The Spyro series had the unenviable task of being the PS1's answer to Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie on the N64. While Crash Bandicoot was content to keep gameplay simple and linear, Spyro ventured out into the open-world realm, bringing us vast, beautiful playgrounds filled with puzzles, platforming challenges, and of course opportunities to fly around and incinerate your enemies. Looking incredible at the time, Spyro was immensely playable despite being not offering analog stick support. The world was vast and varied, with spectacular environments ranging from Arabian Nights-style towns to medieval keeps. Exploring it all was all the more joyful thanks to its great presentation, entailing well-written comical characters and a catchy rock soundtrack from Police drummer Stewart Copeland. What's particularly endearing about the PS1 Spyro trilogy is that it reflected the underdog nature of the protagonist. Spyro was neither as cool as Crash, nor as cutesy as Banjo-Kazooie. Its visual style and design were great, but not as vibrant as Crash, nor were its open levels as well designed as those of Mario 64. Despite that, Spyro kept going for a whole trilogy, and by the time of the third game - Year of the Dragon - it had evolved to one of the great 3D platformers of all time.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
