Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon is a platform game developed by Insomniac Games for the PlayStation. It stars the title character, a young purple dragon named Spyro and is the first in the series of Spyro the Dragon video games. The first game was massively popular at its initial release and would later become one of the most recognisable, popular and respected gaming icons for the PlayStation gaming console.

Story
In a land known as the Dragon Realms, the elder dragons are preparing for a video documentary of sorts about their realm. Meanwhile, the antagonist Gnasty Gnorc, who had been banished from the realms, becomes upset over comments the dragons make of him. Enraged, Gnasty Gnorc bombards the Dragon Realms with a magical spell, freezing the resident dragons into crystalline statues, and sends an army of Gnorcs in to steal the dragons' treasure.

However, Gnasty somehow missed imprisoning the youngest dragon in the realm, Spyro (who was seen chasing sheep in the background during the dragons' documentary shoot). Realizing who is responsible for the disaster, Spyro, who sets out to free the realm's dragons, recover their treasure hoard from the invading Gnorcs, and then confront and defeat Gnasty Gnorc himself.

Enemy bosses

 * Toasty, boss of the Artisan world. What appears to be a scythe-wielding, pumpkin-headed scarecrow is ultimately revealed to be nothing more than a sheep on stilts. To defeat this boss, you must first defeat his dogs (they take two hits; one to char them, and a second to finish them off) then flame him. He takes three hits.
 * Doctor Shemp, the incredibly obese witch doctor boss of the Peacekeepers' world. He wears sunglasses, swings a staff with a skull on it and thinks he's cool. He is guarded by a number of berserk charging tribal warriors whose eyesight is impaired by metal visors. A rescued dragon notes he needs to watch his back.
 * Blowhard, boss of the Magic Crafters' world, and possibly in charge of the wind wizards seen frequently throughout that world. He is literally a whirlwind, his lower body a cyclone. He is also capable of generating thunderclouds to defend himself.
 * Metalhead, boss of the Beast Makers' world. This large robot ape is impervious to all of Spyro's attacks, and thus must be defeated by having his power supply cut off. His attacks include two varieties of electric rays and the hurling of the apelike Beast Maker enemies.
 * Jacques, a demonic jack-in-the-box (the toy after which he is named) and the boss of the Dream Weavers' world. He resides in a nightmare landscape populated by creatures born from bad dreams, and is fought on a series of platforms levitating above a volcanic crater. He is fond of throwing boxes at Spyro.
 * Gnasty Gnorc, the main antagonist and final boss. His main means of attack is firing a green light from his scepter. He is initially out of Spyro's attacking range, so a key must be retrieved from a thief to lower a stairway leading towards him, after which he runs through a junkyard and eventually down a magma-filled hallway before he can be trapped and defeated.

Homeworlds/Levels
There are six Homeworlds in the game. These act as hubs from which Spyro can travel to other levels similar in appearance via numerous portals. In each level there is a set number of gems to obtain and a small number of dragons (with the exception of flight levels). With the exception of Gnorc Gnexus in Gnasty's World, each Homeworld contains five portals to separate levels. These are three standard levels, a boss confrontation and a flight. There are occasional thieves, including egg, key and least commonly, gem thieves that's loot can prove to be a vital resource for game completion.

Artisans. Spyro's home world. The Artisan dragons are tranquil and take a calmer approach to most problems. The Artisan World consists of pleasant countryside and ornate castles.
 * Stone Hill. The first Artisan level, which is set in a green hillside by the ocean. It features a large castle next to the exit portal, which overlooks the ocean, and has a series of tunnels connecting the various areas of Stone Hill. The only enemies here are rams that try to charge Spyro, and shepherds that will whack him with their crooks if he approaches them. The common thief in the first part of the game, the egg thief, is introduced.


 * Dark Hollow. As the name implies, this area is set at night, in a hollow that is lit by lamps. Spyro can light several piles of wood with his flame to light up some of the areas. There is also a small lake which can only be reached through halls guarded by Sentry Gnorcs. This area is the first area that shows the concept of Spyro's flame defeating large enemies, and his charge defeating armored enemies.


 * Town Square. A town area of which takes place at early evening. It has many buildings that border a lake, and a fountain in the main square of town. This area focuses on gliding, as it is required to reach the exit. Here, bulls which behave like the rams of Stone Hill will either chase after Spyro, or the Gnorc toreadors that are trying to tame them.


 * Toasty. The level in which the boss is fought is set in twilight, which features a large castle that Spyro must traverse, which is set atop a cliff overlooking a lake. The shepherds return in this level, along with watchdogs that pounce Spyro if he approaches them, and take two attacks to defeat. The battle against Toasty himself takes place in the castle courtyards.


 * Sunny Flight. The first flight level, which is set on an island in the middle of the ocean, and as the name suggests, it is sunny, set at morning. It features several crystals growing out of the island, and also tracks which trains carrying barrels ride upon. There is also a spire in the middle of the water which has several Gnorcs flying around it in planes, along with a tunnel and alcove holding chests. Here, Spyro must destroy the 8 barrels carried by the trains, fly through 8 green arches that are set in a circle around the island, destroy the planes, and also the 8 chests to complete the flight.

Peace Keepers. The second home world. The Peace Keeper Dragons have an "attack first, ask questions later" attitude. The Peace Keepers' home world is a dusty desert land at a relatively high altitude with frequent tar pits. A number of secrets can be found via perilous flights around cliff faces.


 * Dry Canyon. The first level of the Peace Keepers world.  Set in a dusty, dry canyon in the middle of a rocky desert.  Gnorc enemies in this level have been transformed from gems to vicious vultures. This level, which includes incomprehensible glides and dozens of more traps, can prove to be much more challenging than the first few levels in the Artisan homeland, but on the contrary is an introduction and a preparation for the much more challenging levels to come.


 * Cliff Town.


 * Ice Cavern.


 * Doctor Shemp.


 * Night Flight.

Magic Crafters. The third world is filled with landscape that defies the laws of physics. The Magic Crafter Dragons like to use brain, not brawn to keep things in order. The scenery here is that of partially snowy mountain sides. It is here where supercharge ramps are first introduced to the game. These give Spyro a blisteringly fast and powerful charge, and they can be used to glide much longer distances.


 * Wizard Peak.


 * High Caves.


 * Alpine Ridge.


 * Blowhard.


 *  Crystal Flight.

Beast Makers. A dark swamp turned electrified battlefield. Beast Maker Dragons send others to defend them (but don't mind getting in the battle themselves). Be careful of the native wildlife and electricity loving Gnorcs.


 * Terrace Village. The Gnorcs here all use electrical weapons, and even charge up the ground to hurt Spyro. There's a staircase near the end that is camaflouged with the wall.


 * Misty Bog. A large swamp covered in mist and inhabited by chickens, fierce frogs and even plants that try to eat Spyro. Some Gnorcs have set up traps to catch chickens.


 * Tree Tops. Stated by some to be the hardest level in the entire Spyro series, like the name says this is the top of a jungle with lots of supercharge ramps. The main enemies are small apes that throw bananas and large apes that kick Spyro. There are also two thieves, a red one and a green one, who are difficult, but not impossible, to catch.


 * Metalhead. This is a small fortress in a swamp with the same gnorcs as seen in Tree Tops. Most of the level involves getting into the fortress, while the boss battle takes place inside it.


 * Wild Flight.

Dream Weavers. A world of wonder and confusion. Dream Weaver Dragons are in charge of keeping and creating dreams, making for an illusion-filled world. Keep your eye out for fairies; help them, and they will return the favor. Dream Weavers consists of numerous inexplicably floating islands high in the air. Beware, because some things are not always as they seem.


 * Dark Passage. A Shadowed filled mountain that hovers way over the ground, the problem with here is that the enemies don't stay the same. In the light they are small dogs and metal-shelled turtles, but when they are in the shadows they become huge monsters. With fools who shade their lights, it can be difficult for Spyro to defeat some. But, attacking fools brings a temporary, but non-stop light in an area.


 * Lofty Castle. An airborne castle sometime near the end or beginning of night, Spyro needs to free three caged fairies to move to each part of the level. Enemies here included large, metal-wearing Gnorcs that dangle below balloons, "Handsome devils" and balloon-like birds.


 * Haunted Towers. Called so because of the heavy suits of armour that come to life when a wizard casts a spell on it. This is one of the only level where Spyro can get a permanent superflame here, at least for the rest of that level.


 * Jacques. The boss of the Dream Weavers world.


 * Icy Flight. The fifth and final flight of the game.

Gnorc Gnexus. Gnasty Gnorc's industrial home world. He was banished there long ago and has now turned it into his evil empire. Each level must be unlocked by completing the previous.


 * Twilight Harbor.


 * Gnorc Cove.


 * Gnasty Gnorc.


 * Gnasty's Loot.

Bonus stage
When the player has released all the dragons, collected all the gems, and has exactly 100% as shown in the inventory the player can enter the stage Gnasty's Loot, where the player can take back all the gems that Gnasty has stolen from the dragon kingdom. Gnasty's Loot is located in Gnasty's World. This level allows Spyro to fly for an unlimited time while in this stage only. This flying power, however, is controlled by how high Spyro can start his flight. A series of keys held by thieves must be captured in order to proceed to the highest flying peaks in this stage. This stage consists of Gems with values of 10 and 25 with a grand total of 2000. This is in reference to the opening sequence where the dragons cannot decide if there are 12,000 or 14,000 gems within the Dragon Realms. When Gnasty's Loot is completed, another 20% will be added to the games completion, making the game 120% complete. There is also a cut scene after the level is completed.

Abilities/Controls

 * Press X to jump
 * Press X 2 times to glide
 * To fall, press triangle while gliding
 * Press the circle button to breath fire
 * Press the square button to charge
 * Press R1 or L1 To roll

Music by Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland, the drummer of the band The Police, is credited with composing the soundtracks for the first four Spyro The Dragon games. 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 composed and performed on a keyboard inputted to a computer with software managing the recordings and compositions.

Copeland made a music track for each level in the game (except for Toasty and Gnorc Gnexus, which share the same music track), giving each level their own feel according to the natural surroundings, architecture and inhabitants of the place. For example, in the Artisans world of shepherds, sheep, medieval towers and endless green hills, the music is layered with an oriental-sounding mixture of bells and native percussion whereas the Beast Makers' midnight swamp has a solid rhythm layered with the melancholy calls of owls.

None of the tracks on this game were given clear audible vocals, however, the track to Wild Flight contains obscured vocal-sounding voices layered on top of the guitar, organ and drums. Some of the tracks varied where the game was bought. In the American versions of the game, the music track to High Caves is a slower version similar to the music for the Tree Tops level. In European releases of the game, High Caves is played with a much more upbeat track similar to that of one of the games general tracks (sometimes referred to as Beast Makers Alternative or Beast Makers (Reprise)).

Sounds that gave Copeland's tracks clear uniqueness were the high pitched twinkling sounds similar to those of a glockenspiel or a harpsichord. Also, the use of a vibrating rock organ in nearly all tracks make the tracks quite unique when combined with the twinkling sounds.

The music has been compared to that of Mutato Muzika's score of the original Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games. The music has never been released on CD.

Download
The game is now available for sale on the PlayStation 3's PlayStation Store. This allows you to play it on a PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable.