Insomniac Games
Spyro the Dragon

The very first times with the PlayStation I played on a demo that let you try the first world, a level was missing, you couldn't access the flight level or the boss, and it didn't let you complete it; I got the game as a gift for Christmas 2000 (I was 11 years old), it was put in a gift package that also contained Lenny Kravitz's Greatest Hits, what a strange combination, a video game intended for a decidedly childish audience and a U.S. rocker (whom I never explored further), children and adults in the same box; the rest is history, I still love this game now.

A small purple dragon that has to save his older peers, whom the evil Gnasty Gnorc has condemned for defamation against him; it's true, in life you really have to be careful what you say, it could really turn into a boomerang that comes back, that seems to be the moral; during an interview, a dragon describes Gnasty as "simple, harmless, and ugly," perhaps not thinking the guy would be so touchy, nor that he was watching the interview live, so because of him, they all find themselves trapped in crystal blocks, except Spyro, who was too young to be hit by the spell. If only in life you could crystallize the first one who talks nonsense about you, hahaha...

80 dragons, 14,000 treasures, 12 dragon eggs, that's all the little dragon has to recover, all more or less evenly scattered in 6 colorful worlds, each clearly distinguishable by a particular landscape style that characterizes its levels: green and hilly for the Artisans, arid, sandy, and rich with gullies and canyons for the Peacekeepers, mountainous, steep, and icy for the Magic Crafters, swampy and rich with bark for the Beast Makers, enchanted, fairy-tale, and floating for the Dream Weavers, metallic and port-like for the Gnasty. Worlds that are divided into a specific and schematic number of levels; all of them, in fact, have a home, three ordinary levels, a flight level, and a boss level, except for the last world, which has two ordinary levels in addition to the home, Gnasty Gnorc's level, and the final treasure level. The home is the main level, unnamed, simply referred to as "Home" (except in the last world, where it's called "Gnorc Nexus"), here you can reach all other locations through special archway portals and other worlds via a balloon watched over by an aeronaut who always asks for something in return before transporting Spyro elsewhere (whether a certain number of treasures are collected or a certain number of dragons are saved).

In each level, Spyro must move in every possible corner and collect a variable number of treasures (100-200 in the first world, up to 400 in the second and up to 500 from the third onwards) and save from 2 to 4 dragons (in two levels, even 5), as well as recover the dragon eggs (present only in the first three worlds) stolen by blue-clad thieves (swift guys to be chased without stopping and without losing orientation, we've all cursed a bit the first times); the number of treasures to recover may be daunting but it doesn't correspond to the number of gems: the red gem is worth 1 treasure, the green gem 2, the blue gem 5, the yellow gem 10, and the purple gem 25; they are scattered on the ground or in the hands of enemies (therefore, it's necessary to defeat them all, some equipped with fireproof armor, others too large to charge) or in wooden chests openable with a flame, in metal chests requiring a charge, in small containers equipped with a rotating propeller, in TNT crates, in sealed chests requiring a key to be found, in indestructible chests that can be opened with force solutions like rockets, supercharges, or superflames. Patience in exploring every area of the level is essential for the player, it's certainly not the game for impatient players who can't be bothered to collect every little thing and aim straight for the level's end, it's essential not to be prone to dizziness caused by the camera's constant rotation, gems may be on heights, castle tops, areas not exactly within reach and visible to the player, if you've gone around the entire level and discover you're missing perhaps just one gem, it's expletives! What did I forget? Did I climb that tower over there? Did I try going behind that wall? Did I try gliding to that distant islet? All questions that become mandatory if you want to finish the game properly, listening to the dragons after freeing them can be helpful; okay, it's not necessary to forcibly take everything to proceed to the next worlds and defeat Gnasty Gnorc, but the real goal is precisely to manage to collect everything in the dragon world, defeat Gnasty and thus access the final level with the last 2000 treasures to collect. All while being careful not to get hit too many times: Sparx the dragonfly accompanies Spyro during every single movement (indeed, she's the one collecting the gems) and starts off gold in color, but with each hit becomes blue, then green, then disappears, and at the next touch, Spyro loses a life, roasting those little animals spinning around the level turning them into butterflies for Sparx to eat is what needs to be done to recover lost energy.

Even in the boss level, the goal remains the same, to collect all the treasures and free the single present dragon (2 in the fifth world's boss), ultimately it's a completely normal level ending with the boss's defeat. The discussion regarding flight levels is entirely separate (which do not follow the landscape style of the world they're in): Spyro must here fly throughout the level and plunder all objects he finds before time runs out, obtaining 60 treasures for each series of 8 plundered objects (chests, barrels, airplanes, helicopters, boats, but also rings or arches to pass through), plus another 60 treasures for being able to complete it all in one go, for a total of 300. Needless to say, timing and intelligence are required, and the risk of expletives here is higher than elsewhere, it's essential to understand what the ideal path to follow is to minimize time intervals between objects and not waste time in unnecessary and slowed down maneuvers that could cost the attempt.

Yet it must be said that despite everything, this first Spyro adventure is definitely easy, especially if compared to the subsequent ones, the playability is definitely within everyone's reach, and Spyro doesn't need to solve particular skill challenges or puzzles, he simply has to limit himself to collecting whatever he finds; the gems are not particularly hidden in unthinkable places or walls to break like in the subsequent chapters, with the possible exception of the Tree Tops level, where Spyro has to chase two thieves using glowing ramps to reach a really distant islet, the same discourse in the Wizard Peak level. Indeed, the glowing ramps deserve a separate discussion, they're the coolest thing Spyro can encounter on his journey, they're intermittent glowing arrows located on some descents, they can be used to open untouchable chests but especially to reach otherwise inaccessible places.

Regarding the graphics, it is worth pausing on the vibrancy of the colors, a vibrancy that seems really to be a calling card for anyone. An honorable mention for the music composed by former The Police drummer Stewart Copeland, who created something sophisticated and unclassifiable in any genre, clear and sunny music that marries very well with the game's vivid colors and makes Spyro's adventure even more inviting.

The mystery remains as to why after completing the game at 120%, the final video shows the dragons being trapped again and Spyro finding himself back at the start of the game, for the rest, it's history. A simpler and less enigmatic game compared to the subsequent chapters, but it remains an essential classic of what remains the most memorable era for video games.