Spyro the Dragon is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games for the PlayStation. It stars the title character, a young purple dragon named Spyro and his dragonfly friend, Sparx, and is the first game in the Spyro the Dragon series. The first game was massively popular at its initial release and Spyro would later become one of the most recognizable, popular and respected gaming icons for the PlayStation gaming console.
Story[]
Before the game begins, the five Dragon families lived in harmony in their five worlds (these being Artisans, Peace Keepers, Magic Crafters, Beast Makers and Dream Weavers). Their lives were happy and peaceful until Gnasty Gnorc broke the rules. He was an unpleasant creature that the Dragons didn't like. Because of this Gnasty resented the Dragon families. More than anything, he detested their beautiful, shiny jewels. He hated them because every time he looked in them he would see reflections of his own ugly face. Gnasty became such a problem that he was banished to the Dragon junkyard, a world that they thought would perfectly suit Gnasty. As soon as he got there he renamed it "Gnasty's World" and overtook all the worlds located in it. He also built his home there, as well as an industrial settlement to keep all his stolen treasure. Gnasty began to experiment with magic spells and, after a while, he discovered two he wanted: a giant spell to trap all Dragons in crystal and a potion to animate the radiant gems and turn them into an army of Gnorc soldiers.
When the game begins Gnasty cast the freeze spell he had been working on after he heard the Dragons insulting him on a documentary style video. The spell trapped all the dragons in crystal halfway through the filming of their documentary. He then turned all the gems he could find into his willing minions. One thing he didn't consider was Spyro the Dragon. Spyro was so small that the spell shot straight over his head. Spyro, the only unfrozen dragon, travels the six worlds – including Gnasty’s deformed industrial world – releasing the Dragons and collecting the stolen treasure. In the meantime, Gnasty’s army of minions (transformed from the Dragons’ gems) are doing their best to stop him. As Spyro releases the trapped Dragons along the way, they return a favour by giving hints and tips up until the final conflict where Spyro battles with Gnasty. After Spyro defeats Gnasty another documentary is presented on Spyro. If the player collected all gems, saved all the dragons, and rescued all the eggs, then an alternate ending is presented.
Gameplay[]
The game is made up of many different levels (realms), all connected together by hub worlds (homeworlds). The goal in each homeworld is to collect a certain amount of items, be it gems, rescued dragons, or dragon eggs, in order to travel to the next homeworld. Each homeworld and its realms are progressively more difficult than the last. Each realm contains a certain number of gems to recover and dragons to rescue. The first half of the game also has dragon eggs to collect. The first few realms are small fields with few ways to die, but they become harder later in the game. Many later levels focus on Spyro's ability to glide from platform to platform. Each homeworld contains an optional boss to defeat, except for the final homeworld where the boss is mandatory. Every homeworld contains a flying level (speedway) where Spyro's normal gliding ability is replaced with the ability to fly freely. The goal is to complete a certain number of obstacles (such as planes to blow up and rings to fly through) which each add a small amount of time to a countdown. If the countdown ends the player must restart the course.
Realms and levels[]
Realms
- Artisans
o Level 1: Stone Hill o Level 2: Dark Hollow o Level 3: Town Square o Level 4: Toasty o Level 5: Sunny Flight
- Peace Keepers
o Level 1: Cliff Town o Level 2: Dry Canyon o Level 3: Ice Cavern o Level 4: Night Flight o Level 5: Doctor Shemp
- Magic Crafters
o Level 1: Alpine Ridge o Level 2: High Caves o Level 3: Crystal Flight o Level 4: Wizard Peak o Level 5: Blowhard
- Beast Makers
o Level 1: Terrace Village o Level 2: Misty Bog o Level 3: Tree Tops o Level 4: Wild Flight o Level 5: Metalhead
- Dream Weavers
o Level 1: Dark Passage o Level 2: Lofty Castle o Level 3: Haunted Towers o Level 4: Jacques o Level 5: Icy Flight
- Gnasty's World
o Level 1: Gnorc Cove o Level 2: Twilight Harbor o Level 3: Gnasty Gnorc o Level 4: Gnasty's Loot
Reception[]
The game had positive reviews and was praised by critics because of the use of fantasy and sci-fi in most of the Dragon Realms, a big, free-roam 3-D environment in each realm, incredibly diverse, catchy music that corresponds with the level's theme, and very good graphics for its time, making it one of the first well-received full-3D platformers for the original PlayStation.
Development[]
The development of Spyro the Dragon began in 1997, one year after Disruptor was released. During the development of the game, Spyro was originally going to be green, but the developers thought it was a bad idea because he would blend in with the Grass Areas, so they eventually changed him to purple.[citation needed] in an interview on Resistance: Fall of Man, Ted Price stated that they gave up the series after releasing Spyro: Year of the Dragon because his actions were limited. As an example, Ted Price stated that Spyro did not have hands so he could not even hold a gun.