The First Spyro Game

Spyro the dragon is the second best Spyro game in the series. Behind only "Year of the Dragon", this game is only #2 because there are more abilities in "Spyro: Year of the Dragon."

~The Story~

There are five dragon families, and they each live in a separate world. Everything was perfect, except for the presence of Gnasty Gnorc.

The dragon families got together and decided to banish Gnasty to the dragon junkyard, which Gnasty named Gnasty's World as soon as he got there.

Gnasty found two magic spells, one that would turn the dragon's gems into creatures that would do his bidding and another that would encase the dragons themselves in crystal.

One day, when one of the dragons made Gnasty especially angry, Gnasty used the spells and began to change the dragon worlds into Gnasty's Worlds!

But Spyro, being Spyro, didn't get caught in the spell. And now he has to go through the dragon worlds AND

Gnasty's World to rescue the dragons and collect gems as well as destroy Gnasty's minions.

~Gameplay~

This is the only Spyro game that has enemies in the home worlds.

The only world I found difficult was Beast Makers world.
Many of the levels here have minions that can electrify the ground. Most of the minions here can kill you without even touching you! Also, here you have to be an excellent glider in many parts, because if your not, you will fall into the water and (in this Spyro game only) falling in water takes life.

The second hardest world was Dream Weavers. You really have to be a good glider here, as anything that is not ground, is open abyss. Some things really need to be timed out here.

The third hardest was Magic Crafters. You have to master the flying supercharge here! There are chasms that have to be flown over to get gems, free lives, dragons, and even egg thieves (more on them later).

The Peace Keepers world is not much harder to play than the Artisans world was. Some of the minions here still run, but they take potshots at you first. And you have to jump over a few rivers. Not hard at all.

By far the easiest world is the Artisans- where your game begins. The minions here are really timid, and run from you, usually without trying to harm you! Except for the bulls.

There are thieves running throughout the worlds and they are the most difficult to catch. They run complicated or difficult tracks that make it hard to give chase. You must capture these thieves to get through some of the worlds, and to get to Gnasty's World. When you miss them, or get near them, they taunt you. That taunt can be very annoying.
The flight levels were some of the hardest levels in the game (at least they were to me). It is very easy to miss one thing and there is no time to go back to get it!

There are two dragons that are really hard to get. One is in Tree Tops (Magic Crafters), and the other is in Haunted Towers (Dream Weavers). Both have incredibly difficult supercharge and flying supercharge courses to get through before you can get to the dragon.

I had to finally look up how to do them on the internet. The best that I have found is www.spyrohints.com. Spyro Hints has help on the hardest levels in the first three Spyro games. They also have cheats.

~Bonus level~

If you get all of the gems, dragons, and eggs from all of the worlds, you will be able to enter Gnasty's Loot Level.
I like the Loot Level. You can fly throughout this level like you can in the flight levels.

There are different levels to this level, though. You have to get the key to the next level from the thief and when you unlock the door, you can fly higher! Repeat catching the thieves and unlocking the doors and you can get to the highest level.

There is a room in the highest level that is full of baskets, this is really cool, you flame one basket and it will set off the other baskets. There will be explosion after explosion, and when the dust clears, there will be a room full of the magenta gems, worth 25 gems a piece! 2500 gems on one room!

There are 5000 gems in the whole loot level.

~Graphics~

The graphics aren't great, you can really see the pixels in everything including Spyro. But if III remember right, this was insomniac's first game, so I give them a break here.

~end of the review~

I agree with the rating on this game, as even the youngest minds won't be harmed by playing this game.

Spyro the Dragon was created by Insomniac Games.

This game can be found on Ebay for $2 or less + shipping.