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Spyro Analysis

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NOTE: I no longer stand by these views. I now prefer the games from the "The Legend of Spyro" trilogy. The person I've done an art trade with here has basically goaded me into giving a positive view on the classic Spyro games.
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Spyro Video Game Analysis

What more can be said about Spyro the Dragon? It's one of the most memorable video game franchises of all time and it's certainly the pinnacle of video game nostalgia. Today, we're gonna take a look at Spyro and everything about the games.

Origin: Spyro was concieved at the time the Playstation housed no kid friendly video games. Universal Interactive President Mark Cerny gave developer Insomniac Games the challenge to create a 3D game with interactive enemy AI. The original concept for the character Spyro was concieved by art directer Craig Stitz.

Gameplay: Each of the games had basic gameplay, you can breathe fire breath, you can charge and you can glide. Other abilities you can use are Hover, Superfly, Superflame, Supercharge, Glide, Missile Breath (only in Gulp's Overlook), Climb, Dive, Ice Breath, Headbash and Plasma Breath (only in Ripto's Arena). It doesn't get any more fun than that.

Acting: The games housed very well known voice actors.
Carlos Alazraqui as Spyro the Dragon / Useni / Marco / Hexus / Eldrid
Clancy Brown as Obasi / Revillo / Unika / Enzo / Maximos / Nestor / Titan / Boris
Michael Gough as Gnasty Gnorc / Sadiki / Claude / Cleetus / Bruno / Cyprin / Nevin / Astor
Jamie Alcroft as Lateef / Cosmos / Kosoko / Zane / Interviewer / Trondo / Oswin / Tomas
Michael Connor as Tomas / Gildas / Darius / Boldar / Dragons
André Sogliuzzo as Sparx the Dragonfly
Tony Salerno as Laser Gnorc, Jacques
Harvey Fierstein as Gnorc Cove Gnorc
Mark DeCarlo as Haunted Towers wizard

Voice Actors of Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer/Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!:

Tom Kenny as Spyro the Dragon, The Professor, the Electrolls from the Hurricos level/realm of Summer Forest and other minor characters
Andre Soqliuzzo as Sparx the Dragonfly and other characters
Gregg Berger as Hunter the Cheetah, Ripto, Crush, Gulp and other minor characters
Melissa Disney as Elora the Faun, the Fauns from the Fracture Hills realm/level and other minor characters
Mary Linda Philips as Zoe the Fairy and other minor characters
Milton James as Moneybags and other minor characters
Marcelo Tubert as Basil the Explorer, Colossus Monks and other minor characters

Voice Cast of Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon:

Tom Kenny as Spyro the Dragon, Sgt. James Byrd and other minor characters
Andre Soqliuzzo as Sparx the Dragonfly and other minor characters
Pamela Hayden as Bianca the Rabbit and other minor characters
Gregg Berger as Hunter the Cheetah and other minor characters
Carolyn Lawrence as Zoe the Fairy, Elora the Faun and other minor characters
Edita Brychta as Sheila the Kangaroo and other minor characters
Neil Ross as Moneybags, Bentley the Yeti and other minor characters
Richard Tatum as Agent 9 and other minor characters
Flo Di Re as The Sorceress and other minor characters

Graphics: As far as Playstation games go, the graphics are very well done.

Skies: The games are also home to different kinds of skies.

Morning sun w/ clouds: Pink/blue/yellow green hills, warm grey stones, blue roofs.

Noon sky w/ clouds: Blue/white green hills, warm grey stone, green roofs.

Night sky w/ full moon: Blue/purple green hills, cold grey stones, warm interior.

Evening sky w/ mountains: orange/purple green grass, white plaster, red roofs.

Firery sunset: Red/orange/purple green grass, white plaster, red roofs.

Day moon w/ mountains: green/yellow/blue green grass, light grey rock, yellow bricks.

Plot: The plots consist of Spyro fighting against villains such as the Gnasty Gnorc, the Sorceress, Ripto, etc. as they attempt to bring harm to the rest of the dragons such as draining the lives out of dragon eggs, transforming the dragons into monsters, etc.

Characters:

Spyro: Spyro is known for being courageous and headstrong, and is also eager, stubborn and arrogant. He has an immutable sense of heroism, friendliness, and has a fiery personality. He has little concern for his own safety and is shown to be irresponsible at times, being extremely curious and hardly ever cautious, which could get him into trouble. Spyro gets into lots of mischief and is known to be cocky, a trait that can lead to his downfall.

Sparx: A dragonfly that acts as Spyro's heath meter and every time he gets hit, he changes colour starting from gold to blue, to green, and ultimately disappearing entirely. He has the same mischievous personality as Spyro, but he's very protective of him. Without Sparx by Spyro's side, he's susceptible to being killed or being defeated by a single hit. Sparx buzzes as his way of communication and the dragons somehow understands him by his reactions.

Hunter: Hunter is a laid-back, physically talented and somewhat gullible character. He's naive, cowardly and easily tricked and he's a loyal friend to Spyro. As implied by his name, he is a moderate archer and he is an expert skateboarder who becomes jealous when Spyro breaks his records.

Elora: An expert on the people of Avalar who has trusted Spyro to defeat Ripto. She is a strong leader and ashe always gives helpful advice.

Sheilla: She speaks with a smooth Austrailian acctent and is an easy-going kind of character. She is friendly to those she cares about yet she doesn't hold back when it comes to her enemies.
Agent 9: Agent 9 is incredibly trigger happy, and even gave his laser blaster a name ("Mr. Laser Blaster"). Along with being completely psychotic, he has an incredible disdain for Rhynocs, leading to his intense liking for killing them. Agent 9 always carries his laser blaster. He also loves to make his enemies dance by force using his blasters, as shown when he tried to show Spyro a "dancing bear"! The Year of the Dragon manual gave this as Agent 9's introduction:

"Don't monkey around with Agent 9 because he is one! Agent 9 is one of the Professor's lab monkeys. But after special treatment and training he is no ordinary chimp. Agent 9 is a highly intelligent special operative whose specialties are laser blasters and precision delivery of explosives."
Gnasty Gnorc: An ugly, bad-tempered, unintelligent, nasty gnorc who is self conscience about his appearance. He has resented the dragons ever since his banishment to the Dragon Junkyard and because of how they view his appearence.

Ripto: A small yet malicious villain. He seems to enjoy power for the sake of having it. He is fond of causing trouble and he intends to show that he is more than capable of causing destruction despite his small stature.

The Sorceress: An evil dinopotamous who attempted to murder baby dragons to create a potion to maintain her immortality. It's revealed that she banashed the dragons a thousand years prior to the events in Spyro: YotD (a reason for why hasn't been verified as of late). She is malicious and power-hungry and appears to fear death and Spyro (seeing him as a formidable foe)

Designs: The characters seem to follow a cutesy childish design, which is a good way to attract younger audiences.

Music: The music in the games is relaxing yet upbeat. They effectively suit the levels they appear in. The music for the first three games was composed by the drummer for The Police, Stewart Copeland. Through his composition, we've gained tracks that suited the atmosphere of the level (example, the Artisan's world of shepherds, sheep, medieval towers and endless green knolls has an oriental-sounding mixture of bells and drums whereas the Beast Makers' midnight swamp has a solid rhythm.)

Glitches: The original Spyro games also had its share of glitches.

Swimming in the air: If you perform a dash underwater and kill yourself upon getting out, the game will register the level as a water level and you'll be able to swim around the entire level.

Double jump: Can only be activated if you jump and dash at the same time (can only be found in Spyro 2)

But there's one infamous glitch, one that'll give you no choice but to start from scratch.

The Country Speedway glitch: If you choose to race the flying pigs, do not quit the race. If you do and you complete it afterwards, you will never recieve the dragon egg as a reward. This is only present on the original version of the game.

Final verdict: The original Spyro games are well construced games.They are still fun even to this day. If you plan to invest in the Playstation, make sure these games are in your collection.
This analysis is my half of a now canceled art trade with :iconxflowerstarx: (the Chris Chan of the Spyro fanbase)
© 2013 - 2024 Channeleven
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TotallyDeviantLisa's avatar
Why would you call her the Chris Chan of the Spyro fanbase? :(

(I'm not defending her since she unfairly blocked me on Facebook and Twitter)