Do you remember Spyro the Dragon? I do! What a great little gaming fellow he was. Cute but fearless. Bright and brave. Although I was almost 30 years old when the first Spyro game was released on the Sony PlayStation, I still enjoyed this fun, colourful 3D platformer. It was witty and tricky, and the wide open world gameplay kept me busy for quite a while. I’m not a great gamer, and I expect that work was keeping me busy at the time so I don’t remember finishing it, however now I have the opportunity to attempt the challenge again in the soon to come Spyro Reignited Trilogy on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

The new Spyro Reignited Trilogy game contains the original Spyro the Dragon game, as well as Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! (aka Gateway to Glimmer in Europe and Australia) and Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

I didn’t know this but there have been many Spyro video games on different platforms, along with a vast array of merchandise such as soft toys, clothing, and figures and games as part of the Skylanders collection.

I suspect that once the new Spyro Reignited Trilogy game arrives we will all be going Spyro crazy like we once did!

Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon on PlayStationHere’s a little information about the original Spyro the Dragon game released on the Playstation in 1998.

Spyro the Dragon platform game stars the title character, a young purple dragon named Spyro, and his dragonfly friend, Sparx, who venture through the Dragon Kingdom to rescue the other dragons from a spell placed by the villain of the game, Gnasty Gnorc. Gnasty Gnorc was insulted on live TV by a dragon and enraged by this he places a magic spell that encases all dragons in crystal spell and then sends out his hordes of gnorc soldiers into the Dragon Kingdom to seek revenge!

Spyro is able to avoid attacks due to his short stature (in comparison to the much larger dragons) and assisted by his dragonfly companion, Spyro promises to rescue his dragon friends and defeat Gnasty Gnorc once and for all. The game involves Spyro and Sparx visiting each of the five realms in the Dragon Kingdom, freeing trapped dragons, collecting treasure, and rescuing dragon eggs from thieves before facing realm bosses. Finally he heads to Gnasty’s Junkyard World where he fights his way through various challenges to confront at last the Gnorc leader himself. After he defeats Gnasty, an ending clip shows him back in Artisan World discussing his victory with the news reporters.

Spyro the Dragon was released alongside other games such as Crash Bandicoot: Warped, A Bug’s Life, and Rugrats: Search for Reptar, in an effort to appeal to a wider demographic of younger audiences because at the time the Sony PlayStation was considered a more adult-centric gaming machine, especially when compared to its rivals especially the Nintendo 64. An advertising campaign was pushed to promote the game, featuring Toasty the Sheep protesting against Spyro’s misdeeds against sheep! In 1999, SCEA announced that the game would be included as a part of their “Greatest Hits” lineup of budgeted releases alongside other games such as Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Gran Turismo, Cool Boarders 3, and Twisted Metal III, such was the popularity of Spyro the Dragon.

If you have a spare 3 hours or so you can watch a complete walkthrough of the original game here – Enjoy!