My first review will be a oldie. ^^ I still lack the new Reignited Trilogy so I can't give a review on them. ~Story~ Within the Realm of Dragons, you play as Spyro. A young, reckless and adventurous purple dragon, who manages to avoid a magic spell aimed at all the dragons. This spell (which he avoided due to him being so small) turned every dragon into Crystal Statues and their many riches into monsters. Who did this and why? Well, it was Gnasty Gnorc, who, after being banished from the Dragon Realms, heard a dragon call him 'Ugly' on live tv. Spoiler After going through 6 worlds and 5 mini-bosses, Spyro faces, and defeats Gnasty Gnorc with every gem, dragon egg, and dragon saved. There is also a extra post-game level for 120% ~Gameplay~ Spyro runs as a classic adventure platformer, with a collectathon focus. Our little dragon has a health bar (through the form of his dragonfly best friend, Sparx) and a life count. In total Spyro has 4 hits before losing a life (Sparx will be gold at full, then blue, green, and completely gone at the last health point) and can heal up by killing 'fodder' animals (such as sheep and other small animals) which release a butterfly for Sparx to eat. Once all Spyro's lives are depleted, it's game over and you have to start the level over from the start. ~Flight Levels~ Within 5 of the 6 worlds there is a level noted as a 'Flight' (such as Wild Flight). These function differently, being a timed obstacle course. Touching the ground is not optimal and water will insta-kill. Your only attack is your flame, and with each obstacle you gain some time back. Flight levels are notorious for being very difficult and able to break speed runs if you mess up even once. ~Graphics~ Although the games may seem a bit old now, in their hay-day Spyro was top notch with 3D models and even made a engine to handle a full level loaded up at once (just with less polygons the farther it was from the player). Despite the visible age in 3D polygons, it's still vibrant and imaginative! ~Sound~ Spyro's music is still loved, remastered/remixed, and referenced till this day among gamers and indie music artists. Spyro's music was made by Steward Copeland, who is known as a former drummer for the band 'The Police'. The music was made while Steward (and his children) played Spyro, in order to get a feel of the level and what would properly fit. In my opinion, this was a excellent decision as almost every song matches the areas they play in. There are also several 'hidden' tracks, that play in certain levels after a certain amount of time, and a few songs that only appear in the European version. ~Voice Acting~ Voice Acting in video games was still a fairly new-ish thing at the time, so some voices aren't the best. However some of the VAs featured have become well known, such as Clancy Brown (Mr. Krabs from Spongebob) and Michael Gough (Shrek, from Shrek 2 onwards). I have to note that Carlos Alazaraqui, the voice of Spyro, was panned by some critics for Spyro's bratty/arrogant voice- which probably lead to Spyro's new voice in the next game. ~Length~ Spyro, for someone going in blind, could perhaps be around 5-6 hours or more. Speed running (with previous knowledge on the game) can be 1-3 hours (with the current world record being 1 hour and 22 minutes, 43 seconds). As this game was intentionally aimed at children during a era where the Playstation had only T for Teen/M for Mature games, this is a fairly decent playtime (at least, for the time it released) ~Final Thoughts~ Although Spyro the Dragon (on PS1) may be fairly simple for those experienced with platforming collectathon, it is hardly ugly with its visuals and soundtrack. If you have a few hours to spend and don't mind older graphics, I would highly recommend giving this little purple dragon a shot!
