Spyro The Dragon is one of the most magical and fun games anybody could play. It is accessable to all difficulty levels.
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). Gnasty Gnorc attacks the dragon realms by using a magic spell that traps all the dragons in crystal, except for Spyro, who dodges the spell because of his small size. He then goes across the dragon realms saving the trapped dragons, who give hints and tips, battling bosses and collecting different coloured gems until he faces Gnasty in a final boss battle in the Junkyard World (or Gnasty's World.) (Wikipedia) The game is all about exploration and collection and there is very little side characters. This makes the game a very nostalgic personal journey through the different dragon realms.
Graphics and Design - Because of the games colourful and cartoon like graphics the game still looks rather pretty to todays standards. The different levels and worlds split by different portals each have their own unique and epic scope. Levels can range from red barron deserts, snowy mountains and cavins, high tree tops and mystical strange towns each with their own secret areas that the player could miss out on their first time around.
Sound and Score- Another part of what sets 'Spyro' well ahead of other free roaming platformers is its musical score. All of it is composed by Stewart Copeland, former drummer of 'The Police'. He should be applauded for the score he has created here. Every level has this unique feel of epic adventure and intrigue thanks to this amazing music I will never forget. I can't compliment the musical score enough here. Just play it and listen.
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. 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 (except Gnasty's World) contains a flying level (flight) 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. (Wikipedia) The difficulty can range from many age groups and many skills. When I was 10 I completed and collected enough to progress to the final boss and defeat him, however I had only a 60% completion rate and the ending told of more dragons to rescue. So finally after 10 years of owning the game I finally completed it at a 120% completion rating. Let me tell you, getting that emaining 40% before getting that 20% of bonus material was not easy. The gems and dragons were hidden in most unbelievable places its almost criminal. Plus, some of the stunts you had to pull in some of the 'super gliding' moments were respectable to teh most skilled gamer.
In conclusion, Spyro the Dragon is, hands down, my favourite platformer to this day. The only reason im giving it a 9.5 instead of a 10 is because I havent played Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage and Spyro 3: Year of the dragon which I hear are just as good if not better. This to me is like Super Mario 64 was to so many kids with a Nintendo 64.