Spyro makes his best run on the PS1 to date with this instant classic.
SPOILER ALERT
I'll start with the story. An evil sorceress is plotting to make all dragons go extinct. She has made her personal servent travel into the dragon world to steal all of the dragon eggs. Spyro must hunt down the thief down a rabbit hole in the ground to an entirely new world. With the help of his best friends Hunter and Sparx, Spyro must track down and recover all of the eggs scattered around the world. Now for the real spoiler. After tracking down enough eggs in each world and getting help from all of his new friends, Spyro must confront the Sorceress so thart the baby dragons can live safely. With several twists and turns including a romance with Hunter and the Sorceress' apprentice, I give the story an A+.
Gameplay is just as it was in all previous installments. Just walk with the directional pad, breath fire with the circle, jump and fly with the x button, and charge at enemies with the square button. But for the third installment in the series, it doesn't end there. There are brand new mini games that make up a large portion of the game. This ranges from riding a skateboard and doing tricks to rack up points, to racing on through obstascle courses eliminating certain targets. Another highlight with controls is all the new characters. Sheila the kangaroo kicks enemies pretty far, Sargent Byrd the penguin shoots rockets and flys, Agent 9 the monkey shoots his laser blaster, and Bentley the yeti smashes things with his club. All of these characters are fun to play as as well as interact with throughout the story.
IN CONCLUSION Spyro Year of the Dragon is a great experience whether you've played the other games or not. With an easy to jump into story and simple gameplay, no PS1 collection will be complete without this game.
9/10