Spyro the Dragon (PS1)

Right alongside Crash Bandicoot, Spyro the Dragon was one of the big faces of Sony’s entry into the video game market with the PlayStation. The small purple dragon starred in one of the first big 3D platformer hits and would even lead to the game’s creator Insomniac Games going on to produce other definitive PlayStation exclusives like Infamous, Ratchet & Clank, and Marvel’s Spider-Man. However, even though I knew of its importance to PlayStation history and have enjoyed other games by the developer, I have never actually played a single Spyro the Dragon game. Trying to play everything can mean it takes time to get around to the classics, but finally I picked up the controller and dug into the game that helped jump start a developer and a franchise that are both beloved today.

The adventure begins one day when a few dragons are being interviewed live on T.V. about their thoughts about a villainous being known as Gnasty Gnorc. The brute was banished from the Dragon Realms for his behavior in the past, but when Gnasty Gnorc sees the interview and hears how the good dragons insult him, he launches an attack. Magic bolts crash down and turn the dragons of the land into crystal statues while gems all around the realms come to life as loyal minions, but despite hitting most every dragon in the land with his spell, Gnasty Gnorc doesn’t notice the little runt Spyro the Dragon. Immediately setting out to set things right, Spyro travels across the different realms to free the dragons, rescue dragon eggs, gather up gems so they can’t be misused, and of course take on the monster behind the mayhem to wrap things up.

Despite being much smaller than his fellow dragons, Spyro has almost all the skills you’d expect of a dragon. His fire breath is his main means of attack and spreads out in a small cone in front of him, but while this is good for clearing out plenty of the enemies he faces in a single hit, some foes come packing metal armor that will absorb the heat safely. To break through their defense Spyro must instead perform a running charge, lowering his horns so that he can butt away anybody blocking his path. Surprisingly, almost all of the enemies you face in Spyro the Dragon can be handled with just these two maneuvers without much cleverness required. Naturally some do emerge that have counters like enemy troops who electrify the floor so you have to time your approach right, and some foes like the armored turtles are good at spitting fireballs right when you’re about to ram into them. Enemies like the living armor can also require a temporary power boost to take down, but fights are often about just identifying which of your two powers will take the baddy down and then making sure you don’t run into obvious danger.

Bosses are sadly not often a big step up from the enemy design. Most of them take the form of small chases, some like Toasty the scarecrow moving between areas and letting the minions do the work while others can actually put up a bit of a fight. Gnasty Gnorc’s battle has the chasing element but makes keeping up tighter and the area you race through has some spots you can slip off if you’re charging around carelessly, and Doctor Shemp actually stands and fights so you need to dodge his attacks to actually move in and strike. Combat isn’t the main appeal of Spyro the Dragon though, and boss levels besides Gnasty Gnorc’s often function as regular stages that just so happen to feature a tougher than usual enemy in them.

Instead, Spyro the Dragon mostly focuses on the exploration of areas in the Dragon Realms, the different worlds separated by the types of dragons who reside there. You begin in the gentle plains where the artisans practice their craft, heady to the military world of the peace keeping dragons, and find yourself later in the swampy realm of dragons who raise monsters. The realms themselves have enemies and items to collect, but there are smaller stages within these realms Spyro flies off to visit. Many of these levels are actually relatively tiny, the player able to get from one end to the other in a few seconds if elevation and other impediments weren’t accounted for. The game does a good job of populating these spaces though, putting enemies and platforming challenges in the way that continue to explore new ideas throughout the journey. One tree top level has you doing enormous high speed jumps off ramps that turn your regular charge into a super charge, Cliff Town has a large desert fortress you can climb up and glide off of to get around the level, and Dark Passage has enemies shifting into more dangerous forms when the lights go out.

Gliding is actually Spyro’s main tool for getting around levels, and that ability allows areas like a canyon, ice cave, or mountainside feature plenty of wide open gaps you’ll need to traverse with the help of your wings. Besides unique layouts and enemies though, stages also have different types of little animals Spyro can hit with his flame to release butterflies, because to heal in Spyro the Dragon, you need to feed Spyro’s little friend Sparx. Sparx is actually a fairly cute way of representing Spyro’s health, the little dragonfly yellow when Spyro can handle a few hits, but the color shifts to blue, then green, and then disappears entirely as you take damage, Spyro dying to any hit he takes when Sparx isn’t around. A regular health bar wouldn’t be much better or worse, but Sparx also comes with the added benefit of flying to nearby gems and collecting them for you, meaning you don’t have to touch every one of the abundant jewels you can collect and freeing you up to explore levels at a quick pace.

Spyro’s last major ability only crops up in special stages, the dragon’s wings capable of full flight in specially built areas. While most of the game is fairly easy, the flight challenges stand out as valuing skill and planning more than the regular stages. In the flight stages, you need to complete a few different objectives to succeed, goals such as knocking enemy planes out of the sky, lighting lighthouses, flying through rings or arches, and other little activities being grouped together so you need to learn the best route to take through a level to try and hit everything. The timer is very tight in these levels too, but every object of importance hit adds a few precious seconds to your time limit so it becomes even more vital that you make sure you aren’t wasting time if you’re going for a complete sweep of the flying stage’s objectives. Technically, not much of it is required and in a very casual playthrough of Spyro the Dragon you can probably get away with poor performance in these flight levels, but trying to get a perfect run here is Spyro the Dragon at its best as you must concoct the right game plan to succeed.

The flight levels are definitely the part of the game most focused on one of Spyro the Dragon’s biggest appeals: collecting items. Spyro the Dragon is certainly a collectathon platformer as its levels are packed with goodies to grab of differing levels of importance. The crystalized dragons seem to be the most important, Spyro easily able to free them once he touches them and usually getting some helpful advice or info from the freed dragon for doing so. The spot the dragon was trapped also turns into a save spot, meaning that you are almost always going to be able to record your progress to avoid losing any of the plentiful items you find in a stage. Dragon eggs are in the hands of thieves who run at incredible speeds, the player often needing to figure out a way to cut off the thief’s looping route to grab the egg. The most common collectible though is treasure, regular levels littered with plenty of gems both on the main path, hidden in breakable objects or ones that require keys, and often squirreled away in side areas that can take some time to even realize are accessible at all. 100% completion isn’t actually a chore despite the plentiful gems though, and in areas like the flying stages the otherwise simple stage design is improved immensely by going for full completion.

The extra level that pushes the completion total up to 120% is your reward for completing the regular stages with all the items, but there is a certain amount of dragons, dragon eggs, and jewels you’ll need to beat the game even if you aren’t going for full completion. Traveling between different dragon realms requires pleasing the balloonists who help you travel, and their requirements change based on the area you’re heading to. This means that the collection aspect is enforced enough that the player is likely to engage with the more enjoyable elements of collection while being able to skip the moments it can be a bit hard to figure out or execute. While the game could definitely use a bit more required moments that prove challenging, the extra content at least allows Spyro the Dragon to stretch its wings and really put its small set of abilities to the test.

THE VERDICT: While it may be rather easy and its boss fights are underwhelming, the general action and platforming found in Spyro the Dragon have a good mix of ideas on show and a good approach to collectibles that makes them enjoyable and easy to engage with while also housing some of the game’s best challenging moments. The flying levels in particular really test the player’s ability to figure out an optimal route, so while regular enemies are often pushovers and levels can be rather tiny, Spyro the Dragon knows how to fill out the spaces it makes with enough stuff to do that it is not only enjoyable to play normally, but a full completion playthrough really gets the most out of the purple dragon’s ability set and Insomniac Games’s world design.

And so, I give Spyro the Dragon for PlayStation…

A GOOD rating. Spyro the Dragon’s main issue being a rather relaxed approach to game difficulty is certainly not one that holds it back from being a fun adventure. The environments that can seem small in scope actually make good use of their space to lay out little challenges for your charge, fire breath, and glide, the game iterating just enough to keep things fresh even if enemies often go down with little trouble. The area design really finds its footing when its time to collect things though, the crystalized dragons rather simple to find but even those can sometimes be cordoned off in some area you can see but need to figure out how to get to. Flying levels definitely do the best at making completion a challenge, but even the regular gems and the egg thieves have enough to them that even a basic stage can be spiced up since the developers get creative with how these items are placed. Things can definitely feel rather simple even as you enter new areas with new concepts, but Spyro the Dragon doesn’t slip into repetition so even Spyro’s simple abilities sustain the experience without much issue.

While the build up I gave the game in the opening of this review certainly makes it sound like it would be some ground-breaking classic, Spyro the Dragon is really just a good execution of 3D platforming ideas that blend well with the dragon protagonist’s skills. His abilities have clear but important roles even if its as simple as swapping between fire and charges based on an enemy’s weakness, and the levels provide the variety and plenty of things to do without being overbearing with their requirements. Spyro the Dragon came out a time where games were coming to grips with 3D environments and Insomniac Games handled the world design with such grace that only the graphics and incredibly polygonal enemy design really date it to that era in time. It controls well, provides a good amount to do, and doesn’t overstay its welcome, so while it took me a long time to get around to introducing myself to the Spyro series, it was definitely an enjoyable time when I finally did join the little purple dragon on his first adventure.