Retro Review – Spyro: Year of the Dragon

<p><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon<&sol;em> is a culmination of all of the hard work and creativity poured into the previous two games in the series&period; Everything is bigger and better in this final game in the Insomniac Games produced trilogy&comma; which is fitting since it was also their farewell to the character and his universe&period; CEO Ted Price talked about how they felt they did everything they could do with the purple dragon and wanted to do something different after this bittersweet goodbye&period; His statement couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be more true as <em>Year of the Dragon<&sol;em> brings out every last bit that was missing from previous titles&period; The world is bigger&period; The levels are nearly twice as big&period; There are a whole slew of characters that help Spyro on his quest and are fully playable in their own special levels&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s all here and seventeen years later it still burns just as bright as it did at release&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon <&sol;em>has a pretty straight forward story but it&&num;8217&semi;s worth noting that it&&num;8217&semi;s better and more developed than the previous two games&period; It begins with Spyro and his fellow dragons celebrating the &&num;8216&semi;Year of the Dragon&&num;8217&semi;&comma; which happens every twelve years when new dragon eggs are brought into their world&period; While everyone is celebrating though&comma; a villain by the name of Bianca shows up in the Dragon Realms with an entire army of Rhynocs&period; They steal all the dragon eggs and take them back to the Sorceress who hides them throughout the four worlds in her realm&period; Spyro and his trusty pals Sparx and Hunter jump down a hole to travel to that world to rescue the dragon eggs&period; He meets a few friends along the way that aide him on his quest including Sheila the kangaroo&comma; Sgt&period; Byrd the penguin&comma; Bentley the yeti&comma; and Agent 9 the monkey&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re able to play as these four new characters in mini-levels that are hidden within levels where they use their unique abilities to help Spyro&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123282" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123282" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-123282" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;27132738&sol;story1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123282" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Spyro also learns that dragons use to live in this realm and when they left the magic of the realm began to disappear over time&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s another thing Spyro will able to help with on his journey&period; Restoring magic and order to the realm and its many worlds&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a much deeper story and it feels like much more is hanging in the balance&period; In the original <em>Spyro the Dragon<&sol;em> it didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like you were doing too much&period; Sure&comma; you were saving dragons but there was almost no NPC interaction other than when you saved a dragon&period; It didn&&num;8217&semi;t feel like you were helping anyone&period; It felt like you were playing through a few different levels before hitting the credits&period; In the sequel <em>Ripto&&num;8217&semi;s Rage <&sol;em>there was a lot more on the line&period; You were fighting against a villain with a name&comma; a voice&comma; and whose reign was hurting the different characters and the world around them&period; The situation is much more dire this time around&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s an evil villain&comma; a henchwoman&comma; evil Rhynocs everywhere causing chaos&comma; missing dragon eggs&comma; and magic about to completely expire from a realm&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s so much you can do to help this realm and it really adds to the experience when you see the results of your hard work&comma; good deeds&comma; and powerful flame as you move from each level and to new worlds in the realm&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The gameplay has always been the highlight of the <em>Spyro<&sol;em> games&period; This time around more than just the story and characters have been improved&semi; the attacks&comma; controls&comma; and difficulty have all been tweaked in exciting ways&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll run&comma; dash&comma; headbash&comma; swim&comma; climb&comma; and set enemies ablaze all over a huge variety of different levels that all feel unique in their own way&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of fun running around as Spyro and seeing as they improved the camera it  means less wrestling and more fire-breathing&period; Gliding has been improved even further this time around as well and for long time <em>Spyro <&sol;em>fans&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s plenty of opportunities to test your gliding skills&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s nice that Insomniac Games thought about long time veterans but they also considered those new to the series&period; <em>Year of the Dragon<&sol;em> features an adaptive difficulty that&&num;8217&semi;ll make everyone&&num;8217&semi;s experience better&period; If you repeatedly die or fail then the game will adjust the difficulty and make it easier for the player&period; However&comma; if you&&num;8217&semi;re kicking ass and showing no signs of slowing down then it&&num;8217&semi;ll up the difficulty some to increase the challenge and entertainment for the more skilled players&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s because of this that <em>Year of the Dragon<&sol;em> always feels just right no matter whose playing&period; I welcome these kinds of difficulties and think more games should implement them&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123283" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123283" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-123283" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;27132802&sol;glide&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123283" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>It&&num;8217&semi;s always really exciting seeing the mini-level portals within levels because that means you&&num;8217&semi;ll get to play as one of Spyro&&num;8217&semi;s friends which is usually a nice change of pace&period; There are rewards for playing them just like the main levels&comma; like dragon eggs&comma; gems&comma; and more&comma; but they&&num;8217&semi;re optional&comma; or at least at the time&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re dashing around a level and don&&num;8217&semi;t feel like going through the mini-level portal&comma; you can always come back to it when you finish the level and return to it later&period; For me it just depended on my mood and who I&&num;8217&semi;d be playing as&period; I always enjoy playing as Bentley the yeti and Sheila the kangaroo&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t always enjoy playing as Sgt&period; Byrd the penguin or Agent 9 the monkey&period; They all have different abilities and the kinds of levels will differ as well&period; Sheila can obviously jump really high but other than that the levels don&&num;8217&semi;t feel that different to the main levels&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re kicking&comma; jumping&comma; and making your way to the end of a level&period; I can usually always get down with that&period; Bentley is a big yeti who can smash things with his club&period; I always loved his levels&semi; in fact he&&num;8217&semi;s my favorite of Spyro&&num;8217&semi;s new friends to play as&period; Sgt&period; Byrd will normally have you flying around in his jetpack and shooting things with his gun&period; These levels are hit or miss for me&period; Agent 9 is a monkey with a gun and his levels are usually pretty fun&period; It honestly just depends on the momentum you&&num;8217&semi;re experiencing within Spyro&&num;8217&semi;s main level&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re on a roll and having a great time then you might want to come back later but if you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a quick change of pace&comma; they&&num;8217&semi;re a great distraction&period; Another little fun distraction is playing as Sparx in his own special levels&period; These levels play like the classic game <em>Centipede<&sol;em> but of course feel much more modern&period; These levels are only playable after the boss fight in that world is completed and for the later Sparx levels&comma; the previous levels need to be completed in the past worlds&period; These always unlock new abilities for Sparx as well as gems and an egg&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re really fun despite the difficulty being a little high in later levels&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re never unfair though&period; They just require you to focus and attack quickly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123285" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123285" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-123285" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;27132858&sol;underwater&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"720" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123285" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>For those who had been playing <em>Spyro the Dragon<&sol;em> since the beginning&comma; there are plenty of tweaks to the level design that will be appreciated&period; Levels are much bigger and feature all kinds of different design choices&period; The level variety is astounding&period; There are sixteen levels where you primarily play as Spyro&comma; other than any mini-level portals that may be present&period; There are four speedway style levels where&comma; like previous games&comma; Spyro flies around destroys different targets&period; The four playable characters that Spyro befriends are unlocked in their own unique levels&period; There is one in each world and after these levels are completed&comma; their mini-levels are playable as well&period; There are also four boss fights&comma; including the Sorceress herself with one in each world of course&period; There are also the four hub worlds that are <em>filled<&sol;em> with secrets and things to discover&period; Sometimes a level may even be tucked away in a corner or behind a wall&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t worry though&&num;8211&semi;Moneybags is <em>always<&sol;em> accepting payments in the form of gems in exchange for his services&period; This could include one of Spyro&&num;8217&semi;s new abilities he&&num;8217&semi;ll teach you or maybe activating a portal or revealing what&&num;8217&semi;s behind a door or wall&period; Combined with the four Sparx levels&comma; this gives players 32 different levels to explore&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s also a &&num;8216&semi;Super Bonus Round&&num;8217&semi; level that is only playable when you get all of the gems and dragon eggs&period; When you fight the Sorceress the first time&comma; she manages to barely survive&period; This is where you go to finally wipe her out and rescue the final 150th dragon egg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;123284" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-123284" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-123284" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;03&sol;27132828&sol;hub&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"540" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-123284" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>Spyro&colon; Year of the Dragon<&sol;em>&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>There&&num;8217&semi;s a lot of great content here and plenty to keep you busy for a <em>long<&sol;em> time&period; A surplus of content is only good though when it&&num;8217&semi;s fun the entire time though but luckily Insomniac Games made sure to craft an entertaining and enthralling experience&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll never really get bored and even if you start to&comma; you can always exit a level and go to a different one&period; This semi-linear style keeps the entertainment up while reducing frustration or fatigue within a specific level&period; Stewart Copeland was a great drummer for <em>The Police<&sol;em> but his efforts for the original soundtracks for the <em>Spyro the Dragon <&sol;em>trilogy will never be forgotten&period; His original compositions are great and help add so much to already filled-to-the-top atmosphere&period; One of the reasons his contributions were so great is because he did what you&&num;8217&semi;re about to do&semi; he played through the levels and had a great time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;