Feature: 20/20 Hindsight - Spyro the Dragon

The 1990’s were a fantastic period for people with a passion for videogames. This was the era of titles which need no introduction, such as Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time, Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo and Tekken 3 (in my opinion the best one, ever). The list goes on, really, but let’s focus on this nifty little game about a purple dragon named Spyro.

Insomniac Games is a name that should sound very familiar. These guys were responsible for the first three Spyro games, Ratchet & Clank, and the Resistance series. They released their first game, Disruptor, a first-person shooter for the PlayStation, in 1996. Their following release was Spyro the Dragon. They were off to a good start.

Of course, I wouldn’t dare talk about Insomniac without giving an honorable mention to their good buddies, Naughty Dog. These two developers really helped shape the market for the original PlayStation console –and earned a particularly warm, fuzzy place in my heart– with solid games such as Crash Bandicoot and Spyro. Funny, laid-back adventure games with lots and lots of content as well as interesting and colorful characters, what’s not to love, right? Exactly. While it may be going a bit far to call them the Mario and Link for Sony, it simply cannot be denied that Crash and Spyro helped put the PlayStation on the map in a big way. Anything even remotely related to the PlayStation had either mascot in it. In fact, they are so closely connected that I’m having trouble talking about one without mentioning the other. I’ll try not to let that stop me, though. Spyro, then.

I’m sure most of you will agree that Spyro the Dragon was a great game, but only the beginning of what would later turn out to be a great series. The first game in the Spyro series, Spyro the Dragon, came out in 1998. This is how it all began. All was well in the Dragon Realms, until an evil Gnorc who goes by the name of Gnasty Gnorc caught wind of the elder dragons talking smack about him, and if you’re a “gnasty gnorc”, what do you do? You cast a spell that turns all the dragons to statues of course. That’ll teach ‘em. However, there was one dragon who was too small and light for the spell to take effect, apparently. Spyro. It thus fall upon our hero to free all the dragon elders and punish Gnasty for his crimes. In this task, he is only assisted by his dragonfly, Sparx.

By the way, am I the only one impressed by the interesting use of Sparx? He is a useful ally, picking up nearby gems our hero would miss as well as protecting him from harm, which not only fits within the lore, but effectively makes Sparx function as a health indicator. But what’s particularly important is the player’s reaction to Sparx. Yellow Sparx: Nothing can hurt me, all you baddies are toast! Blue Sparx: Oh, hm.. I guess I’d better pick up some health or something. No Sparx: The world is big and scary and I’m all alone what do I do… Not only does the absence of the sparkly dragonfly strike the player purely as a visual oddity, removing a layer of comfort he had gotten used to, it corresponds with an actual weakness in the game. This slight uneasiness, this little sliver of doubt, it seems to say: “Oh, watch out… One more hit and it’s game over. We wouldn’t want to get hurt, now would we? Better be careful.” It’s simply a brilliant, subtle hint, affecting the players attitude and his perception of the world by chipping away at his confidence, all within gameplay. In my opinion, there’s simply no way a health bar could have conveyed the same message with such grace and efficiency. Right, moving along.

Spyro the Dragon was one of the first, if not the first platformer for the PlayStation in three full dimensions, which was revolutionary at the time. The story as well as the worlds of the Spyro the Dragon was one of the first, if not the first platformer for the PlayStation in three full dimensions, which was revolutionary at the time. The story as well as the worlds of the five Dragon Families are simply enchanting. They managed to evoke that dare I say Disney- esque sense of cheerfulness and lust for adventure and exploration which mixed really well with the game’s intentions. In every nook and cranny there was treasure to be found, dragons to be saved, enemies to be defeated, floating rings to be flown through or even dragon eggs to be retrieved. Nah nanah nah nah. The hub-based structure of the game gave it an appropriate sense of scale. The engine provided wide panoramic shots without needing to hide everything behind convenient fog, further emphasizing this feeling of a large, expansive world to be discovered by the player. The soundtrack, composed by former drummer of The Police, Stewart Copeland, manages to strike that perfect balance between setting the right mood, creating a unique atmosphere and complimenting gameplay. Just try and tell me this doesn’t get everything right.

And let’s not forget that this is a game about a freakin’ dragon! You can run around at high speed, smashing treasure chests to pieces with your dragon horns, setting bad guys on fire with your dragon breath! I mean come on, how cool is that? Of course, most of this also rings true for the other two Spyro games –and there were only two more, no matter what you say– but it was only in this first installment that it really was something special, rather than something we had come to expect.

Along came Spyro 2, truly a great example of a good sequel. It took the good elements from the first game as well as its initial story elements, and expanded on them, further fleshing out the ones we had met before, introducing us to new ones and finding new and interesting things to do without getting rid of anything that felt familiar. Sweet, I thought, Spyro is still a dragon. Awesome, I said, he can still run really fast and break things with his face. Fantastic, I cried, he still has his dragonbreath, so I can still have a bit of a bad guy barbeque. What I wasn’t prepared for, however, was the ability to zip around on a skateboard from time to time, and Spyro’s new friend from Avalar, Hunter. This laidback cheetah –who to me was basically a combination of Kelso from That 70’s Show and Shaggy from Scooby Doo– kicks off the story by messing with a portal he was working on along with his friends: a mole who goes by The Professor and a faun named Elora.

For those of you who’ve never played Spyro 2, here’s a brief summary of the plot. Hunter, in his typically clumsy way, inadvertently activates The Prof’s portal, bringing who would turn out to be the series main villain, Ripto, into the world of Avalar, along with his two henchmen, Crash and Gulp. Ripto, remarkably resilient and his patience as short as his stature, decided that, since he’s here now anyway, he might as well take over. He’s an evil wizard, I mean, it’s basically in his job description. And with no dragons to stop him… Spyro meanwhile, is back at home at the Dragon Realms, where the constant bad weather has him wishing for a vacation. He decides to jump through a portal to the Dragon Shores to get some well-deserved R&R, but ends up in Avalar through one of The Professor’s portals instead. Once more, Spyro is the only one who can help out, and once again, it’s because he’s a dragon. Sweet.

The world of Avalar is divided into three big realms: Summer Forest, Autumn Plains and Winter Tundra. This allows for a colorful and varied world, even more so than was the case in Spyro 1. It was basically more of the same, only better, with a few tweaks here and there –my personal favorite being the way Spyro would leap through the air if he touched lava– but most importantly: the aforementioned all new cast of characters, creating an entirely new experience within the established setting. They gave the game and the world as a whole a more personal feeling, and I quickly felt immersed in the story during my first playthrough.

The series was still going strong, but after Spyro 2 I was blown away. They had improved so much since Spyro 1 and I didn’t think it would be possible in the first place. I was super excited for Spyro 3 and when it came out, I was not disappointed.

It’s the Year of the Dragon in the Dragon Realms, our hero’s homeworld. A very special event, only occurring every twelve years, during which new dragon eggs are brought to the dragon realm (by the dragon stork, I guess?). However, during morning following the celebration, a cloaked girl (who we later learn to be Bianca) appears out of a hole in the ground –no, really– and steals all the dragon eggs. Upon discovering the theft the Dragon Elders immediately send Spyro, by this time universally recognized as a hero among dragons, after her. Spyro follows the thief into the Forgotten Realms, a world once inhabited by dragons, but long forgotten ever since. He then catches wind of the leader of this world: The Sorceress, a queen who runs the realm with an iron fist, aided by an army of Rhynocs. He then sets on to bring her dictatorship to an end, recovering the missing dragon eggs in the process (spoiler alert).

Spyro 3 seemed to say: “There is not much more we can have Spyro do except save the day and smoke bad guys, so we decided it’d be cool to have you play as a couple of new characters.” And man, were they right. See, apart from the purple dragon rockin’ the orange mohawk, you could free four more playable characters: Sheila the kangaroo, Sgt. James Byrd the penguin, Bentley the Yeti and Agent 9 the Monkey. All of these had special abilities, allowing the player to try some new mechanics. For example, Sgt. Byrd could fly and shoot rockets. That’s right. Not only can penguins fly in this game, they pack some heavy ordinance. Boom. At this point, the game offers so much variety that anyone can find something they enjoy, be it the gliding levels, the boss fights, the speedways, the levels where you get to play as Sparx, or the special worlds where you play as one of four new playable characters. The brilliant part about all these nifty additions is that none of them outstay their welcome. The new characters and elements are introduced and established, but a very solid core of “simply Spyro” remains. And I suppose that’s where some of the series spiritual successors dropped the ball.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m in no way saying that the first three Spyro games were perfect. The combat could get tedious, the camera could get annoying and the level design became quite formulaic after the second game or so. It never really bothered me though. There were so many god-awful games out there -I’m looking at you, that Spyro’s strong, reliable core and quite a lot of replayability made it worth the purchase a hundred times over. And for every time the camera got stuck behind a rock, I had had fifty enjoyable moments of just playing this game with my friends. And the end, that’s all a game had to be. Fun.

After two years and three games, Insomniac Games decided to move on from the Spyro series stating that there was only so far they could go with the character, since Spyro lacked hands with which to hold objects. What kind of objects? Oh, I don’t know.. How about nifty space gadgets? Maybe a glove that throws bombs. Or a rocket launcher! Hold up, this sounds familiar, actually…

By: Victor Coates