Game:

Spyro the Dragon (1998)

Duration: 4:14:21

256 views

8

#spyro #spyrothedragon #ps1 #insomniacgames

Description and timestamps below:

Description: With Spyro 4 on the horizon and the recent success of the Spyro ReIgnited Trilogy; like Crash, it's time to take a look back at another Playstation beloved classic: Spyro the Dragon.

After the flop that was their debut title in Disruptor, Insomniac Games went back to the drawing board to design their next game. Inspired by the success of the recently released and universally acclaimed Super Mario 64, they decided to create their own open 3D platformer, seeing that the Playstation 1 needed such a title for its own. They came up with Spyro the Dragon, released in 1998, published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation. The first game in the Spyro series, it stars the title character, a young purple dragon named Spyro, and his dragonfly friend, Sparx, who must journey across the Dragon Kingdom to defeat Gnasty Gnorc, who has overtaken the 5 dragon Homeworlds by trapping the other dragons in crystal and turning their hoard of gems into an army of minions. Spyro the Dragon is an open-ended 3D platformer, featuring large, sprawling levels in which the player must locate collectable items, among which are gemstones, crystallized dragons, and stolen dragon eggs. Spyro's abilities as a dragon include fire breath, a head-on charging attack, and a mid-air glide which he can use to scale large distances, all of which must be used strategically to find items and defeat enemies. Spyro went on to be a great commercial success for Insomniac Games with many games within the franchise to inevitably follow.

Interestingly, Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games were neighbouring games studios in the same building at Universal Interactive Studios and Spyro started development just behind Crash Bandicoot. The two game developer companies became great friends (still to this day). The games share sound assets, voice actors and a similar game engine, both are 3D platformers (although Crash is far more linear) and both franchises were pitches to Sony to become the consoles mascot, hence why the two game franchises are often compared to one another. Naughty Dog and Insomniac Games then went on from Crash and Spyro to develop Jak and Daxter (Naughty Dog) and Ratchet and Clank (Insomniac Games), another two game franchises that are closely compared(!)

Spyro the Dragon was the first game to implement 'level of detail' draw rendering technology (something which is still used to this day). Objects that are farther away in the 3D space have far less pronounced textures to save space and minimize slowdown. As the player moves closer, the textures have a much higher resolution. This means that the player can gaze at as much of the beautiful worlds and environments that Spyro has to offer.

The soundtrack; developed by Stuart Copeland from the Police ( the same band Sting was from) is also very stellar and atmospheric. It's one of my favourite pieces from the Playstation 1 era.

Timestamps:

Artisans - World 1
Stone Hill
Dark Hollow
Town Square
Toasty (Boss)
Sunny Flight

Peacekeepers - World 2
Dry Canyon
Cliff Town
Ice Cavern
Doctor Shemp (Boss)
Night Flight

Magic Crafters - World 3
Alpine Ridge
High Caves
Wizard's Peak
Blowhard (Boss)
Crystal Flight

Beast Makers - World 4
Terrace Village
Misty Bog
Tree Tops
Metalhead (Boss)
Wild Flight

Dream Weavers - World 5
Haunted Towers
Dark Passage
Lofty Castle
Icy Flight
Jacques (Boss)

Gnasty's World - World 6
Gnorc Cove
Twilight Harbour
Gnasty Gnorc (Final Boss)
Credits 1
Gnasty"s Loot
Credits 2
120% Completion Stats

Other Statistics