Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon is an adventure game which follows a young dragon's attempts to free his fellow creatures who have been locked in crystal by the villain, Gnasty Gnorc. Spyro looks absolutely amazing! The characters are detailed and animate beautifully. But more importantly, they are characters in the sense of having real personality. Gnorc soldiers chat with each other in the distance, zap chickens for the heck of it to pass the time or croak with a start and shake with fear when they see you running at them, etc. These sorts of details give it the feeling of a living, breathing world.

At its heart, Spyro is a platformer\adventure ala Mario 64. Our protagonist can jump, charge, glide, flame, glide-charge and strafe left\right. You can also look around using the triangle button (which also corrects most camera 'snags') and rotate the scene around Spyro using the shoulder buttons. In standard adventure\platform game style, you must collect gems, release fellow dragons, and catch thieves to get the dragon eggs they have stolen. While this sort of thing is pretty standard, it's not overdone here. The levels consist of home-worlds from which similarly-themed levels can be reached, with each home-world acting as a level itself. After certain criteria have been met, you can travel between worlds via hot-air balloon. The levels themselves are well-designed, inventive and atmospheric. Each home-world also has a flight level, where (you guessed it) Spyro can fly continuously. The goal in these sections is to fly through rings or arches and destroy barrels, planes, boats, copters or chests before your time runs out. These are easily the most challenging part of the game.Control is very responsive with either an analog or standard controller, and the force-feedback function is utilized nicely, and not overdone.

What more can be said? Fantastic visuals, excellent music, great level design and lots of fun to be had. Not just a kid's game, this game is more in the vein of a Looney Tunes cartoon - humor which is clever and adds to the overall experience for the whole family!