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Impressions of Spyro: Year of the Dragon

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And thus concludes the original trilogy! And boy, howdy, I had no idea how GOOD this game is! Pretty much any complaint I had with the first or even the second games are fixed here, it brings back enough of the original game's elements without making it seem stale, and mixes in a healthy dose of stuff from the second one...Basically it's an epic combination!

First off, the zany characters that the Spyro series is so well known for are at the maximum level of memorable, with even more laughs and even some actual drama! (Never thought I'd say that! Not until the "Legend of" series, anyway...) With the re-inclusion of dragon eggs as the collectibles, there were just a TON of clever reasons as to why the NPCs had them in the first place, which is better than the classic "here's a dragon egg" from the first game. ("Take this egg and smash it on Billy's house, OK?" is by far the most memorable one for me!) Plus seeing the eggs hatch and watching baby dragons be adorable was also nice! (Modesty and Jonah, who was in a flipping WHALE are my favorites!) However, I sort of miss the second game's "multiple conflict" thing it had going, but at the same time, this game did a lot to keep the central conflict with the Sorceress key...So having each level infested with Rhynocs makes sense, I guess! As a whole, it helped make the main antagonist be more of a threat/have a presence, something that needed to be fixed in the second and first games respectively. But more on that later!

On the same character note, the biggest change in this game is definitely the addition of playable characters. And I'm not going to lie, going into this, I was reluctant to give up Spyro to play other characters. But in the end, for the most part, anyway, I think they're super fun! Each of them have a great personality, (no complaints on a single one; I love 'em all!) a hilarious cutscene involving beating the snot out of Moneybags, and a different play style to mix things up a bit. Aaaaand that is a good idea, but it didn't always work for me. For example, of course I love Sheila's character, and I actually really enjoyed playing her jump/kick-oriented levels. On the other hand, Agent 9 was my favorite personality-wise, (is he okay?! I've never seen such a trigger-happy monkey!) but I didn't really like his play style. I guess it's all a matter of opinion, but for me, going from playing a speedy dragon to a slower character was too much of a shock at times, and really bogged down the game. It didn't ruin everything, though, because again, ALL of their personalities rock! (Bentley, I love you buddy, but do you have to move so SLOW?!)

Continuing on with characters, (this game's shining moments involve them) man...Here I was, only beginning to appreciate Hunter, and then suddenly HE IS THE COSTAR. Hunter's role in this game is GREAT, being a kind of a traveling companion/brother to Spyro, with a lot of friendly competition thrown in. And of course, he's still Hunter, so most of what he says is GOLD. Needless to say, I was thrilled that he was a big part of this game! That, and also, ahem, Bianca. Man, I didn't expect a SPYRO game to have an actual character arc thrown in there! The game actually really takes its time in developing her motives, why she's working for the side of evil, and of course, why she eventually decides to leave it all behind. She's just a really interesting character, and I was always curious to see what new speech she was going to give me at the beginning of each homeworld as she became more and more conflicted about what she was doing. And of course, Hunter x Bianca, ooooooooh yes. That was also paced out decently well, and was actually a good payoff! (Spyro may not have thought so, but I was whooping and hollering for the ship at the end of the game!) 

Also, a quick side-not on Moneybags...He is DASTARDLY in this game! He is technically on the side of evil, keeping all these characters locked up for the Sorceress, and no amount of Spyro "bribing" him to let them go makes him a good person. I can handle a money-grubber, but a money-grubber that's actually working for the enemy? Ugh! Chasing him and shaking the gems out of him milk-money bully style made it aaaall worth it, though! 

And lastly, oh snap, the villain. The Sorceress is by FAR the most dastardly of the bunch, and can even be described as despicable. Gnasty Gnorc, what did he do, encase dragons into statues, (which take Spyro roughly 3.3 seconds to free them) hide a couple of dragon eggs, and steal the treasure? Well ha, RIPTO is going to...uh...take over...Avalar? And be an evil overlord? (The game was never very clear about what he was doing, now that I think about it.) Well move aside, boys, the Sorceress is stealing dragon eggs so she can KILL BABY DRAGONS, and STEAL THEIR WINGS so she can LIVE FOREVER. And of course there's a big thing about a dragon magic apocalypse and exile and her ALSO being an overlord-er, overlady, to boot. She is just NASTY, (without the "G!") so I felt a lot more motivated to try and take her down! 

Speaking of taking down, one big complaint I had with the second game was the lack of bosses. Welp, on top of having FOUR main ones, the game also throws in a lot more "mini-game" bosses, too, totaling up to TWELVE. And that doesn't even include the 100% secret Sorceress fight, I think, I dunno, I certainly didn't attempt it! They're all decently difficult, too, the main ones, anyway. (I distinctly remember being killed by Buzz because Sheila, my Aussie kangaroo friend who was SUPPOSED to be my ally, TRIPPED me, which resulted in me getting pummeled by our common enemy. Way to go.) I actually lost all my lives on this game, and mainly because of the bosses and not from faulty charge jumps like in the first game! 

Now there are the mini-games...These are a TON of fun as usual, although I still think it's strange that each one has a little "portal" to get to it. The second never needed to do that, and it made the world feel so much more vast and alive...It's a lot more fun to haphazardly explore and stumble on someone that needs your help instead of finding a portal and then booting up a loading screen (albeit a short one; I think at most it only delays about 3 seconds, which isn't all that bad, as loading screens go) to go to a completely different area, a level within a level. It might have had to do with rendering issues, and I probably should be thankful for them if they really do cut down on lag or any other similar issues in the game, but I was a little disappointed in that. 

However, as previously stated, the mini-games are a TON of fun, portal or no! Sure, they can be frustrating sometimes, especially in the new players' worlds, but for the most part, they're good old fashioned Spyro fun! A few standouts for me was the pathetically easy, but undoubtedly ADORABLE escort mission with the little seal figure skater, (something about Spyro being her "skating partner" was really cute to me!) the Sheila level where you get to help TAKE DOWN A FORTRESS, the nautical battle with the submarine, (although that could be considered a "boss") and of course, the skateboard levels. Oh. My. Gosh. That was probably the biggest thing that stood out to me in this game PERIOD. I mean, I get to run around as a dragon, which is already cool, but now he's on a skateboard?!?!? HECK YEAH! These levels are full of bliss, concentration, and a large heaping of brotherly conflict. Hunter and Spyro's skateboarding competitions had so much CHARM to them, I would always get frustrated when Hunter would beat me, but I sure as heckfire was not going to give up, I'd NEVER live that down! It was like the game took all of Spyro's emotions, channeled them through the TV, and made me feel DETERMINED and COMPETITIVE and darn tootin', did it feel good when I finally pummeled Hunter to the ground! MAN, those moments were PERFECT!

So, TL;DR, this game plays as smoothly as the second, (which is at maximum smoothness!) brought back the charm from the first game and buffed it to maximum charminess, has great music, (which I forgot to mention, but they do seem to recycle music in this game a lot more, which was a little unnerving...But I guess that just shows how many mini-games/levels there were? I dunno, but that was one downside I had with it. Sounds great, though!) and awesome, memorable characters. While it's still not my favorite Spyro game, (*clings to the Ripto's Rage*) it is SUPER high up there, and I can easily see why this one is considered the best of the trilogy! (by .1!)


Spyro 3 Year of the Dragon - Bianca Icon Thanks for changing your mind, Bianca!


Also, considering school has started up, making a little compilation like this for EVERY Spyro game is probably not going to happen...I still intend to beat them all, but playing AND drawing all this isn't really going to be much of an option anymore. (I'm currently struggling through A Hero's Tail, and finding next to nothing fun to draw about it. It's just a...boring game?? Not a bad one, just a...not as fun one.) I still want an excuse to "review" them all, though, so maybe I'll sketch up at least one image per!



Spyro (at least this version) and pals here are © to Insomniac Games
Oh, and the dumb little snippets that Hunter and Spyro are yelling at each other is a little reference to Xiaolin Showdown, so phrases such as "Dog Playing Poker" is 
© to Warner Bros Animation, I suppose!





spyro funny icon (Ugh, ugh, ugh, can I just NOT play the Blink levels? And still get an egg for it? UUUUUGGGGHH)
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PeekAtWildlife's avatar
This was my favorite game actually. Still got it next to my PS2! :)