4.5/5 ★ – bokonon764's review of Spyro the Dragon.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve played the original Spyro trilogy, but I keep coming back to it because it’s just so great. The first one, released by Insomniac in 1998, and was a pretty big part of my childhood. You play as Spyro, and you gotta save dragons and collect gems. It’s a cut and dry, late 90s platformer, and it’s glorious. The aesthetic of this game is standard fare for the time it was released, but it nails the irreverent yet clean humor. Stewart fucking Copeland from The Police composed the music for this game, and between the music and the level design, it might be the most memorable thing about the series, in general. The level design! The level design is so great, I’ve beaten the original trilogy so many times, that it was kind of a breeze for me to 100% it, but there are some well hidden secrets. I can still remember on my third or fourth playthrough, way back in the day, there’s this awesome feeling when you discover new areas of certain levels. Finding that last dragon in Haunted Towers was a huge breakthrough when I was a kid. If you know, you know. There are so many fun design choices in this game. It may be one of the first series that I ever experienced the enemies interacting with each other: different factions of wizards cast spells at each other, beast tamers corral their beasts, they taunt each other…it makes the world feel so much more full. I also remember being floored that I could charge Spyro into enemies, sending them sailing into the water, creating a huge splash. Like the water actually splashes? I though it was nuts. And it’s still super fun. Speaking of charging, the charging mechanic is so much fun. Moving from a charge to a jump, a jump to a glide, a glide back to a charge feels seamless, and it’s tight controls across the whole board of Spyros moves is definitely a reason its stood the test of time. I’m not sure if the glide and charge mechanics had predecessors in other games, I can’t remember any if there were. Some of the best platforming mechanics of its time, and in general. Another really cool mechanic is Sparx. Sparx is a dragonfly that’s serves as Spyros ever present sidekick companion. He also serves as the games health gauge, changing colors every time Spyro suffers damage, until three hits, then disappears, signaling Spyro is on his last hit. You kill small animals to get butterflies, which Sparx eats to regain health. Sparx will even help pick up gems, unless he’s off chasing butterflies, or not around because of low health. The whole system is so inventive and clever, and Sparx is adorable as fuck, with a silent personality in his own right. The graphics are definitely outdated, but what do you want from a PS1 game? It was cutting edge for its time. Honestly, games that have a more fantastic and cartoonish art style sort of benefit from the rougher graphics, things seem a little more whimsical. If you put some of the enemy designs of the original PS1 release versus the more highly detailed 2018 Reignited versions, I kinda like the rougher versions better. The have a certain charm that games from this era had. One of my personal favorites, and brand with staying power in it of itself, Spyro the Dragon, at the very least, belongs in the top 20 of 90’s platformers. A lot of the times that I replay games from my childhood, it often feels like it’s the last time; but I have a feeling I’ll be back for another nostalgic speed run of this 90’s banger.