Played and 100% the 3, The first one's the best game.

[Black Captain]

I was so sick of the games after the first one. The downfall for me is playing everyone else but Spyro and doing things outside of charging and flaming. I don't want to iceskate… ride a hovercraft.. play someone other than a purple dragon.

The sequels were both watered down and made more frustrating with the terrible camera controls and poor actual controls when doing anything other than... playing Spyro. 3 is the all-time worst game. The only thing I liked was that you can finally play Sparks. I feel like they ran out of ideas and decided that people didn't want the simplicity of first game. Mind you, the first game is probably the most complex given that there are no upgrades and if you missed something, it's because you missed it and not because of some character or power you didn't unlock. Climbing and swimming were nice additions, but I don't reward anyone for giving abilities that should come default with the character (like in Grand Theft auto 3, you die when you enter water, but subsequent games, you are good).

Hated Hunter in 2, but he was ok in 3, though it seemed a little out of place. Hated all the 2ndary characters in 3 other than the Yeti who offered a cool breath of fresh air from being a small, sprite. I also didn't like how 3 strips away the mystery of figuring out what order you should do the targets in the speedway levels and just tells you. They didn't really need to do that considering the design in most of the levels led to the obvious path revealed. I feel like they made arbitrary changes to keep things fresh only to harm the charm of the first game. Mario games largely keep you playing the main protagonist and still offer new challenges with each iteration. Why would Spyro need other characters with completely different gameplay, completely outside of the Spyro world? It was an attempt and I can't hate for them trying. But to introduce new characters and control options without fixing the camera issues makes the camera itself the hardest boss in the game. OMG... the first fight with the sorceress and you get the hovercraft.... good luck. The 2nd fight I just got lucky.

This was an interesting experience. I had only briefly playing a Spyro game in the past. I enjoyed the 1st one as it is classic gaming at its finest with little to no hand holding. 2 was a downgrade, but I found it harder than the 1st but for mostly control reasons and a few points that seemed very cryptic. 3 just sucks... I really just didn't like how they just through out being a dragon with 2ish moves to have an entourage of characters to distract from the core gameplay and a bunch of minigames that range from lame to completely out of place Mario, Party events.

...okay they weren't all bad. But I guess I'm a purest. The first one is the best of the 3. Don't @ me.

[NBOX21]

If you were to play the Reignited Trilogy version of Year of the Dragon, I could understand not liking some of the minigames because they really do play better in the original game. Also, these minigames have way more depth than an average Mario Party or Crash Bash minigame.

Even with that, I still found Year of the Dragon to be the most ambitious game in the trilogy and really pushed the PS1 to its limits in terms of technical capabilities. The Reignited Trilogy version looked great too, even if that version had some weird glitches not in the original.

I will admit, what was really nice about Year of the Dragon is that just like Banjo Tooie, you start with all your abilities learned from the previous game and don't have to unlock them again, only having to unlock the different characters.

Oh, and about the backtracking, there are ways to get around some of the backtracking issues in 2 and 3 if you play the levels in a certain order, for example, playing Shiela's Alp first will let you play Shiela's section in Sunny Villa without having to go back later. Only three times are you required to backtrack for the other characters, and even then, once you finish a level, a pathway usually opens up that takes you right to the end of the level where your destination awaits.

2's forced backtracking was far worse because of this as you had to play the whole level again when you come back just because you don't have the ability to climb in two levels or headbash in Shady Oasis. And don't even get me started on Fracture Hills... Even having full knowledge of the game's structure can't remedy all of it.

I never really found playing as the other characters unenjoyable or anything as I still found them fun to play as and still kept the same core gameplay of running around and collecting gems, which is also what I can say about the skateboarding.

Even the story I found to be the most interesting of the three. The first game, what story? The second one, Ripto takes over a few castles and does nothing with them. In YotD, Bianca steals the dragon eggs for the Sorceress's evil plans with some interesting plot twists towards the end.

I will say, however, the final boss wasn't that great, relying more on vehicles than actual core gameplay like the other three did. What it should've been was a mix of the two - the first half being core gameplay with the second half being vehicles. The only reason I can beat the final boss first time every time is because I know the game so well after having played it so many times.

Still, the lack of focus is a common complaint I have never understood in my nearly 20 years of playing this game. There is plenty of variety, sure, but the main levels only have you playing as Spyro with the minigames and character sections being their own sections of the levels which in a way allows for much greater focus on interesting level design, at least compared to 2, and at least 2/3 of the game is traditional gameplay in some way.

And believe me, I've played plenty of games with tons of variety and different gameplay styles that end up being a complete disaster and unenjoyable as a result, with Sonic 2006 being the most infamous example of this.

[MachinaHyena]

I'm not going to go into depth like the other two posts but I will say being 120% complete in Spyro 1, 100% complete in Spyro 2 and so far 22% complete in Spyro 3 that Spyro 2 is my personal fav. I enjoy how much more connected each place is, with each stage having their own plot and ending, obtaining new abilities, having a bunch of characters that support you but not having to play as them, and the variety on offer which just isn't present in Spyro 1. All these years I've been solid in my conviction that the first Spyro was the best but replaying these games again? can't say that anymore.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by MonkeyBone:

I'm not going to go into depth like the other two posts but I will say being 120% complete in Spyro 1, 100% complete in Spyro 2 and so far 22% complete in Spyro 3 that Spyro 2 is my personal fav. I enjoy how much more connected each place is, with each stage having their own plot and ending, obtaining new abilities, having a bunch of characters that support you but not having to play as them, and the variety on offer which just isn't present in Spyro 1. All these years I've been solid in my conviction that the first Spyro was the best but replaying these games again? can't say that anymore.

I will admit that I like how each level has their own story and ending to them, but at the same time, I don't really feel connected with the plots of the actual levels as they don't really tie into the main plot in any way other than collecting talismans. YotD, in comparison, has similar plots for each level (rhynocs invade, go stop them) but they all tie into the main story making it feel much more alive from my experience.

I don't mind having extra characters to play as, so long as they're fun to play as (which they are) and don't take up the majority of the game (which they don't). As for variety, really? I always thought 3 had way more variety not just in play styles, but also music, theming and overall design of the main levels than the first two combined.

Sorry for the hard defence of Year of the Dragon from me, but even after all these years I never understood the vast majority of the problems people have with it.

[MachinaHyena]

Well as I said I'm only 22% into 3 so I can't really comment too much on it right now although I will say I don't really like playing as the side characters and the Croc Lady bad guy isn't as good so far as Ripto. Don't like all the baby dragons either although that's just me. Things could change by the time I complete 3 of course but as for right now Spyro 2 just feels more solid to me dude.

[NBOX21]

Originally posted by MonkeyBone:

Well as I said I'm only 22% into 3 so I can't really comment too much on it right now although I will say I don't really like playing as the side characters and the Croc Lady bad guy isn't as good so far as Ripto. Don't like all the baby dragons either although that's just me. Things could change by the time I complete 3 of course but as for right now Spyro 2 just feels more solid to me dude.

I honestly found the Sorceress to be a much more interesting villain than Ripto thanks to the near end-game plot twists even if the final boss itself is a bit underwhelming. I made an entire discussion explaining why that is, hence why I'm not going to repeat myself here.

I even thought the baby dragons made for an interesting collectible not found in other collect-a-thons and make perfect sense within the story and the lore surrounding it. 3's story is a lot deeper than you may think it is.

Hope your experience with 3 gets a lot better over time - it's one of my personal favourite games ever.

[Moogal™]

You are entitled to your opinion, even though it is dumb, and 2 and 3 are clearly better games.

[Sumo]

No, I have to say that 2 and 3 don't hold a candle to Spyro the Dragon. Spyro the Dragon is a timeless masterpiece. The music (Stewart Copeland ftw), level design, art style. This remaster is absolutely fantastic.

I've completed 2, but lost enthusiasm with 3. I completed all of them when I as a kid. I feel as though Insomiac were just having a lot of fun with 2 and 3 back in the day. They probably did everything (pure Spyro) that there was to do in the first game.

But then they moved on to Ratchet and Clank, which is a brilliant game that I have many fond memories of.