Spyro: Year of the Dragon

Spyro: Year of the Dragon a platform game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation, it is the sequel to Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and is the third installment in the Spyro series, as well as the final installment in the Spyro PS1 Trilogy.

It is the final Spyro game developed by Insomniac Games before their rights to the IP expired.

A remastered version, along with the rest of the original Spyro trilogy, was released in 2018 as Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Plot
In the year were baby Dragons are born, a female dragon that goes by the name Sorcerers has a young female bunny name Bianca and a race of rhino-like creatures called Rhinocs snatch the Dragon Eggs to harvest dragon magic, Spyro, Sparks, Hunter and four new heroes must now rescue the dragon Eggs and stop the Sorcerers in her tracks and potentially convince Bianca to join their side.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Excellent graphics for PlayStation 1 standards.
 * 2) Lots of variety in the levels.
 * 3) 150 Dragon Eggs to find. Every time you find one the egg hatches into a newborn dragon with a given name.
 * 4) *Twins hatch from the final Dragon Egg.
 * 5) Great soundtrack.
 * 6) This game introduces Bianca, who would later be Hunter's love interest.
 * 7) Besides Spyro, several four new playable characters are introduced and have their own unique levels. They are also playable in some sections of regular Spyro levels.
 * 8) Sheila the Kangaroo has the ability to jump really high and can kick her enemies.
 * 9) Sergeant Bird can fly and shoot out missiles.
 * 10) Bentley can smash enemies with his club.
 * 11) Agent 9 can shoot at his enemies with his blaster.
 * 12) Sparx is now playable in Shoot-em-up stages. Every time you clear one of them Sparx gets an upgrade such as tracking missing gems in a level.
 * 13) The story is without question the best and most complext out of all the three main Spyro games.
 * 14) Incredible bosses, in addition to having four main bosses, there are also bosses in some of the stages themself, and even Sparx's stages have bosses, making for a whooping twelfth (thirteen in counting the "true final boss") bosses in total.
 * 15) For a rather fun twist, this time you get to attack Moneybags in-game to recover all the gems he took from Spyro by constantly scamming.
 * 16) Speedway levels now include Race missions and a hidden extra mission where you play as Hunter.
 * 17) Unlike the last game, you are told to consistently collect Dragon Eggs. Side missions where you collect more Dragon Eggs are now split into their separate sections of levels accessed by small portals.
 * 18) Just like the first game, once you 100% complete the game you unlock a bonus level with additional gems (5000 in this case) and a final 150th egg.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) There is no intro and/or outro cut scene in the stages, despite the fact that each level has a their own story.
 * 2) Somewhat limited enemy variety design-wise, most of them are Rhynocs with different attacks and appearances.
 * 3) Very bland "true final boss" that is only accessible after getting everything in the game.
 * 4) As mentioned above the four new characters are playable in sections of some regular levels, however there will be times when you reach a section that requires a character you haven't unlocked yet, which will force you to backtrack if you want to fully complete that level.
 * 5) Spyro: Year of the Dragon has a few glitches, tho this is likely due to it being rushed.

Tips

 * 1) Whenever you reach a new hubworld, you should unlock the new player character before going into any of the regular levels, as mentioned above there are some areas within the levels that the four additional characters an visit.
 * 2) If you finish a level missing some levels, get Sparx's gem locator ability before going back to find the missing gems.
 * 3) The easiest way to catch the Egg Thieves is to simply keep headcharging and cutting corners whenever possible.
 * 4) When you burn fodder animals for health butterflies they occasionally produce 1-Up butterflies. The hub worlds have lots of fodders that re spawn fairly quickly when you walk away from them so you can use them to quickly farm extra lives.