Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon
Developer(s)	Insomniac Games
Publisher	Sony Computer Entertainment
Release date(s)	PlayStation: September 10, 1998 October 23, 1998 October 23, 1998 April 1, 1999 PlayStation Store: October 25, 2007
Genre(s)	Platformer
Rating(s)	ESRB: - Everyone
Console(s)	PlayStation
Mode(s)	Single player
Input	Controller (original release)

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. Since its release, Spyro the Dragon received two sequels, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. A remake of Spyro the Dragon and both of its sequels were done for Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

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. 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, making them Dragon Statues. 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 is organized into separate realms, with a central level serving as a hub and portals leading to other levels within the world. The levels take place in a fully 3D environment, allowing the player to have complete control over Spyro's movements. When Spyro reaches the end of a level, he can jump into the "Return Home" portal to return to the hub world. When Spyro has freed enough dragons or collected enough treasure, he can access the next world by talking to the nearby Balloonist in the hub world.

Every level has a few Dragon Statues, each containing an imprisoned dragon. Spyro can free the dragon simply by touching the statue. Once the dragon is freed, it briefly talks to Spyro before disappearing. The statue's pedestal then becomes a save point and a checkpoint with the Red Fairy. There are a total of 80 Dragon Statues.

Spyro's two main abilities is breathing fire and gliding long distances in the air. Spyro can also perform a charge attack, where he headbutts into enemies using his horns. He can also break objects such as treasure chests this way. Each level is designed to incorporate Spyro's gliding ability, especially large gaps can only be crossed if Spyro jumps off higher terrain and starts to glide across. Some levels have small whirlwinds that launch Spyro a certain distance into the air, allowing him to reach higher areas or glide 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. If Spyro loses all of his ha he loses all of his health.

Later levels also feature stripes of hill marked with glowing arrows, known as supercharge ramps. When Spyro goes down a supercharge ramp, his speed increases significantly, allowing him 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 peform a high-speed jump and cross very wide gaps.

Throughout the game, Spyro is accompanied by a small dragonfly named Sparx. Aside from helping Spyro collect nearby jewels, Sparx allows Spyro to take a few more hits. If Spyro is not accompanied by Sparx, he is instantly defeated after one hit. If Spyro accompanied by Sparx and takes damage from an enemy or obstacle, Sparx changes color to reflect Spyro's weakened condition. 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. Sparx can regain a hit point if Spyro defeats a fodder, causing a butterfly to come out for Sparx to eat.

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.
• Red Fairy: She appears at every pedestal where Spyro freed a dragon from its statue. Spyro has the option to either save his game progress or replay the dragon's message.
• Balloonists: They allow Spyro to travel between two Dragon Worlds.

Enemies

Most of the enemies are various types of Gnorcs. Spyro can defeat the weaker enemies by attacking them directly. Most of the enemies are invulnerable to a certain attack—enemies who carry a metal shield or wear plate armor are protected by Spyro's flames. They can usually be defeated from Spyro's charge attack. Contrarily, larger enemies can be defeated by Spyro's flame but not a charge attack. Few enemies are both large and metal-armored, protecting them from both of Spyro's attacks.

Species

• Fairies: In some levels, purple fairies kiss Spyro to improve his flame breath. In a few levels, there are fairies that prevent Spyro from falling into a pit, by lifting him back up on the ground.
• Fodder: While not enemies, fodder are various animals that Spyro can defeat to release a butterfly, which restores Sparx's health by a hit point. If Spyro is alone, he can defeat a fodder to release Sparx. Fodder consist of various animals, including sheep, frogs, chickens, rabbits, rats, bats, and lizards. There are also mushrooms, which are the only fodder that are not an animal, and Goat Sheep, which are the only fodder that are hybrid animals.

Bosses

Each world is overseen by an boss, who was put 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, the player may proceed to the next world without having to defeat the world's boss first.

Name	Description
Toasty	He is the first boss and fought in Artisans. Toasty appears to be a scythe-wielding scarecrow, but after his costume is burnt, Toasty is revealed to be a sheep in disguise.
Doctor Shemp	A witch doctor-like boss who wears sunglasses. Doctor Shemp is the boss of Peace Keepers and the second boss. He is guarded by several tribal warriors whose eyesight is impaired by metal visors.
Blowhard	He is the third boss and is fought in Magic Crafters. Blowhard is a wind sorcerer with a whirlwind body and some facial features.
Metalhead	A large metal robot who is the boss of Beast Makers and the fourth boss overall. It attacks with electric rays and by throwing Armored Banana Boys and Strongarms. Metalhead is impervious to Spyro's flames and charge attack, but Spyro can defeat it by destroying two sets of pylons.
Jacques	The boss of Dream Weavers and the fourth boss overall, Jacques resembles a jack-in-the-box, which its name was derived from. His main attack is throwing boxes.
Gnasty Gnorc	The main antagonist and final boss, Gnasty Gnorc's main attack is firing a green light from his scepter.

Items and objects

Name	Description
Dragon Egg	They are pink eggs that are stolen by thieves, and each one carries a Dragon Egg. There is a thief in most worlds and levels. Spyro is required to collect enough eggs to access Beast Makers world.
Extra Life	Extra Lives are represented by silver dragon statues that are usually hidden within a blue treasure chest.
Jewel	Also known as treasure, jewels make up the hoard of the Dragon Treasure, which Gnasty Gnorc stole from the dragons. He used some of the treasure to create Gnorcs, although because of his sloppy personality, several jewels were scattered around the Dragon Worlds, some are found in treasure chests or pots, and some are found by defeating an enemy. Every level and world has a set number of jewels, and collecting them adds to the game's completion percentage. Spyro must collect enough jewels to access the last two worlds, Magic Crafters and Gnorc Gnexus. There are five types of jewels, each having a different color⁠—red, green, blue, gold, and purple⁠—and denomination: 1, 2, 5, 10, and 25 respectively. Jewels with higher denominations are less common than the jewels with a lower one. There are a total of 14,000 jewels, and several of them are recovered from the bonus level, Gnasty's Loot.
Orb	If Spyro defeats an enemy more than once, it may drop an Orb. When Spyro collects twenty of them, he receives an extra life.

Levels and worlds

It has been requested that this section be rewritten.
See the Manual of Style for rewriting suggestions.

There are six worlds in the game, more specifically titled Dragon Worlds, where Spyro can access other levels by entering a portal. In each level there are a certain number of jewels to collect and a few dragons to rescue. With the exception of the last world, Gnorc Gnexus, every world has five portals. There are three standard levels, a boss encounter, and a flight level.

The first five Dragon Worlds each have a flight level (all end with the word "Flight"), and as the name suggests, the flight levels involve Spyro gliding around the area, fulfilling certain tasks. Unlike the other levels, each world's flight level is not immediately accessible. Spyro can unlock access to it through various means, such as shooting a rock or solving a platform puzzle. Some dragons tell Spyro where he can find these levels. Every flight level has its own set of four or five objectives, which Spyro must complete within a short time limit. Common objectives include Spyro having to destroy barrels or treasure chests with flames or glide through hoops or arches, which give him additional time. If Spyro crashes, drowns, or runs out of time, he loses at the level, but a dialogue shows up, allowing the player to retry the level.

Each time Spyro completes a task in a flight level, he receives 60 jewels. At the end, Spyro earns a total of 300 jewels. He can still retry any flight level that he has completed, although the timer counts upward rather than down, turning the flight level into a time trial. Spyro does not gain any additional jewels if he clears the flight level again (a tick is displayed in the Round Results dialogue box to indicate that the tasks were completed).

Artisans: The first world and the home of Spyro and the other dragons. It 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 jewel 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.

Reception

Spyro the Dragon received mostly favorable reviews and became a best-seller. IGN ranked it of 9.0 out of 10, and GameSpot ranked it 8.3 out of 10. When the sequel, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, was released, several fans thought of the first game as inferior. Reviews have criticized the easy bosses.

External links

• North American website (archived)
• European website (archived)
• PlayStation.com website (archived)