Remains one of my favorites of all time so many years later. I'm sure it helps that this was one of the first games I ever owned, but there's still such a zen-like quality to running and jumping around the most beautiful PS1 pastels and polygons while Copeland's perfect score accompanies every moment. Full completion is a breeze and rarely frustrating (Tree Tops aside of course), so much so that you could probably knock out this entire game in a weekend if you wanted.

I'll keep coming back to Spyro until the day I die, you can count on that.

This game is piss-easy and the bosses are pathetic (I kinda feel bad for roasting Gnasty Gnorc alive ngl), but man do the vibes go hard.

Spyro the Dragon is a very simple collect-a-thon: you run around open areas, do some platforming, collect gems, and free dragons. That’s literally the entire game. While that may be disappointing to some people, I thoroughly enjoyed just how simplistic it was. You just collect stuff in these beautiful fantasy worlds while listening to some chill ahh music composed by the drummer for The Police, and it’s an absolute vibe all the way through. Spyro the Dragon is just a fun, relaxing experience that definitely has flaws, but it’s well worth the few hours it takes to get through it. I can’t wait to play the Reignited Trilogy version of this game to see how it’s been improved.

Game is alright. The controls aren’t terrible but they aren’t good either. Same goes for the camera and the music is just straight-up ass.
The game does have a unique charm to it though. Spyro has a lot of personality in this game. Even though that personality is that he's a little shit.

As I mentioned before, the controls aren't great. I would semi-regularly just fall off a cliff because of the controls. Gliding is especially janky and hard to control. It’s very easy to over-glide.
Other than the difficulties I had with the platforming because of these controls, the game is super easy.

The hub worlds were fine. I especially liked the Magic crafter world. The stages were varied and enjoyable for the most part too.
Unfortunately, The boss “fights” were pretty lackcluster.
The worst offender being the Gnasty Gnorc fight. That one was extremely annoying. One missed jump and you can start all over again.

Even though this game is pretty dated compared to Spyro 2, I did like some aspects of this game better. For example, this game is a lot more straightforward and does not rely on a little challenge or minigame for each and every collectible in the game. I still liked Spyro 2 a tad more than this one though but they difference is marginal.

Booted this game up to chill the other night, ended up pulling an all nighter getting 120%. This game kicks ass and is one of the only 3D platformers that I've played that doesn't really have a low point anywhere in the game. There is no "that one part". My only real problems with the game are that the controls can take a bit to get used to and that sometimes you get in the "one last gem" scenario with not much to do about it, which Reignited addresses anyway by adding the Sparx compass from 2 and 3. Even then, I still slightly prefer the original because of it's gorgeous low-poly aesthetics, though I still adore the game no matter what.

Great game! I played this first when I was young and getting introduced into gaming, and while I never truly fell in love with the platforming genre, Spyro the Dragon still holds a massive place in my heart.

Of course, being a game from 1998, it has its... Many issues. However, even to this day I still think the game holds up. If nothing else, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Spyro as a character is very fun and witty, though I never cared much controlling him. Unsure if it was a problem with our old system since it was older, but the controls did feel a little clunky at times (things not responding as quick as they should, for example).

I am giving this a solid 3.5/5.

I wasn't feeling this game at first, but I've gotten probably halfway through the game at the time of this review and felt compelled to drop what I was doing to state my thoughts. The level design is so great, there's so much you can do, so many fun secrets to find, so much shit to collect, and so much personality imbued in the animations and voice acting of the characters.

This is the kind of game that has that "oh my god, you can DO that???" magic to it. The kind of magic that makes you talk about the game with your friends at the playground, trading secrets that one of you found and not the other.

In the early game, a lot of the dragons you rescue just sorta regurgitate manual information or obvious stuff you could figure out on your own, and that's the part of the game that didn't sell me at first. The first few levels are a little too standard. But then, they start dropping level-specific hints that help you start to piece things together that aren't as obvious, and they start to get way more creative with the sort of things you can do in the levels.

Not every level is a winner, but after enjoying Cliff Town and Ice Cavern, and then High Caves blowing me away, I think it's cemented itself as one of my favorite 3D platformers of all time. My only real complaint is that the camera controls bugged me with no way to invert them (L2 turns the camera to show the right, and R2 turns left), and some of the jumps in this game aren't very forgiving. You fall kinda fast with the glide so they expect you to be at the very peak of your jump and jump right at the edge of a platform to make certain jumps. Otherwise, the game's fantastic.

There's a level in the game I just stopped and stared at the backdrop for multiple minutes. Several levels, actually. This game is so beautiful and pretty in a unique way. If you love dreamy, colorful, vibrant worlds, this game will be right up your alley. The color palettes used in the Dream Weavers world are real pieces of eye-candy.

Take that amazing atmosphere and combine it with super fun platforming, satisfying sound effects and visuals when you collect gems, whimsical dragons(and enemies) to meet, and numerous 'ah-ah!' moments that combine your maneuvering abilities with your game know-how and you get a masterpiece. The game is so 'video-gamey'. You run, collect gems, defeat enemies with simple attacks, unlock new worlds and levels. But it works so well.