User blog:TyrantRex/TyrantRex's thoughts on Spyro the Dragon

Note: This isn't a proper review, but rather my thoughts and opinions on the game!

I recommend listening to this while reading this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70JhUStRKBs

Background
Nintendo has Mario, Sega has Sonic, Xbox has... Master Chief? PlayStation on the other hand has never had a consistent "mascot character". Nowadays you could argue the mascot is either Nathan Drake or Kratos, but most agree back during the PS1 days the mascot was a tie between Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. I myself was strictly on Team Crash Bandicoot, in fact I could never play the full Spyro trilogy back then, I could never get Spyro 3. But then Naughty Naughy Dog and Insomniac lost the rights to Crash and Spyro respectively and... yeah...

But then Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy came out and was a huge hit! And since Activision owns both Crash and Spyro now a Spyro trilogy remaster was inevitable. To the surprise of literally no one ever,Spyro Reignited Trilogy was announced earlier this month and it looks amazing.

When N.Sane trilogy was  announced I marathoned the PS1 Crash trilogy, so with the announcement of Reignited I decided now it was a good time to finally pick up Spyro 3 and marathon the trilogy.

The Game
For a PS1 game that's over 20 years old, I must say the first Spyro's visuals are still quite good. Crash games go for a natural vs artificial artstyle which fits very well with the theme of the games, Spyro on the other hand goes for a more cartoon fantasy theme, which considering the game is about a fictional purple magical dragon, is a good choice in my opinion. It's blocky and low resolution sure, but it's colorful and pleasing to the eye which personally I think is much more important when it comes to graphics. The soundtrack also fits well with the artstyle and theme the game wants to have which I appreciate.

One thing that the Spyro trilogy is known for is the "Level of Detail" technique they use to avoid having to use distance fog unlike most 3D games of the time. To simplify how it works, objects in the game drop in polygon count as they get farther away so the game can have a good draw distance without the framerate suffering or needing distance fog, and it's very effective... that being said however, it is VERY obvious in this game when the objects drop or increase in polygon count which does get distracting. But in fairness it was Insmoniac's fair attempt at it and the next two games would improve on it.

The gameplay itself is a collect-a-thon and a well made one. The main collectible here is rescued dragons, the more you rescue the more levels you unlock and it doesn't matter which ones you get as long as you have the right amount needed to progress. However, unlike Jak or Banjo which require you to do objectives to get the main collectible, here you just find the dragons in the levels and just need to touch them which is more simplistic. Gems are the equivalent of Precursor Orbs/Notes and personally I find them much better. Gems have different values, they play a satisfying sound effect when you grab them, and there are lots of them to find with several different colors that make them stand out more than notes or obs.

Another small detail I like is that Sparx also acts as your health bar, when Spyro gets hit Sparx changes color going from Yellow to Blue to Green to Dead, if you get hit without Sparx you die. This means that you always know what your current health is at all times from just looking at Sparx. Sparx also grabs nearby gems which helps with not missing out gems.

The level design is interesting, they're fairly linear which does mean they are more obstacle course like with branching paths and small hidden areas where the dragons are hidden. The more interesting thing part about the levels is that most of the time they loop around themselves; When you reach the end of the level you can find the start right next to it, this is good because if you need to backtrack to find missing collectibles or explore branching paths you don't have to go all the way back to the start because you get a quick shortcut to the beggining right away, and since the levels are fairly linear and not too big it's easier to backtrack looking for collectibles. I also like that when you reach the exit portal that's not the end, there's almost always some extra areas with more collectibles to find. Backtracking for missing collectibles is still a problem because of course but it's not that bad here. The levels themselves are fairly simple, most of them only require you to reach the end finding collectibles. but they're well made, there's a good amount of levels, they don't feel repetitive, and they're fun to play.

The first big problem I have with the game is the controls. Let's say you're walking forward and press right, instead of just walking right, Spyro first has to rotate  90 degrees to the right THEN starts walking. This may not seem like a big deal, but it does make the controls feel stiff at times. Another problem comes from gems, I said they're fun to collect, you don't actually need any gems, all you need to progress is rescued dragons. Banjo uses Notes to unlock doors, Jak uses orbs as currency, Mario uses coins for extra lives and stars, but the gems in Spyro only serve for 100% completion. Bosses are also lame, you just chase them around and hit them a few times.

Another annoying thing in the game is the Super-Headcharge. It makes you go faster, kill everything you hit, break steel chests, and make longer jumps due to extra momentum, but the damn thing is very hard to control, you'll often bump into walls when trying to take sharp turns and will miss the target you were trying to hit. But the bigger problem is that there are some levels that require you to do some overly-convoluted cryptic jumps with the headcharge over a bottomless pits and most of the time you have no idea where you're supposed to land the jump. In other words, you'll die a lot doing those jumps.

Overall, the first Spyro game is a good foundation that's fairly rough around some edges and could use some improvements and fleshing out... which you could say the same thing about Crash 1. I even think this game is better than Crash 1 and the sequels improve the flaws this game had. That being said, the sequels don't make this game obsolete and is still good on its own as far as collect-a-thons go.