Retro Review – Spyro the Dragon

<p>There are plenty of games out there that are more difficult to enjoy without a healthy dose of nostalgia and that unfortunately cannot be prescribed to those around you who don&&num;8217&semi;t already have it&period; <em>Spyro the Dragon<&sol;em> was a highly successful franchise and went on to star in some truly wonderful games that have aged quite well&semi; unfortunately the best that can be said about the first entry is that this is where it all started&period; There are some good things here but without forgiving the areas it&&num;8217&semi;s aged the most in&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;ll be hard to appreciate those moments that try so hard to shine through the dust that&&num;8217&semi;s settled on this classic first entry in a now iconic franchise&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I grew up playing <em>Spyro the Dragon<&sol;em> and I remember how great it was when it released but like all first entries in franchises&comma; the sequels almost improve on too many things&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a good foundation here but so many things were improved not only in the sequels from Insomniac but also in the 3D platforming genre&period; I remember playing <em>Super Mario 64<&sol;em> and <em>Banjo-Kazooie<&sol;em> but still preferring the setting of the original <em>Spyro however&comma;<&sol;em> when I revisit them I enjoy Nintendo&&num;8217&semi;s offerings much more&period; Insomniac still created a highly successful and truly magical game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just a much weaker spell these days&comma; like something that you&&num;8217&semi;d see out of Ron Weasley&&num;8217&semi;s wand in the earlier <em>Harry Potter <&sol;em>movies&period; I know&comma; I know&period; My references are out of control&period; Let&&num;8217&semi;s pull it in so this review doesn&&num;8217&semi;t dragon&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120423" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120423" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120423" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;27214219&sol;spyro-the-dragon-850x560&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"632" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120423" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The first thing that absolutely needs to be said is that the presentation isn&&num;8217&semi;t half bad&period; You have humor&comma; charm&comma; attitude&comma; and colors in all the right places&period; This game had character&period; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t quite as developed as its sequels but it was still there&period; Insomniac created a more fleshed out character than Mario&comma; Donkey Kong&comma; or even Crash Bandicoot and while it isn&&num;8217&semi;t completely necessary in a platformer&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s definitely still impressive and appreciated&period; The enemies are more random but they still fit their settings&comma; like <em>Super Mario Bros&period; <&sol;em>and <em>Crash Bandicoot&period; <&sol;em>There&&num;8217&semi;s less attention to detail on them and they&&num;8217&semi;re mostly just built around their setting and the method in which Spyro needs to take them down in&period; Enemies that need to be taken down with a flame may be big&comma; round&comma; and be exposed more than say a smaller enemy that&&num;8217&semi;s covered in armor or holding a shield&period; This isn&&num;8217&semi;t necessarily a bad thing but it&&num;8217&semi;s only more noticeable because of the attention to detail with Spyro which makes it distracting&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The biggest problem with this title is the fact that the bosses are absolutely weak and that includes the main villain&period; You rarely hear from Gnasty Gnorc except when NPC&&num;8217&semi;s briefly mention him&period; The environments are constantly changing world-to-world but there&&num;8217&semi;s little talk of the big bad guy that you&&num;8217&semi;re chasing after&period; Even Bowser has a bigger presence that this villain&period; The world bosses are even worse because not only are they not developed at all but they don&&num;8217&semi;t even feel like they need to be&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s as if someone said &&num;8220&semi;Hey&comma; we should probably throw some bosses in here&comma; huh&quest;&&num;8221&semi; and then with a group shoulder shrug&comma; the team agreed and quickly tossed some together&period; Again&comma; I know it&&num;8217&semi;s a platformer but these weak bosses are just distracting&period; There is a sense of fantasy and wonder that Insomniac sprinkles across portions of the game but then it feels as if they ran out a quarter of the way through development&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120424" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120424" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120424" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;27214343&sol;Tomas&period;png" alt&equals;"Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"480" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120424" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The story is in line with the boss design&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s mostly just there but there are some cute moments&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s funny to see the fourth wall broken but it&&num;8217&semi;s a pretty basic story that&&num;8217&semi;s right in there with <em>Crash Bandicoot<&sol;em> and <em>Super Mario 64<&sol;em>&period; The dragons upset Gnasty Gnorc and so he turns them all into crystal prisons&comma; steals all the gems&comma; and litters all the worlds and areas with his minions&period; Spyro is spared simply because he&&num;8217&semi;s so much smaller than the other dragons and was able to dodge the spells that Gnasty tossed at the dragons&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The levels themselves can be interesting but fail to remain consistent in quality&period; There are some truly great levels but there are even more levels that just don&&num;8217&semi;t hold up to the truly wonderful gems that are drizzled across the game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s like the game is a big cinnamon roll with not enough icing&period; There are some really sweet spots but you have to chug milk and work past some truly dry bites in order to taste greatness&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay is simple but it works&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re a cute purple dragon whose purpose is to glide&comma; charge&comma; and breathe fire across 17 main levels&comma; 6 boss levels&comma; and a few &&num;8220&semi;flight&&num;8221&semi; levels&period; The main levels consist of you tackling enemies&comma; rescuing dragons that Gnasty Gnorc has imprisoned and then going to the exit&period; You can also retrieve stolen dragon eggs from thieves in some levels which adds to the challenge some&period; Secrets are hidden in many of the levels and these are some truly great examples of the level design we would later consistently see from Insomniac&period; The boss levels are forgettable for the most part&comma; especially the final encounter with Gnasty Gnorc&period; The flight levels task you with flying around and destroying items within a time limit to collect gems&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re kind of fun but ultimately serve to break up the monotony and distract you for a little bit&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re not overly difficult but can sometimes be tricky&period; You have the ability for actual flight rather than just being able to glide&period; The first few are fun but I found myself skipping them before long even when I was a kid&period; The hub worlds are inconsistent in quality&period; There are a few neat ones but the first few are pretty low in terms of quality and detail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;120425" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-120425" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-120425" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;27214528&sol;37596-Spyro&lowbar;the&lowbar;Dragon&lowbar;NTSC-U-1471848812&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"542" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-120425" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Spyro the Dragon&comma; Universal<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls have aged okay but it definitely feels wonky when you play it with analog sticks&period; It was definitely designed with the D-Pad in mind but Insomniac would fix this along with many other things with the two sequels they produced&period; The most difficult thing in terms of controls is definitely just battling the camera&period; There are many times it will cause issues for you and make things much more difficult than they need to be&period; It either lacks intuition or is completely passive&comma; requiring you constantly babysit it while you slay enemies and maneuver across the environment&period; The platforming is honestly pretty satisfying as is the combat&period; I get a lot of enjoyment charging around and kicking ass but the often generic level design makes it difficult for me to have fun for too long&period; This is a game built for smaller play sessions even though that wasn&&num;8217&semi;t intentional&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s also not a valid excuse for bland level design&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If you played <em>Spyro the Dragon<&sol;em> as a kid then you&&num;8217&semi;ll still get some enjoyment out of it but you&&num;8217&semi;ll likely only play it for 20-30 minutes at a time&period; You may even lose interest halfway through which is a shame because the level design improves noticeably in later worlds&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s not significant enough to overshadow the previous shortcomings but still something worth mentioning&period; I had to force myself to finish the game for the purposes of this review and it took me about a week&period; I will say that all I could think of was playing the two sequels though because Insomniac read this review and then jumped back in time to correct their mistakes&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s so much more love and detail across the sequels and it&&num;8217&semi;s spread throughout the entirety of the games&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This isn&&num;8217&semi;t a bad game&period; It just had its day and the sun set on that day&period; If you have fond memories then&comma; by all means&comma; pop it in for a few hours&period; I just know you&&num;8217&semi;ll want to turn it off and play the sequels before long&period; If you didn&&num;8217&semi;t play this game then you&&num;8217&semi;ll have a hard time overlooking the mediocrity that makes too many appearances throughout this game&period; I can recommend the sequels much more confidently though and if you come back in few weeks&comma; I&&num;8217&semi;ll do just that&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>I had some fun replaying this game from my childhood&period; I just didn&&num;8217&semi;t have a lot of fun and I don&&num;8217&semi;t think I would have had any if I never played it when I was younger&period; Spyro made a huge impact though and helped inject some competition for the 3D platformer of the mid 90&&num;8217&semi;s though&period; It also produced two wonderful sequels that I&&num;8217&semi;ll be talking about soon&excl; Make sure to check back every Friday for great retro reviews and you can follow me on Twitter at &commat;Mrjoshnichols to see me tweet about my many gaming adventures&period; Make sure to follow us on &commat;BagoGames so you can see all the great content that we&&num;8217&semi;re constantly throwing across the internet&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;