At the time this is being written, The Geoff Keighley Awards featuring Video Games 2024 has come and gone, with the winner being the action platformer Astrobot. For me, it was incredibly refreshing to see a solid 3D platform game win a major award, not because I place any stake into the winners or losers, but to see a genre that plays third fiddle in today's atmosphere get this level of recognition takes me back to where the genre started. I've stated in the past that while Super Mario 64 was a very important and influential video game, Spyro took the blueprint of the 3D platformer and sharpened it like a paring knife.

Originally designed by Insomniac Games, Spyro the Dragon was released on the white hot PlayStation in 1998, and was one of the characters seemingly in the running to be the mascot of Sony's debut console. Being inspired by the movie Dragonheart, Spyro was supposed to carry a more mature tone, but the shift was made to appeal to a younger audience. Demographics certainly did matter around this time, and while video games were mostly gearing towards and edgier teenage populace around this time, it still wasn't too late provide software with a more colorful sense of adventure and whimsy. Things can't be serious all the time, it would be one of the things that sort of burned me off of video games for a brief period in the late 2000's and midway through the 2010's; it got very exhausting to take the mantle of another grizzled beard man with a gun. Spyro had a sluggish start, but it ended up becoming one of the more popular as time passed. You're never too old to not grow up.

While Spyro isn't without its faults, Spyro's quasi-open world traveling feels fast and accessible. With the ability to fly and charge (his dashing headbutt attack), getting around seldom comes off as sluggish or repetitive. The glory of open-ended games during this time period, Insomniac placed more emphasis on the level design, rather than trying to make environment big for the sake of big. 

It's a solid collect-a-thon, too, which does require some exploration. But seldom does it feel like it drags the way Donkey Kong 64 and Glover does. With a mix of fireproof enemies to juggle up Spyro's offense by ramming into them, and some jump puzzles that can be a little testy later, on it remains a laid back, yet respectable challenge. The camera also does not impede the player the way it did in Super Mario 64. Seldom does it lose track of Spyro, who can move pretty fast. It was quite progressive, as this was before twin stick controls to guide the camera was not the standard.   

Yeah, my take on graphics around this time may be getting repetitive, and aspects of Spyro are no exception. Its blockiness is mitigated by the design to adopt a rather commercial friendly cartoon style. I find it quite memorable among the other PS1 games, dare I say it's pretty synonymous with some of the improving visual techniques devs were experimenting with. It's hard to take this look over good old sprites, but there's a part of me that's happy that nostalgia for the polygonal style has led to the development of some indie games emulating this look (see Puppet Combo's line of games). There's a place for it.

Spyro is one of my most replayed games from this period. It doesn't go on forever, the gameplay does feel a little for its time, but elements hold up decent enough to revisit (better than Crash Bandicoot, in my humble opinion).