All you had to do was decide what to flame and what to charge. There was no need for button mashing or extensive battle prepping, just common sense. Though with only 4 real moves – charge, flame, jump and fly – some called this a little simplistic.
The fluidity of the game movements was top notch and even drew inspiration from the widely successful Mario 64. When it came to gameplay, Spyro The Dragon wasn’t exactly hard to figure out. This is what happened in each level! You don’t see dedication like this much anymore.Īll About The Adventure, Not Difficulty – Gameplay: So take a listen and how the song changes tempo and style at various points throughout, yet still remains the same. This is something that remained a constant favorite of all three games and there’s countless I could choose from as an example but for this article I’ll choose “Molten Crater” from Spyro: Year Of The Dragon. It’s said that Copeland devised each musical piece after first playing the level so he could match its tone and beat and it shows! Listening years later, it’s still possible to identify exactly which level which musical piece comes from. It’s hard to talk about the original Spyro trilogy without mentioning the composer Stewart Copeland, former drummer for The Police. Without Spyro’s graphical fixes to the distance problem, levels such as Tree Tops would have been impossibleĮpic Adventures Music + Smooth Jazz – Music This allowed Spyro’s environment to seem ever expansive rather than confined, which was good because many levels had Spyro gliding over long distances to reach hidden locations and treasures. Instead of fog, objects in the distance were still rendered normally but became more detailed as you got closer – the way it should be.
Spyro on the other hand brought a brand new engine to the PlayStation that not only gave full 360 degree camera angles, but could also show great distances into the horizon. In order to get around this, most just created background fog, which covered anything not in the immediate area. Did it have the advanced cinematics and battles of Final Fantasy VII or the attempts at realism of Tomb Raider? No, but it was never meant to! At the time, most 3D Platformer games couldn’t approach the concept of distance well. With revolutionary graphics, playful style and simple yet elegant gameplay, Spyro The Dragon (98-00) remains an important chapter in not only our childhoods, but in modern day gaming’s as well.Īs far as graphics go, Spyro the Dragon was exceptionally impressive for its time and genre. Whereas I stand by this game’s hidden gems, I think it’s time for us to take a look back at a game that’s not only older but is also widely accepted as one of the greatest trilogies of its time –the ORIGINAL Spyro The Dragon by Insomniac Games.ĭeveloped during a time when the Nintendo 64 was dominating the field in younger demographics, Spyro The Dragon and its sequel gave the Playstation a 3D Platformer that could appeal to all ages.
On our last installment of Ancient Awesomeness, we took a look back at the underrated PS2 game Dirge Of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII.