Forget the godawful state of poor Spyro in modern times, back in the day he was the boy. His first game introduced us to Insomniac's gorgeous art style and Ripto's Rage did what all the best sequels always do; improve on everything that went before, exemplifying what was so enjoyable about 3D platformers, emerging as something truly legendary. The world itself was expanded upon in a huge way, something that - although it came many years before GTA III would fully coin the term 'open-world' - had a free-form sense to its exploration, leaving you to collect gyms, upgrade Spyro's abilities and scorch all sorts of enemies along the way. Thanks to Insomniac's prowess in their coding department, the whole thing looked impressive throughout, a bright aesthetic giving it a fairytale hue, and one that played into the many minigames and cutscenes with a cast of memorable characters far better than most. The Spyro of today is barely recognisable from his 90s counterpart, but that doesn't stop these early games living on as some of the most fun and well-designed platformers of all time.
