Reminiscing: The Original Spyro Trilogy

[Reminiscing is a series I’d like to start doing as a way to remember all the games I’ve played over the years. These aren’t reviews, but remembrances - memories of my experiences. A long time has passed since I’ve played some of these games, so I don’t think I can be as detailed or perhaps as accurate as I would like, but I hope this turns out well.]

It’s been a long time since I last played the original Spyro games. Like, 2-3 years or so? I loved playing the games, and I even got to 100% completion on all of them! The games had a certain magic that just couldn’t be compared to, say, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (the only Crash game I’ve played in the original PS1 trilogy). Not to say that Crash Bandicoot 2 or the Crash Bandicoot series in general isn’t good, but it just didn’t hook me or affect me as much as the original Spyro trilogy did.

My love for the series as it is now is interesting in that in the beginning, I didn’t like what I played. Spyro the Dragon was the first game I played in the series when I was around 10 years old, and at the time, I remember not understanding what was going on all that much and being a bit confused as to what was going on. Chasing after dragon eggs didn’t really appeal to the me who was used to adventure games like The Legend of Zelda or roleplaying games like Final Fantasy IX (my favorite Final Fantasy of all time, by the way) and Pokemon. I think I was too young to really get and appreciate what was there at the time – a good beginning to a great trilogy.

It would be a couple years later, when I was 13-15 years-old, when I would decide to try Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! on PSN. This was the game that got truly me hooked to the Spyro series.  From the exciting worlds you could explore, the abilities you could unlock, the great boss battles you had, and the excellent humor and charm, it was just good times. The final battle with Ripto was slightly less awesome than I would’ve liked it to be, though, because…

[SPOILER WARNING] though it was exciting and fun, the issue with the fight was that it relied less on Spyro’s own abilities and more from the energy balls or whatever that you could pick up and use on Ripto. [END SPOILER WARNING]

Otherwise, Spyro 2 came off to me as a really amazing game. I had to play more.

I picked up Spyro: Year of the Dragon (basically Spyro 3) afterward on PSN. I was excited, and I went in with high expectations. If Spyro 2 could be so good, Spyro 3 had to be amazing, right? Listening to some of the music pumped me up, too. It sounded FANTASTIC! I was so hyped.

In the end, I left mostly satisfied. It was a great game! The worlds were great, the characters were funny and interesting, the different missions were fun, skateboarding was awesome, and the gameplay of most of the new characters were entertaining. However, there were 2 frustrations I had with the game and one disappointment.

This first frustration I had with the game was purely my own fault. Remember when I said that I managed to get to 100% completion on all of the Spyro games? Well, while I was trying to get 100% completion on Year of the Dragon I was constantly frustrated by my inability to complete certain missions. It drove me crazy! I just wanted to completely finish the game, you know? I really thought I could reach that 100%, and eventually I did, but trying to complete it all the way almost ruined the game for me.

The second frustration I had was with the gameplay of one of the characters: Agent 9. I’ll be honest, I was frustrated by some of the shooting segments featured in Agent 9’s levels (though the music was so rad). I absolutely grew to hate these sections. They would have barrages of enemies coming at you, and I would be completely overwhelmed at times, which meant I had to play that section over and over and over again. It just wasn’t that fun.

Lastly, if there is any disappointment of the game I remember having, it is regarding the endgame boss fight with The Sorceress. In the last battle, the song from the very first hub world, Sunrise Spring, plays, and if you don’t know what that sounds like, it’s like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XisEmbOZo_Q (posted by yearofthe)

This is completely inappropriate for a final boss battle! The feeling of challenge, of danger, of excitement, of tension is completely lost with this song. And it ruined the boss fight for me. What made it worse is that the actual song for this battle sounds like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmHScpFsD_0 (posted by CrystalFissure)

That is glorious. And depressing that it didn’t play in my version of the game (it only plays on the Greatest Hits version of Year of the Dragon, while the PAL version features the song “Spike’s Arena”, which is also heavy with tension and more appropriate than frickin’ “Sunrise Spring”). The extra boss fight after endgame is great, but it just couldn’t make up for the terrible mistake that final boss battle had.

I went back to the game that started it all and picked up the original Spyro off PSN too, since I had lost the original PS1 disc while moving to a new neighborhood. It wasn’t as annoying or confusing as I had originally remembered it to be. It was a really fun experience, and it was quite a charming game, but it lacked some improvements or worlds that made its sequel so special to me. The bonus world was great fun, though.

In the end, I’m left with a very good trilogy of games with a few flaws, but what game is perfect? Insomniac did fantastic work, and I left the trilogy feeling impressed and mostly satisfied with the comedy, the fun action and platforming, the awesome levels/worlds, the addictive music, and the good times that were had.