level too.
End credits The end credits for Spyro 1 are quite simple,
just showing the different locations in the game with some music.
If I remember correctly, the credits are like that for Spyro 2 and 3, as well.
It's simple, but unlike the boss battles, I think simple for the credits works fine.
It's relaxing after finishing the game to see the locations and hear the music.
Neither Positive Nor Negative
Camera I thought the camera was okay, though controlling
it could have been better.
The camera does sometimes close in too much on Spyro and make it hard to see what's around.
And in levels like Toasty, sometimes you want to run from enemies, but charging away means
you don't see the enemy you are running from, since you can't move the camera as Spyro charges.
Not being able to move the camera as Spyro charges is a big deal.
You could do so in later games and it is extremely beneficial, since you have greater control
without sacrificing the speed increase of charging.
Also, I'm replaying Spyro 1 on the PSP.
(Summary: I have back problems so playing for longer on a handheld device hurts less
than playing sitting up.)
It was unusual to control the camera with the right analog stick as opposed to L2 and
R2.
I'm just so used to that scheme from playing Spyro, but happily you can customize the buttons
and make L and R function as L2 and R2, leaving the analog stick as the L1 and R1 buttons,
which works for Spyro since L1 and R1 only make Spyro roll in the first game, which was
never very necessary or fun.
Inventory I liked that the inventory would pop up on
the top of the screen when you had collected every gem, but I wish the same would happen
when you freed every dragon and collected any and all eggs in the level.
Similarly I'm not sure there's a way to check if you collected every egg besides the reward
for 100%-ing the game.
Letting the player check this information quickly would have been more useful, which
is why I think later games in the series did so.
Negatives
Racism I mentioned this in my Spyro trilogy video
but the I really dislike some of the racial images in the Spyro games.
It can be infrequent, but for instance in this game you have these vaguely humanoid
apes who throw bananas at you, and honestly, the more human aspects they gave these apes
just seems call back to the portrayal of people of color as apes.
It really is an issue with the character design that frankly could have been fixed fairly
easily.
Conclusion I don't know if Spyro the Dragon would sell
as well today as in the 1998.
I can see where today people might say the game is boring because it's only collecting
gems, dragons, and dragon eggs.
But there's a part of me that hopes people today, if Spyro the Dragon were released today,
would see it's much more than just collecting.
Now I won't lie, I love collectathons where you have several items to collect and find,
but there always has to be more than just collecting.
In Spyro the Dragon, the collecting facilitates the exploration of a new world that the developers
created.
Spyro the Dragon does what the best collectathons do, and that is present a wonderful new world
with great music to explore.
It's easy to lose yourself for an afternoon in this game.
Despite its one big flaw, Spyro the Dragon has a lot of good to it and remains a special
part of my childhood.
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