Spyro the Dragon (series)

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Spyro the Dragon is a popular platform game series starring the video game character Spyro, which was originally released for the Sony PlayStation. The first game was a huge success, and many sequels and spin-off games followed.

Contents

[edit] Console games

[edit] Original trilogy

[edit] Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon, the first Spyro game, was first released in the USA on the September 10, 1998, for the PlayStation. It was a platform game that placed the player as Spyro: a small, purple dragon set with the task of freeing his fellow dragons from crystal prisons scattered around their world. Each level was attained through 'portals,' accessed from a main 'home world.' The game culminated with a fight between Spyro and Gnasty Gnorc, the final boss and main antagonist of the first game. Although there were other boss levels guarding each home world, many of these were optional and did not have to be beaten to progress in the game. Spyro's primary abilities were gliding, charging and fire-breathing, which worked especially well for the Playstation controller. The game sold well and most critics gave it favorable reviews.[1] It also received acclaim for its musical score by Stewart Copeland. This game is now available for download to PS3 or PSP through the PlayStation Store.

[edit] Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage

Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage (also knowen Spyro x Sparx: Tondemo Tours in Japan) or (Spyro: Gateway To Glimmer - Known in the U.K) followed on from the success of the first title, making its release in Autumn 1999. In the game, Spyro and Sparx, while looking for a holiday at Dragon Shores, accidentally stumble through a portal into the realm of Avalar, where the malicious wizard and main antagonist Ripto is taking over the once-peaceful lands. Spyro meets a number of new allies, including the Professor, Hunter the cheetah, Elora the faun, and Zoe the fairy, and must face a new foe: Ripto, a tiny tyrannical ruler, equipped with a magic scepter. Ripto is also protected by Crush and Gulp, two dim-witted dinosaurs. The structure of the game is similar to the first, with levels being accessed from the three main home worlds, named Summer Forest, Autumn Plains, and Winter Tundra. The game introduces some new abilities for Spyro, including hovering after a glide, swimming underwater, climbing ladders, head-bashing, and many more abilities. Unlike the original game, boss fights were now mandatory to advance to the next home world, with Spyro fighting Crush, Gulp and then finally Ripto in .

[edit] Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon

Spyro: Year of the Dragon was released in Autumn 2000, and it was the last Spyro game to be created by Insomniac. [2] In this game, the dragons are celebrating the coming of dragon eggs, an event that takes place every twelve years. A mysterious anthropomorphic rabbit girl, Bianca, along with an army of rhynocs, come by and steal all the eggs, and Spyro, the only dragon small enough, must follow her down a rabbit hole to the other side of the world - to the Forgotten Realms. There they meet many new allies, some of which are also playable characters in their own miniature levels - Sheila the kangaroo, Sgt. Byrd the flying, missile-shooting penguin, Bentley the kindly yeti, and Agent 9 the hyperactive, laser-wielding monkey, as well as a brand-new foe: the Sorceress. As in the previous games, levels are accessed from a central home world, of which there are four: Sunrise Spring, Midday Gardens, Evening Lake, and Midnight Mountain. The third installment of the Spyro series also feature levels in which the player controls Sparx in a bird's eye view shooting game. Spyro and his new friends must find out why the Sorceress stole the eggs, what she plans to do with them, and how to stop her. Insomniac Games President Ted Price stated in an interview about Resistance: Fall of Man that they stopped creating Spyro games because the player character, Spyro, was too limited for them to add new features and actions (Ted states, as an example, that "he didn't even have hands, he couldn't even hold a gun.")[3]

[edit] Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly (Autumn 2002) was the first game in the Spyro series for PlayStation 2 and GameCube and was developed by Equinox Digital Entertainment and Check Six Studios. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly had mixed responses from reviewers [4], referring to the numerous glitches, lack of storyline, originality, and long load times.

The story kicks off right after the Sorceress was defeated in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The baby dragons are now preparing to receive their dragonflies, a rite of passage in any dragon's life (although in the earlier games, none of the dragons besides Spyro has a dragonfly). It's a huge celebration filled with joy and happiness until Ripto comes to capture the dragonflies, making the dragons helpless. He casts his spell but messes up, instead scattering the dragonflies all over the Dragon Realms, and it is then up to Spyro to rescue them.

[edit] Spyro: A Hero's Tail

Spyro: A Hero's Tail (Released Autumn 2004), the fifth installment in the Spyro series, is available for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, and was created by Eurocom Entertainment Software. The story is that Red, a former Dragon Elder, came to the Dragon Realms to plant Dark Gems - structures that intend to flood the world with evil energy. It's up to Spyro to travel across the Dragon Realms, destroy all the Dark Gems and defeat Red and his army.

[edit] The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning marked the third title to be released on the PlayStation 2 and GameCube and the second on the Xbox, released in Autumn 2006 and developed by Krome Studios. Portrayed as a reboot to the series, Spyro is sent on a quest to find the captured Guardian dragons so the Dark Master does not return from his prison. An evil dragoness named Cynder uses her dark minions to harness the power of the four Guardian dragons (fire, electricity, ice, and earth) in order to open the Dark Master's prison, bringing terror throughout the lands. The cast includes Elijah Wood as Spyro, David Spade as Sparx, and Gary Oldman as Ignitus.

Although it was first advertised as a prequel to the first Spyro game, this game is in fact a reboot to the series, starting off from scratch and having nothing to do with the previous games.

The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning has thus far received signicantly better reviews and ratings from fans and critics, leaving the likeliness for a sequel higher than previous installments managed.

[edit] The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night

The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, a sequel to A New Beginning, was released on October 2007 for the PlayStation 2 and Wii consoles [5] and was once again developed by Krome Studios. In this game, the Ape King Gaul planned to free the Dark Master from the Well of Souls on the Night of Eternal Darkness, and Spyro - having faced several visions of the threat - embarked on a journey to stop him. Elijah Wood and Gary Oldman reprised their roles for the game, with Billy West taking over the role for Sparx.

The Eternal Night received slightly less acclaim than its predecessor, usually in part to its difficulty and controls. Regardless, the setup for the game resulted in an equally likely demand for another sequel.

[edit] The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon

The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon will be the third game in the reboot series and the sequel to Eternal Night, this time with Etranges Libellules developing the game to the home consoles, and Tantalus Media developing the Nintendo DS version. Little is known about it except that it will be the first Spyro game to feature free-flight, that a cooperative mode is planned with the second player as Cynder and that Spyro and Cynder will get a new look (bigger, more adult-looking than in A New Beginning, The Eternal Night and all the earlier games). It has been stated that Spyro will finally face the Dark Master in this installment. The platforms currently announced are the Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 and 3, Nintendo DS and Wii. This will be the tenth anniversary for the Spyro the Dragon franchise.

[edit] Handheld games and other systems

[edit] On Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance series of Spyro was made by Digital Eclipse (the first three games), Vicarious Visions (Spyro Orange), Krome Studios (A New Beginning) and Amaze Entertainment (The Eternal Night).

[edit] On Nintendo DS

All current Nintendo DS videogames have been developed by Amaze Entertainment.

[edit] On mobile phones

  • Spyro (June 2003) In this game, Spyro is the special guest of the Fairy Queen for the Royal Ball. But just before the beginning of the party, none of the fairies are ready: their dresses are still locked in the magic chests. The player must help Spyro give each fairy her clothes in the right order or the party will be cancelled! In 'classic mode' Spyro has eighteen levels, the first three of which are practice tutorials. In 'arcade mode' the game is unlimited. Spyro has to help the fairies to find the right costume for the Great Ball of the Millennium. Each fairy has its own look and it is Spyro's job to locate the right clothing and accessories. If the clock runs down, as traditionally happens, the fairy can change her mind and throw off her costume. In arcade mode, the fairies are more impatient, ultimately leaving their dressing room. After two failures, it's game over.
  • Spyro: Ripto Quest (November 2004), Ripto and his army have attacked the three worlds of Ice, Grass and Fire. They've managed to damage the machine that protects the worlds. Spyro and Sparx must recover the 4 damaged machine parts and return them to the Professor. Spyro breathes his traditional fire, casts spells, can teleport, jump and fly around 3 magical worlds and 7 levels of gameplay. Along the way, Spyro must talk to various characters to obtain new missions to defeat Ripto's rhynoc army. At the end, a new villain appears: a giant snake that Spyro has to defeat to beat the game.
  • Spyro the Dragon (Not the same game as the PS1 title. Despite the name, it is similar to Shadow Legacy.) (August 2005), A powerful, evil sorcerer has captured all of the dragons. It is quite a disaster to the Dragon Realms, everyone has disappeared! Spyro's friends are counting on him becoming a true kata, the magic/martial arts dragon power master to free the dragons before they are trapped in the alternate dimension known as the Shadow Realm forever! Each world has two versions of itself, a normal version and its shadow counterpart. Swapping between the two allows Spyro to advance past obstacles that appear on one version of the Realm but not the other. Spyro has three different types of moves, one for attacking in the normal Realm, one for attacking in the Shadow Realm and one for smashing breakable objects. To 'level-up' Spyro's moves (as in a Role Playing Game) gems need to be collected. There are 25 gems in all. There are three different colors, for each of the three different moves. The more gems of a specific color that are found, the higher Spyro's level is for that color.
  • Legend of Spyro (October 2006) This is the mobile phone version of The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.

[edit] Appearances in non-Spyro games

Spyro appears in several Crash games. In Crash Bandicoot: Warped, there is a demo of the first Spyro game; similarly, Spyro features a Crash Bandicoot: Warped demo. Crash Team Racing also contains a demo of Spyro 2 and vice versa. Crash Bash and Spyro 3 also contain demos of each other.

Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage (known as Crash Bandicoot: Fusion in Europe and Crash Bandicoot Advance: Waku Waku Tomodachi Daisakusen! in Japan) (2004), for the Game Boy Advance, also features worlds and characters from the Spyro universe, but Spyro isn't a playable character in the game. Likewise, Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy features Spyro in a universe familiar to the orange bandicoot. This idea is intentional, as these two games were produced with a sharing intention, whereby items collected from each title need to be traded with the opposing game in-order to complete a joint-collection between the two.

In Crash Twinsanity, Spyro makes a small cameo protecting some of his treasure toward the end of the game.

In Crash Nitro Kart for GBA, Spyro can be unlocked by beating Velo with Team Bandicoot (interestingly enough, he is protected by Uka Uka.)

[edit] Flash games

There have been many different games available online, notably the Crash and Spyro Adventure World, a promotion by Kraft foods. Inside Nabisco Fruit Snacks and Jell-O Pudding Bites consumers found cards with codes. These codes could be typed in online to unlock up to eight different games.

The first Spyro flash games were on Universal Interactive's (now VU Games) Spyro website. These games and the website can no longer be found.

Then the original Insomniac Spyro game websites included minigames to play, with the exception of the website for the first game which did not contain any proper flash games. One of these games still survives, Spark's Pond, which can be played below and also be downloaded from Spyro-yearofthedragon.com

Spark's Pond [1]

[edit] Animated Feature

Variety reports that Spyro the Dragon is headed to the big screen to star in his own animated feature. The CGI flick will be written by Dan Altiere, with Dan Chuba, John Davis, Mark Dippe, Brian Manis and Ash Shah set to produce. The Film will be based On The Legend of Spyro Series due to the popularity of the plot. According to various sources, the movie will be released in 2009. Velvet Octopus

[edit] Characters

Main article: List of Spyro the Dragon Characters

[edit] Items

  • Gems, the hoard of dragons and often used as currency (especially to pay the character Moneybags, who takes a substantial amount of gems from the player over the course of the play; however all gems are invariably taken back at the completion of the game.) In many of the Spyro games, there were a set number of gems per level, and these were counted towards the player's overall percentage of game completion. In some of the most recent games, however (such as A Hero's Tail), this is no longer the case: gems can be collected by defeating enemies, and used to purchase consumable power-up items from shops.

In the Legend of Spyro series, the gems are used as powerups themselves, eliminating "Fodder" from the game; red gave you health, green breath energy, purple "Fury" power and blue gems are used as experience to level up.

  • Dragon Eggs have appeared in several of the Spyro games. Depending on the game, collecting enough Dragon Eggs can unlock secrets or allow passage to consecutive worlds. Some Dragon Eggs may be found lying on the ground or hovering in the air; some could be obtained by completing specific challenges; some could be recovered from locked treasure chests; other Dragon Eggs are in the possession of thieves, who must be chased down and attacked to recover the egg. Collecting these eggs was the main objective in Year of the Dragon.
  • Fodder and Butterflies were used as health power-ups in the original canon. Fodder were wild, yet harmless, animals that could be destroyed by breathing flame on them or charging into them. When it is destroyed, it releases a butterfly that Sparx will eat and one piece of health is restored. In later games, some special butterflies could give you a life.
  • Lives are special units of health; if you run out of health and lose sparx you will lose a life and go back to the last save point you were at. In the first Spyro game, lives were earned by collecting dragon statues and orbs, while in later games you could get lives from rare Butterflies. Since the release of Attack of the Rhynocs, the lives concept was discarded entirely.


[edit] Music by Stewart Copeland

Stewart Copeland, the drummer of the band The Police, is credited with composing the soundtracks for the first three Spyro games as well as Enter the Dragonfly. The score for Spyro the Dragon was given high praise for its originality, portraying oriental/fantasy-like themes for the Dragon Worlds. All music was performed on a computer which he says were rather shallow compositions but one of the most fun gigs that he ever had. The original titles of the music tracks were named after the first noun that came into his head before he hit the "save" button.

Copeland made music for each world in the games as well as music devoted to each level, giving them each their own feel according to the natural surroundings, architecture and inhabitants of the place. For example, in Spyro the Dragon the Artisans' world of shepherds, sheep, medieval towers and endless green hills has an oriental-sounding mixture of bells and drums where as the Beast Makers' midnight swamp has a solid rhythm overlayed with the melancholy calls of an owl. Ambient music features in Spyro 2 such as Autumn Plains. Mainly, the music is very "busy", i.e. full of different percussion instruments underlying the melody. Ted Price, the head of Insomniac Games believed Copeland's work for Spyro: Year of the Dragon, which he co-wrote with Ryan Beveridge, was some of his best to date. It is the stage for all kinds of sounds, including strange vocals and exotic instruments in styles from all over the world. The music has never been released on CD.

The music has been compared to that of Mutato Muzika's score of the original Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ IGN.com (September 9th, 1998). "IGN on Spyro the Dragon". Press release. Retrieved on 2007.
  2. ^ IGN.com (January 12th, 2003). "IGN on Spyro 3". Press release. Retrieved on 2007.
  3. ^ myGEN Australia (2007). Interview with Ted Price. Gametrailers.
  4. ^ IGN.com (November 8th, 2002). "IGN on Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly". Press release. Retrieved on 2007.
  5. ^ Worthplaying Retrieved June 12

[edit] External links

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Spyro the Dragon video games
Original Series
Legend Trilogy
Handheld games
Phone games
Spyro • Ripto's Quest • Spyro the Dragon