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Spyro the Dragon

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Spyro the Dragon
Spyro the Dragon PS1 US cover.jpg
Developer(s) Insomniac Games
Publisher Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date(s) PlayStation:
USA September 10, 1998
Europe October 23, 1998[1]
Australia October 23, 1998[1]
Japan April 1, 1999[citation needed]
PlayStation Store:
USA October 25, 2007[2]
Genre(s) Platformer
Rating(s)
ESRB:ESRB E.svg - Everyone
Console(s) PlayStation
Mode(s) Single player
Input Controller (original release)
Wikipedia icon.png This article uses content from Wikipedia (view authors), and falls under the compatible Creative Commons license.

Spyro the Dragon is the first and titular game of the Spyro series. It was first released for the PlayStation in 1998 and was re-released on the PlayStation Store in 2007.

Story

In the Dragon Realms, the elder dragons, Astor and Lindar, are being interviewed for a video documentary about their world. Meanwhile, the main antagonist, Gnasty Gnorc is watching the show. Long ago, Gnasty Gnorc detested the dragon families and their shiny jewelry and caused problems among them, so they banished him the dragon junkyard.[3] During the show, a dragon calls Gnasty Gnorc simple-minded, a non-threat, and ugly. This angers Gnasty Gnorc, who casts a large magic spell to encase every dragon into a crystal. He also makes a potion to turn the radiant gems into Gnorc soldiers to help him invade the Dragon Worlds and steal their treasure.

A young dragon named Spyro was not hit by Gnasty Gnorc's spell (he was shown chasing sheep in the documentary). Aided by his dragonfly companion, Sparx, Spyro eagerly starts his adventure to free the dragons and battle Gnasty Gnorc. Throughout his adventure, Spyro receives advice from the dragons that he frees.

After traveling through the first five Dragon Worlds, Spyro reaches the Dragon junkyard, which Gnasty Gnorc renamed to Gnasty's World. At the end, Spyro confronts Gnasty Gnorc and manages to defeat him, putting an end to Gnasty Gnorc's plot.

Gameplay

Each world in Spyro the Dragon is organized into separate realms, with a central level serving as a hub and with gateways leading to other levels within the world. The player is free to roam about and explore each level at will, defeating opponents, releasing the realm's imprisoned dragons, and recovering the dragons' treasure in the process. When the player has finished a level, a "Return Home" portal located somewhere in that level will return them to the base hub of that world and, once they have freed enough dragons or collected enough treasure, the player can travel to the next world by locating and talking to a balloonist located somewhere in the hub.

Each level has a few Dragon Statue, each containing an imprisoned dragon. Spyro can free the dragon simply by touching the statue. Once the dragon is freed, it provides some advice to Spyro. The statue's pedestal then becomes a save point and a checkpoint. There are a total of 80 Dragon Statues.

As typical of any dragon, Spyro's two main abilities are breathing fire, and gliding long distances through the air with his wings; Spyro also has the ability to charge across open terrain and smash through enemies with the horns on his head. Each level is designed to incorporate Spyro's gliding ability, featuring large gaps too large to jump normally, accompanied by higher terrain nearby from which to jump off of and glide the distance to safety. In some levels, there are also whirl-winds which launch Spyro to a set distance upwards in the air, and allow him to glide much farther. Spyro cannot swim, so if he falls in the water, he quickly starts to sink and gradually loses hit points. If he is quick enough, Spyro can jump back on land. Spyro sinks when he loses all of his health.

In addition, later levels also feature stripes of hill marked with glowing arrows, known as "supercharge ramps". When the player charges down a supercharge ramp, Spyro's dash speed increases significantly, which can be used to defeat powerful enemies or smash through certain walls. In some cases, the supercharge ramp can be combined to an upwards slope, allowing Spyro to make a high-speed jump and cross gaps too large even for a normal jump and glide.

Throughout the game, Spyro is accompanied by a small dragonfly named Sparx. Aside from helping Spyro collect nearby gems, Sparx also functions as a sort of living health meter. If Spyro is not accompanied by Sparx, he is instantly defeated after one hit. Whenever Spyro is hit by an attack, Sparx changes color to reflect Spyro's weakened condition; if Spyro takes enough damage, Sparx disappears entirely, and Spyro will lose a life if injured again. Spyro can recover Sparx's health by killing fodder. By doing so, a butterfly comes out, and Sparx eats it and regain a hit point. Sparx can take up to three hits before being defeated, and his color indicates how many health points Spyro has left: yellow represents full health, blue represents two hits remaining, and green represents one hit remaining.

Characters

Main characters

  • Spyro the Dragon: The main and titular character of the game, Spyro goes on an adventure to rescue his friends and defeat Gnasty Gnorc.
  • Sparx the Dragonfly: Sparx is the best friend and protector of Spyro, and he allows Spyro to withstand a few more hits.
  • Dragons: The main species and residents of Dragon World. Several dragons provide helpful advice to Spyro after he frees them from their crystal.
  • Fairies: For each dragon freed, a fairy appears at the pedestal. By going to a fairy, Spyro is given the option to save his game progress. In some levels, purple fairies kiss Spyro to improve his flame breath. In some levels, a few fairies prevent Spyro from falling into a pit by lifting him back on the ground.

Enemies

Gnorcs of varying types comprise the majority of Spyro's foes. While Spyro can defeat most enemies with a single attack, many enemies are invulnerable to one form of attack of another; as described to the player by various released dragons, many enemies sport metal shields or plate armor which renders them impervious to Spyro's flame attack (but can be easily defeated with a charge attack), whereas large enemies remain unaffected by Spyro's charge attack, but are vulnerable to Spyro's flame. Less often, an enemy may be both large in size and metal-armored, rendering it invulnerable to all of Spyro's attacks -- although it will generally be possible to defeat the enemy by a different means.

Bosses

Each world is overseen by an enemy boss, placed in charge of the Gnorcs in the area. While the portal to the boss's level is located near the Balloonist in each world, the player is not, in fact, required to confront and defeat the boss first. Rather, it is the Balloonist who sets the condition for traveling to the next world, and if Spyro has released enough dragons, collected enough treasure (or so on), the player may proceed to the next world without having to defeat the world's boss first.

  • Toasty, boss of the Artisan world. What appears to be a scythe-wielding scarecrow is ultimately revealed to be nothing more than a sheep in disguise.
  • Doctor Shemp, a witch doctor-like boss of the Peacekeepers' world. He wears sunglasses and thinks he's cool. He is guarded by a number of beserk charging tribal warriors whose eyesight is impaired by metal visors.
  • Blowhard, boss of the Magic Crafters' world, and possibly in charge of the wind wizards seen frequently throughout that world.
  • Metalhead, boss of the Beast Makers' world. This large metal robot is impervious to all of Spyro's attacks, and thus must be defeated by other means. Attacks include two varieties of electric rays and the hurling of the apelike Beast Maker enemies.
  • Jacques, resembling a jack-in-the-box (after which he is named) and the boss of the Dream Weavers' world. Has a tendency to throw boxes as an attack.
  • Gnasty Gnorc, the main antagonist and final boss. His main means of attack is firing a green light from his sceptre.

Items

  • Gems: The hoard of the dragons' treasure, which Gnasty both ran off with and used to create enemies after he imprisoned the realm's dragons in crystal. Gems come in varying colors and denominations, and may be found lying on the ground, hidden in treasure chests or pots, or recovered by defeating Gnorcs. There are a set number of gems in every realm, and each gem collected counts toward the player's percentage of game completion; collecting enough gems is a requirement for travelling to the realm of the Magic Crafters, as well as the final realm, Gnasty's world. There are 14,00 gems in total a vast amount obtained from Gnasty's loot and giving you an extra 20% amounting to 120%.
    • Red gems: 1 gem
    • Green gems: 2 gems
    • Blue gems: 5 gems
    • Gold gems: 10 gems
    • Purple gems: 25 gems
  • Orbs and Extra Lives. Instead of regular gems, Gnorcs may also drop silver orbs after being defeated once. Collecting enough of these orbs (twenty) will reward Spyro with an extra life. Similarly, Spyro can find extra lives directly, in the form of a miniature silver dragon statue, typically hidden inside specific blue chests.
  • Dragon Eggs. In addition to gems, blue thieves made off with several of the realm's eggs. The thieves can be found in various levels, each holding a single egg, and can be heard taunting Spyro from a distance. Collecting enough dragon eggs is a requirement for accessing the realm of the Beast Makers, but the thieves must be chased down first.

Homeworlds and realms

There are six homeworlds where Spyro can travel to other levels, called realms in the game, by entering a portal. In each level there are a certain number of gems to obtain and a few dragons to rescue. With the exception of Gnorc Gnexus, every Homeworld has five portals that each lead to a different realm. There are three standard levels, a boss encounter, and a flight level.

Each homeworld has a flight level (ending with the name "Flight") that involves Spyro making use of his ability to glide. Flight levels are not immediately accessible when Spyro starts a homeworld. He can unlock them through various means, such as shooting a rock or solving a platform puzzle. Some dragons tell Spyro where he can find these levels. Flight levels require Spyro to meet four or five objectives within a short time limit. The objectives are different for each flight level, but common objectives include Spyro having to destroy barrels or treasure chests with his fiery breath or glide through hoops or arches to gain additional time. If Spyro crashes, drowns, or runs out of time, he loses at the flight level, although an on-screen option allows the player to try again.

Spyro receives 60 gems for each task completed in a flight level, and a total of 300 gems by completing every task. Spyro can still retry any flight level that he has completed, although the timer counts upward rather than down, making the level a time trial, and Spyro does receive any additional gems for finishing the level again (a tick is displayed in the Round Results screen to indicate that the tasks have been completed).

Artisans: Spyro's home world. The Artisan dragons are tranquil and take a calmer approach to most problems. The Artisan World consists of pleasant countryside and ornate castles.

  • Stone Hill
  • Dark Hollow
  • Town Square
  • Toasty
  • Sunny Flight Trains (barrels), planes, arches, chests


Peace Keepers: The second world. Peace Keeper Dragons have a "attack first, ask questions later" attitude. Peace Keepers is a dusty desert land (with the exception of Ice Cavern) with frequent tar pits. A number of secret can be found via perilous flights round cliff faces.

  • Dry Canyon
  • Cliff Town
  • Ice Cavern
  • Doctor Shemp
  • Night Flight Rings (go through), chests, arches, lighthouses


Magic Crafters: The third world is filled with landscape that defies the laws of physics. The Magic Crafter Dragons like to use brain, not brawn to keep things in order. The scenery here is that of partially snowy mountain sides. It is here where supercharge ramps are first introduced to the game. These give Spyro a blisteringly fast and powerful charge, and can be used to glide much longer distances.

  • Alpine Ridge
  • High Caves
  • Wizard Peak
  • Blowhard
  • Crystal Flight Rings (go through), arches, planes, chests


Beast Makers: A dark swamp turned electrified battlefield. Beast Maker Dragons send others to defend them (but don't mind getting in the battle themselves). Be careful of the native wildlife and electricity loving Gnorcs.

  • Terrace Village
  • Misty Bog
  • Tree Tops
  • Metalhead
  • Wild Flight Boats, arches, chests, planes


Dream Weavers: A world of wonder and confusion. Dream Weaver Dragons are in charge of keeping and creating dreams, making for an illusion-filled world. Keep your eye out for fairies; help them, and they will return the favor. Dream Weavers consists of numerous inexplicably floating islands high in the air.

  • Dark Passage
  • Lofty Castle
  • Haunted Towers
  • Jacques
  • Icy Flight Chests, lighthouses, trains (barrels), helicopters


Gnorc Gnexus (Gnasty's World in some countries): The last homeworld and the industrial homeworld of Gnasty Gnorc. He was banished there long ago and has now turned it into his evil empire. Each level must be unlocked by completing the previous one.

  • Gnorc Cove
  • Twilight Harbour
  • Gnasty Gnorc
  • Gnasty's Loot A bonus level that can be unlocked when Spyro collects every gem and frees every dragon. The level has a flight segment, but the overall level is not a flight level. Finishing the level unlocks the secret ending.

External links

References

  1. a b Spyro the Dragon UK website - www.spyro1.com (archived)
  2. PlayStation Store
  3. Spyro the Dragon manual, page 6.

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