This cute purple dragon torches all the competition and is the first great platformer for the Playstation.
User Rating: 8.5 | Spyro the Dragon PS
Playstation wasn't too great with platform games. With the exception of Crash Bandicoot, Playstation was limited on decent platforming heroes and needed a new mascot. Spyro the Dragon is that hero. Sure, he's cute, tiny, and purple, but this midget dragon packs a punch and is sure to deliver you some satisfying action. All of the Dragons in the dragon realm have been turned into crystalline statues by an evil ogre named Gnasty, except for Spyro. Most of your job in this game is to find and break free all of the statuesque dragons and by doing so bring some magic back to the world. As Spyro, you pretty much just travel across many different lands and environments torching all of Gnasty's fiends, rescuing your dragon friends and collecting gems. Since Spyro is after all a dragon, he can breathe fire and headbutt enemies with his horns. Unfortunately, due to his stunted growth, his wings aren't very big so he can't fly, only glide. Some of his levels can only be unlocked when you've collected a certain amount of gems of have broke a certain amount of your dragon friends free. Each level also has a buncha gems and dragons in it so it's best to find all of what's in a level before you leave it. There're also a lot of bonus levels found in each level that you'll have to look out for. Be aware though, a lot of gems are hidden and require a great deal of searching over to find them all. They could be hidden in chests or rocks that you must break into. Maybe even ont top of huge cliffs that you must do a series of things to get up there. Like hit a lot of cleverly placed super chargers until you build enough speed to make it some where (hint hint). I really had a lot of fun with this game despite the cuteness of it all. The last time I had so much fun with a Playstation platformer was Crash Bandicoot. Certain gems take a lot of thought and creativity to collect. Try thinking outside of the box and noticing ANYTHING that might stand out. This game isn't overly difficult though. I've gotta say though there are some points in the game, specifically when you are trying to collect the last bits of gems in each level, where you start to tear tour hair out. Don't be surprised if it takes a few hours out of your life trying to clear up one level. And if you do get into one of those circumstances, read a FAQ. It'll really help. The bonus levels I mentioned earlier are also pretty cool. You fly around with Spyro trying to fly through rings, arches that are located on the ground somewhere, and torch something along the way. You have to do all of that in each bonus level and while it's not to challenging it's pretty fun to complete. The 3D world looks very colorful and comes out solid. Character animation was awesome...Mario 64 awesome. The camera is bothersome though. It follows the character far too loosely and tends to just fly around. Character animations are especially well done when characters are talking. Like when the dragons are talking, for once the mouth actually kept up with the voice actors, which many games suffer from. If you have any interest in platform games and own a playstation or Ps2 then you should really consider getting this game.
