The best Spyro (Spyro: The Dragon (PS))

Member Name: tomo359

Product:	Spyro: The Dragon (PS)
Date:	10/11/08 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great game, lots of fun, great graphics

Disadvantages: Can be completed a little quick

Spyro the Dragon is the first of a series of video games based around a small purple dragon.
The story starts when all the dragons in the dragon kingdom are enjoying themselves when the baddie Gnasty Gnorc who was banished from the kingdom a while ago gets angry and turns all the dragons into statues and scatters them all around the different lands. But because Spyro is smaller than the other dragons, he managed to avoid being turned into a statue and has to go around the different worlds to free the dragons. Gnasty also steels all the dragons gems and eggs which Spyro also has to recover.

You first start in the first world, the Artisans world is a home world with portals to levels. There are 6 home world altogether including Gnasty's home world. To get to the different home worlds you have to have a certain number of either dragons, gems or eggs then you go to see the balloon man who takes you to the different worlds. You have to go into the worlds levels to free all the dragons and collect all the gems. In some levels you will find a little blue man who is carrying a large pink egg, these are the dragon egg thiefs. You have to charge after these guys and when you run into them they will let go off the egg.

This brings me to Spyro himself. He has a few different things he can do, one thing which i just mentioned is he can charge. You use this to defeat certain baddies, open certain items and for some other things. Spyro can also breath fire to kill some enimies and open some chests. He can also glide. If you run off the end of a high wall, cliff etc and press jump twice spyro will glide and slowly descend to the ground. Spyro can not free fly in normal levels but there are some levels which are focused just on flying.

Back to the levels. In each home world, there is a boss level. These do not have to be completed but to get 100% you must complete these levels as well. I call them levels because they are another level and not just a boss. You have to work through a short level before you get to the boss, still collecting gems and freeing dragons.
Once you have completed one world and all its levels, find the balloon man and he will take you to the next world. The next home world is the Peace Keepers home land. Again complete all the levels here finding all the dragons, gems and eggs, then find the next balloon.
The third world is Magic Crafters. The fourth world is Beast Makers, then the fifth is Dream Weavers, and finally you get to Gnasty's World where you have two main levels before facing Gnasty himself. Then when you defeat him and get every single gem, dragon and egg in the game, a final level opens, Gnasty's Loot which is a bonus level where you can get loads of gems without any baddies trying to stop you.

Each of the levels in the game is very different to the last and there is always something new to find. In these levels, you have to make your way through killing any baddies, freeing dragons, then make your way to the exit portal at the end. If you leave the level without completing it don't worry as you can go back to it any time.
Now as i mentioned slightly earlier, there are some levels where you just fly. These levels are classed as bonus levels and they can sometimes be a little harder to find than the normal levels. The objective of these flight levels is to fly around and flame different objects or fly through things until you have each one. There are usually 4 catagories and about 8 of each category. If that sounds confusing, let me try to explain a bit better. In one level, you may get 8 lighthouses, 8 boats, 8 rings and 8 chests. You have a time limit and you have to flame the 8 lighthouses, flame the 8 boats, fly through the 8 rings and flame the 8 chests. Each time you flame or fly through something you will get a slight time bonus. There is usually a certain way to complete the level so you do not run out of time, some of these levels can be quite hard to complete and will likely take you several tries to complete but you need to complete these levels to get 100% in your overall game.

I won't describe each level as it will take me a long long time but in each world there is about 4 levels including the boss level, and then the extra flight level so there is lots to do.

This is a very fun and entertaining games and still one of the best games to date. The graphics are fantastic for its age and the characters, voices and story are all good.
The game can be completed fairly quickly unless you are trying to get 100% then it can take a little longer, but you will have lots of fun.

Summary: A great game, still brilliant after all these years