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''Spyro the Dragon'' is a
platform game A platform game (often simplified as platformer and sometimes called a jump 'n' run game) is a sub-genre of action game, action video games in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform game ...
developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation on September 9, 1998. The first game in the ''
Spyro ''Spyro'' is a series of platform games which features the main protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Since the series' introduction in 1998 with the PlayStation game '' Spyro the Dragon'', there have been numerous sequels and a reboot trilogy. Origin ...
'' series, it stars the title character, a young purple dragon named
Spyro ''Spyro'' is a series of platform games which features the main protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Since the series' introduction in 1998 with the PlayStation game '' Spyro the Dragon'', there have been numerous sequels and a reboot trilogy. Origin ...
, and his
dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of true dragonfly are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...
friend, Sparx, who must journey across the Dragon Kingdom to defeat Gnasty Gnorc, who has overtaken the 5 dragon Homeworlds by trapping the other dragons in crystal and turning their hoard of gems into an army of minions. ''Spyro the Dragon'' is an open-ended 3D platformer, featuring large, sprawling levels in which the player must locate collectable items, among which are gemstones, crystallized dragons, and stolen dragon eggs. Spyro's abilities as a dragon include fire breath, a head-on charging attack, and a mid-air glide which he can use to scale large distances, all of which must be used strategically to find items and defeat enemies. ''Spyro the Dragon'' started development following the release of Insomniac's debut game, '' Disruptor'', which sold poorly but was generally praised by critics, impressing Universal Interactive enough to encourage them to make a second game. Artist Craig Stitt suggested a game about a dragon, and work began on a new game. Taking inspiration from the film '' Dragonheart'', the game started out as a more mature title with a dark and realistic approach, but the direction was shifted to have a more whimsical and light-hearted tone to appeal to a wider market of consumers. The game was one of the first on the PlayStation to utilize shifting levels of detail among rendered objects, thanks to a panoramic engine developed by Alex Hastings which allowed the game's open-ended nature to be fully realized. Stewart Copeland, the former drummer for
The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
, composed the game's music, and the titular character was voice acted by
Carlos Alazraqui Carlos Jaime Alazraqui (born July 20, 1962) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Deputy James Garcia on ''Reno 911!'' and for his voice acting roles. His extensive ...
, alongside additional voices done by
Clancy Brown Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles. Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
,
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
and Jamie Alcroft. ''Spyro the Dragon'' was released by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of a general effort to reach out to a younger age demographic and compete with the more popular kid's platform, the Nintendo 64. Although sales were initially sluggish, it found larger success following the advent of the 1998 holiday season, and went on to sell nearly 5 million copies worldwide. Critics praised the game's graphics and gameplay, while some noted its low difficulty level. The game established Spyro as a well-known platforming mascot on the PlayStation alongside
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
, and two sequels, titled '' Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!'' and '' Spyro: Year of the Dragon'', were later released for the PlayStation in 1999 and 2000, respectively. Although Insomniac gave up the development rights to the ''Spyro'' series following the third game, the success of the PlayStation titles lent itself to a continued series of games across various platforms. The game, alongside its two successors, was later remade as part of ''
Spyro Reignited Trilogy ''Spyro Reignited Trilogy'' is a platform video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. It is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the ''Spyro'' series: ''Spyro the Dragon'' (1998), '' Ripto's Rage!'' (1999 ...
'' in 2018.


Gameplay

''Spyro the Dragon'' is a 3D platform game; the player controls the titular character as he ventures across the realms of the Dragon World to defeat the antagonistic Gnasty Gnorc, as well as rescue his fellow dragons and recover all of their stolen treasure. Worlds consist of six dragon "home worlds", each of which acts as a dedicated HUB, containing portals that serve as gateways to different levels. The player must progress from one Homeworld to the next by talking to a
balloonist In aeronautics, a balloon is an unpowered aerostat, which remains aloft or floats due to its buoyancy. A balloon may be free, moving with the wind, or tethered to a fixed point. It is distinct from an airship, which is a powered aerostat tha ...
, who transports Spyro to the next world on a hot air balloon after the player has found the required collectibles in the current given world. In addition to regular platforming stages, each Homeworld contains a
boss fight In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
and a hidden flight stage that involves flying throughout an environment and destroying a number of objects. The levels in ''Spyro the Dragon'' are open-ended, and revolve around exploring and obtaining various collectible items to progress forward in the game. Each stage contains a number of crystallized dragons, whom Spyro must turn back to normal by locating and stepping on their statue bases. These dragons give the player advice on how to progress through the game, as well as their respective locations acting as save points after the dragon has been freed. Another important collectible in the game is the dragons' stolen treasure, which is dispersed throughout each level in the form of multicolored gemstones. These gems are located in numerous different places, including inside enemies, breakable boxes, and treasure chests, and most stages contain a set amount of treasure to be found. There are also stolen dragon eggs that must be reclaimed by chasing and defeating thieves. Finding every collectible in the game unlocks an additional world that otherwise cannot be accessed. Spyro's moveset utilizes his unique abilities as a dragon. Spyro has two main offensive moves, used to attack enemies as well as destroy certain objects: charging, in which Spyro sprints forward and rams into things with his head, and breathing fire. These attacks must be used interchangeably for certain enemies and situations; for instance, some enemies carry fireproof metal armor, meaning that they can only be defeated by charging, while larger enemies can only be hit using fire breath, as they will immediately crush Spyro otherwise. Spyro can also use his wings to glide in midair, letting him travel further distances in the air and access areas otherwise unreachable via a regular jump. Throughout the game, Spyro is accompanied by Sparx, a yellow dragonfly who protects Spyro from taking damage and serves as the player's system of health. Sparx's current health is represented by the color of his body; if Spyro is hurt by an obstacle, such as an enemy or by touching water, Sparx changes colors, with yellow, blue and green representing different subsequent amounts of withheld damage. If the player is damaged too many times, Sparx disappears, leaving Spyro vulnerable to lose a life if he is hurt again. Sparx can be rejuvenated by consuming
butterflies Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...
, which are found by killing passive creatures such as sheep that roam throughout most levels. Sparx also helps Spyro collect items by retrieving any gems that Spyro passes by.


Plot

In the world of dragons, the Dragon Kingdom consists of five Homeworlds – the Artisans, the Peace Keepers, the Magic Crafters, the Beast Makers, and the Dream Weavers – which have lived in harmony for many years. One day, a TV interview with a pair of dragons from the Artisan realm catches the attention of Gnasty Gnorc, a powerful gnorc (half gnome and half
orc An Orc (or Ork) is a fictional humanoid monster like a goblin. Orcs were brought into modern usage by the fantasy writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, especially ''The Lord of the Rings''. In Tolkien's works, Orcs are a brutish, aggressive, ugly, a ...
) who was banished from the kingdom due to his abrasive demeanor and sent to an abandoned junkyard, which he renames to "Gnasty's World". After hearing one of the dragons in the broadcast openly dismiss him as being simple-minded, not a threat and calling him ugly, this makes Gnasty Gnorc lose his temper and unleashes a full-fledged attack on the kingdom. Using his magic, he casts a spell across the land that encases every dragon in a crystal shell; he also steals the dragons' prized collection of treasure, turning the gemstones into devious gnorc soldiers and other creatures to help him take over the dragon worlds.
Spyro ''Spyro'' is a series of platform games which features the main protagonist Spyro, a dragon. Since the series' introduction in 1998 with the PlayStation game '' Spyro the Dragon'', there have been numerous sequels and a reboot trilogy. Origin ...
, a young purple dragon, is the only dragon that manages to avoid getting crystallized by the attack. Aided by his dragonfly companion, Sparx, Spyro eagerly sets out to locate and defeat Gnasty Gnorc. Spyro visits each of the dragon homeworlds, defeating Gnorc's forces who have been set out to stop him. Along the way, he frees the crystallized dragons, who give him advice and urge him to recover any stolen treasure and dragon eggs along the way. He eventually makes his way to Gnasty's World, where he finally confronts and defeats Gnasty Gnorc. After Spyro's quest is over, he has access to Gnorc's treasure portal, which can only be opened if Spyro rescues every dragon in the kingdom and recovers all of the dragons' treasure and retrieves the stolen dragon eggs. A secret ending can then be unlocked by retrieving everything inside of the treasure portal. In this ending, Spyro is seen getting interviewed on TV when another spell is placed on the dragons, prompting Spyro to set out on yet another adventure.


Development


Concept

''Spyro the Dragon'' was the second game developed by Insomniac Games, following the release of their first game, ''Disruptor'', in December 1996. Although ''Disruptor'' was a commercial failure, its positive critical reception was enough to impress
Universal Interactive Studios Universal Interactive (formerly Universal Interactive Studios) was an American video game publisher. The company was established on January 4, 1994, and led by Skip Paul and Robert Biniaz of MCA. It was best known for producing the ''Crash Ban ...
and encourage the team to continue with their next endeavor. The idea of a game about a dragon was introduced by Insomniac artist Craig Stitt, who suggested the concept out of his own interest in the mythical creature. Initially, the game's tone was far darker and more realistic; according to Insomniac's COO, John Fiorito, who joined the company in 1997 during ''Spyro''s development, inspiration was taken in part from the film '' DragonHeart'', and the game was initially "realistic and kind of dark and gritty" before it eventually took a more whimsical, light-hearted direction.
Mark Cerny Mark Evan Cerny (born August 24, 1964) is an American video game designer, programmer, producer and media proprietor. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cerny attended UC Berkeley before dropping out to pursue a career in video games. In h ...
, an executive at Universal Interactive Studios and the game's producer, advised that the team create a game with more mass market appeal, as the demographics of the PlayStation were decreasing and its selection of children's titles were greatly outnumbered by the Nintendo 64's. According to programmer Peter Hastings, the dragon character was originally going to be named "Pete", but due to copyright concerns over similarities to the Disney film '' Pete's Dragon'', the name was scrapped. After considering the name "Pyro," which was ultimately considered "too mature", they finally settled on "Spyro". In-game dialogue was written by Peter Kleiner, and Spyro's character was designed by Charles Zembillas, who had previously done design work on ''
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
''. Spyro was originally going to be green, but the developers worried he would blend in with grass, so they eventually changed him to purple. During development of ''Spyro'', Insomniac had a very close relationship with ''
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
'' creator and fellow PlayStation developer Naughty Dog, who had their office located directly across the hall from theirs. The two developers frequently worked together, playing early builds of each other's games and later sharing game technology. As a result, a demo of '' Crash Bandicoot: Warped'' was hidden in ''Spyro'', and vice versa.


Design

''Spyro the Dragon'' was unique compared to other 3D platform games of the time; Spyro's ability to glide allowed him to travel long distances in the air, meaning that the player could cross almost an entire level if starting from a high enough point. While this made designing levels more difficult for the team, it also meant that levels could be made more open-ended and explorative in nature. To make ''Spyro''’s controls feel fluid, Matt Whiting—a NASA engineer who specialized in flight controls—was brought on to help with programming camera movement as well Spyro's movement controls. The game's camera was particularly challenging; initially, it always followed directly behind Spyro, but the resulting high-speed movements were found to make several playtesters feel nauseous. This was most evident with Spyro's basic jump, which triggered the camera to quickly tilt up and down, compared by Whiting to the motion of a rocking boat; this was ultimately tweaked so that the camera would stay steady. ''Spyro'' was coded with efficiency in mind, as 3D rendering technology was new at the time and the game had to fit the limited specifications of the PlayStation. Around 80% of the game's code was written using
Assembly Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their representa ...
, while other parts were programmed in C due to its simplicity and speed.


Graphics

''Spyro the Dragon'' made use of a 3D panoramic engine, developed by Alex Hastings, that could display far-away objects by utilizing varying levels of detail, a method of rendering which was new and unexplored at the time. The developers believed that the engine would be fitting for the game, as it could allow for more expansive levels that could take advantage of the character's abilities, such as gliding. This dynamic system, used to complement the large and sprawling environments, generated two different versions of a level; one version rendered in high detail and the other a simpler, textureless render. Objects in the player's vicinity were drawn using the detailed render, whereas distant ones were drawn from the simple render. This system allowed objects to be displayed from far distances while adhering to the PlayStation's limited RAM capabilities; it was one of the first video games to make use of such a system. The game made extensive use of vertex shading to colour objects and provide light and shade- with the smooth skies entirely reliant on the technique to depict clouds and other distant details without the use of textures. Base textures were intentionally kept relatively desaturated so as to prevent them from becoming oversaturated with use of the technique.


Audio

The game's music was composed and produced by Stewart Copeland, formerly the drummer for the British band
The Police The Police were an English rock band formed in London in 1977. For most of their history the line-up consisted of primary songwriter Sting (lead vocals, bass guitar), Andy Summers (guitar) and Stewart Copeland (drums, percussion). The Police ...
. Copeland was given early builds of the game's levels, which he played through to get a feel for them and come up with a fitting composition. He was also given game cheats such as invincibility so that he could have an easier time clearing levels. Copeland wrote four songs per day, all of which he further developed and polished the next day. According to Copeland, each song in the game was written to correspond to a specific level, but this correlation ultimately went unused. Copeland has looked back positively on his work on ''Spyro'', calling the game's music some of his best compositions.
Carlos Alazraqui Carlos Jaime Alazraqui (born July 20, 1962) is an American actor, stand-up comedian, impressionist, producer, and screenwriter. He is best known for his role as Deputy James Garcia on ''Reno 911!'' and for his voice acting roles. His extensive ...
provided the voice of Spyro in the game, and additional voices were done by
Clancy Brown Clarence John "Clancy" Brown III (born January 5, 1959) is an American actor. Prolific in film and television since the 1980s, Brown is often cast in villainous and authoritative roles. Brown's film roles include Viking Lofgren in ''Bad Boys'' ...
,
Michael Gough Francis Michael Gough ( ; 23 November 1916 – 17 March 2011) was a British character actor who made more than 150 film and television appearances. He is known for his roles in the Hammer Horror Films from 1958, with his first role as Sir Arthu ...
, Jamie Alcroft and Michael Connor. Alazraqui explained in an issue of
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The ...
that he tried to make Spyro's voice sound like "a kid at camp that everybody likes." Alazraqui did not continue in this role after the first game, being replaced by
Tom Kenny Thomas James Kenny (born July 13, 1962) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for voicing the titular character in '' SpongeBob SquarePants'' and associated media. Kenny has voiced many other characters, including Heffer Wolfe in '' ...
for the sequels.


Release

''Spyro the Dragon'' was first unveiled at the 1998 E3 convention in Atlanta, Georgia. It was then later released in North America on September 9, 1998, and in Europe in October of the same year. According to Sony Computer Entertainment's American Marketing Vice President, Andrew House, at a press party in Las Vegas, the game, along with other upcoming 4th quarter PlayStation releases such as ''Crash Bandicoot: Warped'', ''
A Bug's Life ''A Bug's Life'' is a 1998 American computer-animated comedy film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It was the second feature-length film produced by Pixar. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Sta ...
'', and '' Rugrats: Search for Reptar'', was part of a general effort to appeal to a wider demographic of younger audiences and provide more games suited for younger players to compete with the Nintendo 64, which had a far larger library of children's titles at the time compared to the PlayStation's largely adult-centric demographic. An advertisement campaign was pushed to promote the game, featuring a character from the game, Toasty the Sheep, protesting against the title character's actions against sheep. The campaign included TV commercials, featuring an actor in an
animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
costume of Toasty, and a promotional website, ''sheepagainstspyro.com''. On August 16, 1999, SCEA announced that the game would be included as a part of their "Greatest Hits" lineup of budgeted releases alongside other games such as '' Crash Bandicoot: Warped'', '' Gran Turismo'', '' Cool Boarders 3'', and ''
Twisted Metal III ''Twisted Metal III'' is a vehicular combat video game developed and published by 989 Studios for the PlayStation. The game was released in North America on October 31, 1998 and was re-released for the Sony Greatest Hits line-up in 1999. It is t ...
'', and alongside the announcement of a price drop for the PlayStation console to compete with the highly anticipated launch of the Sega Dreamcast. On December 12, 2012, the game was digitally re-released to the
PlayStation Store The PlayStation Store (PS Store) is a digital media store available to users of Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 game consoles via the PlayStation Network. The store offers a range of downloadable conten ...
together with '' Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!'' and '' Spyro: Year of the Dragon''. A remake of the game, alongside its two sequels, was included as a part of the ''
Spyro Reignited Trilogy ''Spyro Reignited Trilogy'' is a platform video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. It is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the ''Spyro'' series: ''Spyro the Dragon'' (1998), '' Ripto's Rage!'' (1999 ...
'' compilation for the
PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...
and Xbox One in November 2018, followed by the
Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...
and Microsoft Windows in September 2019.


Sales

According to ''Spyro''s developers, sales were initially slow at the game's launch but quickly began picking up following the holiday season. In the week of November 29, 1998, it was the 3rd best-selling game in the UK, behind ''
Tomb Raider ''Tomb Raider'', also known as ''Lara Croft: Tomb Raider'' from 2001 to 2008, is a media franchise that originated with an Action-adventure game, action-adventure video game series created by British gaming company Core Design. Formerly owned b ...
'' and '' FIFA 99''. At the 1999 Milia festival in
Cannes Cannes ( , , ; oc, Canas) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The ...
, it took home a "Gold" prize for revenues above €20,000,000 in the European Union during the previous year. ''Spyro the Dragon'' received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) by the end of August 1999, for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland. By December 1999, the game had sold 1,000,000 copies in North America. As of 2007, the title had gone on to sell a total of nearly 5,000,000 units.


Reception

''Spyro the Dragon'' currently holds a score of 85% at
GameRankings GameRankings was a video gaming review aggregator that was founded in 1999 and owned by CBS Interactive. It indexed over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 video games. GameRankings was discontinued in December 2019, with its staff bei ...
, based on an aggregate of 18 reviews.
IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...
's Craig Harris hailed it as the most fun 3D platformer he had played since ''
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
'', writing "Two claws up. Way up." ''
Computer and Video Games ''Computer and Video Games'' (also known as ''CVG'', ''Computer & Video Games'', ''C&VG'', ''Computer + Video Games'', or ''C+VG'') was a UK-based video game magazine, published in its original form between 1981 and 2004. Its offshoot website w ...
'' called the game "easily the best 3D platform game on the PlayStation", despite noting its largely child-friendly nature. Shawn Smith of ''
Electronic Gaming Monthly ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' (often abbreviated to ''EGM'') is a monthly American video game magazine. It offers video game news, coverage of industry events, interviews with gaming figures, editorial content and product reviews. History The ...
'' wrote that "''Spyro'' is to the PlayStation what ''
Banjo-Kazooie ''Banjo-Kazooie'' is a series of video games developed by Rare. The games feature a male bear named Banjo and his friend, a large female red bird named Kazooie, who are both controlled by the player. Banjo originally made his debut as a play ...
'' is to the Nintendo 64", and stated that it "combines the two most-important aspects in any good game: graphics and gameplay." Crispin Boyer, also of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'', proclaimed that Spyro "raises the bar" for 3D platformers, and wrote that it had replaced '' Gex 3D: Enter the Gecko'' as his favorite "PS mascot game". Joe Fielder of
GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...
called the game "a proficient, fully 3D platform game" for the PlayStation, comparing it favorably to one of the more recent platformers on the system, '' Blasto'', and proclaiming that it "excels over ''Blasto'' in every way imaginable." Despite this, he wrote that the game "only gets very, very high marks, instead of outrageously high marks", citing its lack of high difficulty as the main factor that made it inferior to games like '' Super Mario 64'' and ''Banjo-Kazooie''. '' Edge'' named it the best 3D platform game for the PlayStation, but criticized Spyro's limited abilities and said that the game was not as varied as ''Super Mario 64''. Critics lauded the game's presentation, specifically speaking praise for its graphics, technical performance, and Copeland's music done for the game. ''
GamePro Gamepro.com is an international multiplatform video game magazine media company that covers the video game industry, video game hardware and video game software in countries such as Germany and France. The publication, GamePro, was originally la ...
'' reviewer "Slo Mo" wrote that the game's graphics and animations gave ''Spyro'' "the look and feel of an
animated film Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most anim ...
" while calling the in-game environments "breathtaking". Harris wrote that the game "utilizes the PlayStation's hardware to the max", and praised the quality of the in-game animations; he particularly praised the rescued dragons' talking animations, which he said gave the characters "incredible personality." Fielder praised the game's dynamic lighting system and character designs, and noted "a near-complete lack of pop-up" during gameplay. Sushi-X of ''Electronic Gaming Monthly'' said that the graphics were "among the finest" on the PlayStation. Fielder spoke positively of Copeland's compositional work, calling it "wonderfully atmospheric." Slo Mo described the music as having a "catchy, mellow jazz-rock swing to it" while also praising the voice work for its wide array of unique voices. Many critics held praise for the game's level design and controls, though some noted its simplicity and low difficulty level. Fielder called the level design "exceptional", while Boyer praised the levels for encouraging exploration among players. Sushi-X called the play controls "perfectly tuned" whilst Fielder wrote that they worked well both with and without the DualShock's analog stick, although Smith expressed that controls were unsuited for maneuvering in "high-risk areas." The camera system received varying reactions, with Boyer praising it as one of the best in any 3D platformer and Fielder declaring that it fixed the common issues present in most other 3D platform games, while Harris criticized its lack of precision when following the player, stating that it "tends to float around on a loose tether", and highlighted the camera system as one of the game's only flaws. Fielder wrote that an overabundance of extra lives caused the game to feel "like it was aimed at a younger or broader audience," holding the final boss and the bonus level as the only exceptions. Despite praising ''Spyro'', Sushi-X noted the game's "lack of diversity" in obstacles and objects leading to "repetitive play." Boyer lamented that the common trope of collecting items, while still very fun in ''Spyro'', was starting to become less interesting, while also criticizing the game's boss fights, calling them "small, easy and decidedly unBoss-like."


Legacy

The popularity of ''Spyro the Dragon'' helped to push the character of Spyro as a popular platforming mascot for the PlayStation alongside
Crash Bandicoot ''Crash Bandicoot'' is a video game franchise originally developed by Naughty Dog as an exclusive for Sony's PlayStation console. It has seen numerous installments created by various developers and published on multiple platforms. The series co ...
. It was the first game in what became an expansive
video game series This is a list of video game franchises, organized alphabetically. All entries include multiple video games, not counting ports or altered re-releases. 0–9 *''1080° Snowboarding'' *''1942'' *'' 3D Ultra Minigolf'' *'' 3-D Ultra Pinball'' *'' ...
, spawning 2 more platforming sequels for the PlayStation – '' Ripto's Rage'' and '' Year of the Dragon'' – released in 1999 and 2000, respectively. As of the year 2000, the series had sold more than 3.2 million copies in the U.S. and over 4 million copies worldwide. Insomniac stopped developing the ''Spyro'' series after ''Year of the Dragon'', as it finished off their 4-game contract with Universal Interactive. Despite this, the series was continued across various different developers, and shifted to several other platforms besides PlayStation. ''Spyro'' being their first considerable success, Insomniac went on to develop several other successful video game franchises, including the '' Ratchet & Clank'' series of platform games and the
first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...
series, '' Resistance''. The game's rendering system, new and unheard of at the time, has gone on to be used in several other 3D video games.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spyro 1 1998 video games 3D platform games Insomniac Games games PlayStation (console) games PlayStation Network games Sony Interactive Entertainment games Spyro the Dragon video games Universal Interactive games Video games developed in the United States Fantasy video games Single-player video games Video games scored by Stewart Copeland