Overall 9.5 Graphics 9.4 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 8.2 Depth 8.4 Difficulty 5.4
9.6
Spyro the dragon 3: Year of the Dragon Zircron Swift
It is rare to find a sequel or two to a popular game, and not have it completely screwed up in the process. Yes, Mega Man did this to an extent, but it was repetitive, no matter how superb the platforming was in the first three games, and other popular series's did this like the Mario Brothers series and the Zelda Series (well, okay, prequels is a better word for this), but another series that this this amazingly well that wasn't from Nintendo was the first three Spyro games. Those games were mind blowing, showing what a PSX game can really do, and the each game is worth noting and playing. Today I'm going to review Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon. There's not much I can say now that I won't repeat later in the review so, here it is.
The story is that every 12 years, the Year of the Dragon occurs. This is where dragons from all over come together to celebrate a new generation of dragons, that the eggs are delivered by fairies....because that's what happens? I dunno. Anyway, on the other side of the world, lie the Forgotten Lands, a place so ancient that even the legends of that place have become forgotten. The ruler of that lands, to how she became the ruler and why are also forgotten, is only known as the Sorceress, who has become quite fed up of being in an empty kingdom that no-one can care to remember. She hatches a plan to steal all the dragon eggs and to expand her forgotten realm so it wouldn't be quite so forgotten anymore.
As the dragons are sleeping, she ends her disciple Bianca and a few rhynocs through small rabbit holes. Everything was going well, until Bianca stepped on Hunter's tail, the anthropomorphic cheetah. In a flash, they go through the holes, and Spyro and Hunter follow, since they are the only ones to fit through the hole. And so the adventure begins. With every cut scene, there is a screen that gives a sort of chapter to the scene you are about to watch, in a sort of oil paint style. It's a tad bit wasteful and it didn't fit smoothly to the ordeal, unless if it was a way of loading the cut scene in a clever way, then that's a good example of a game being resourceful.
There are four worlds in the Forgotten Lands, and each one has three normal levels, a different character level, and a speedway level, as well as the world itself you can explore just like in the past two games. You can keep track of your eggs and gems via an Atlas, which seems to be a few degrees less interesting than the green tint background of the first game when you paused, with those golden letters that just rotated back and forth, it's just plain text here. Granted the book effect is lovely, but it's a little dull. Moneybags makes an appearance again, and yes, you do have to pay him money to do stuff to get further in the game again. Each world has an extra for you to bail out an extra character that was captured by the Sorceress for a fee, which then can be used in certain spots where a sign of their head is seen after completing their home level.
Each level is accessible by a portal, but sadly most portals are a one way thing, and you can't get behind them and go in from the other end like in the other games. This makes the portal frames much more glamorous, in a sense. The portals you can go through are determined by how many eggs you have rescued, because the eggs hatch when you find them (giving a name and a cute, short animation), giving one more dragon to the Forgotten Lands. This causes more magic, and therefore the portals will open up depending on the more magic there is. The gems are really a form of money to get in to extra places to get more eggs, or to continue the level. It's great how the game balanced out each collectable item to suit how the game works and how to drive the player to collect more and explore the level.
The graphics are as superb as the first games graphics were, if not better. Just like the first game, it invoked a great sense of mystery and beauty, seemingly holding several untold legends and wonders of the place. Once again, anyone could make possible theories about every level because of the graphics, its history, and even its people. The animations and smooth and hardly ever lag, which for a disk game, is very impressive for a game that has a lot to offer. I do miss the super smooth transition from the first game where Spyro does a loop before landing in the level, and I'm disappointed to find this game lazily goes to fade in and out of him flying, and him in the level.
The music is also amazing. Each music suits the level almost perfectly, adding to that sense of mystery that the graphics encourage so much. Some of the level's music is copied from other levels, but it isn't done a lot and it still suits it well. All the sound effects are well fitting and tie in well with the surroundings. Some are silly, while others are very serious, and that's good for a game to a have a mix of the two. Also in the game is voice acting, in which adds more depth to the audio in the game. All the voice actors and their voices are done well, especially Moneybag's voice, it's such an amazing voice despite his personality.
Now I have only one fundamental problem with this game. It's conveyance of how to play is terrible. Honestly, first off, you get to explore around and do what you want, but then you met up with the fairy Zoe, and she tells you how to do stuff that you have already done. It assumes that you have played a Spyro game before, and then it tells you how to do the stuff that you have already done. Huge enemies that can't be tackled blocks your path, so use flame breath to defeat it to continue, then Zoe tells you how to defeat them anyway, because apparently you as a human can't work things out for yourself. Small enemies clad in metal armour are in your way, and you know flame breath doesn't work on metal vases, so you automatically just charge into them, which works, then after you defeat them all and continue on in the level, there is a single rhynoc there that is clad in armour that could be easily bypassed and Zoe tells you how to defeat it. Why does it assume that you know how to play a Spyro game, then decided to point out the which you have already worked out? I mean, seriously, there are some parts that you NEED to do in order to continue, and then after that, they tell you what you you have just done, and act like you are some sort of idiot that doesn't understand how this stuff works. It's just....I need to have glided here in the first place to get to you, so why are you telling me how to glide??? Thankfully this doesn't happen all the way through the game.
Now there is something about this game that is really impressive. In an attempt to keep Spyro in it's amazing platform state without making it too much like the last two games, they have added in these gimmicks such as skateboarding, extra characters you can play as in certain spots, and even giving Sparks his own levels. Now, normally I hate this sort of thing and just think it adds boredom and repetition to the game play, slowing it down greatly. However, this game somehow made it all work. None of it is repetitive in the slightest (well, maybe the last two Sparks levels, but that's a minor thing), and it all seems exciting and original. They didn't shove the extra characters down our throats and make entire sections of the game that we need to play. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Although it is needed for you to unlock the character and play their level to advance further in the game, everything else concerned about them isn't needed to complete the game.
Even then, the intro levels for the extra characters are one-offs, and anything else about them are completely original levels with different level structures. They knew if they kept having the extra characters have their own levels, then it would feel less like Spyro, so they only made the level for them the one-off. They used the other characters to use experiments on and to test a few things rather than have Spyro take the entire beating, like the Sheila Super Mario Bros. Rip-off. It would only have worked the one time, and they did it just the once, which in turn made it work. Having more stages like that would only have slowed down the pace of the game and made it feel like the developers were lazy.
Bentley never had a level like his intro level again to keep originality up, so they made him box someone and even does whack a mole. In a sense, the extra characters were never used much, but were only there to add some originality to the game and to spice things up a notch, which would never have worked if every character had entire levels to themselves, slowing down the entire game play. It was meant to be a quick, fun side quest for an extra egg and a few more gems, nothing more. This worked amazingly well, while still keeping the amazing platforming that Spyro was. The Sparks levels add a little something to the game, and are almost relaxing in a sense. Each level comleted would give Sparks a new ability, such as taking an extra hit or pointing out where hidden treasure if that you might have missed out on. This sort of thing is really helpful when trying to collect everything. The first person games with Agent 9 worked really well, both the on-rails and the "You're doomed!" egg where it was like a Doom level.
The difficulty is a fair bit harder than the original game. Where as before I didn't get a game over in the first game, this game made me have a fair few. The first two worlds were a little too easy, but the third one caught me off guard. In fact, the forth world seemed easier than the third world, oddly enough. Most of the levels are fairly short compared to the first game. The first game didn't have all these extra parts to play with, so they focused mainly on the length of the level to make it last longer, with the obvious secrets for you to explore. This game however, has those extras in that makes the level last longer without actually making it longer physically. This means if you were going to speed run through most of the levels, then completing most of the levels wouldn't take too long. The focused more on the exploring of the level in this one, which almost matches the addicting game play of the first game. Of course, the game wouldn't be a Spyro game is there wasn't some super bonus level for collecting everything. If you collect all the gems and eggs, you'll have access to a new level, which is really fun and tops that of the first two games.
Overall, I give it a 9.6/10 Each of the first three Spyro games (and I'm not including the latter games for various reasons) retained that great sense of exploration and paltforming heaven, yet was still completely original in their worlds, scenery and level design. This makes it very very hard to pick a personal favourite Spyro game for me. This game is fantastic and is everything the original was, with the added bonus of gimmicks that actually work, yet the first game had that sense of being pure and consistent. This is a very hard choice to make, but I'm going to have to say the first Spyro is my favourite, because of how long the levels were in that, and giving a sense of adventure and going forward, instead of a hunt to rescue eggs. These both work, and in the end, just like the Final Fantasy series, it's down to personal preference. In no way am I saying that Spyro three could be better, because it's one of the finest PSX games that exist today, worth a play for anyone that has the system.
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 7 Depth 10 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.6/5
Submitted: 11-10-12
Review Replies: 2
8.5
Time to kick some Sorceress' butt OrdannonsX
Oh, hey! Didn’t see you there. Sorry, I was just reminiscing about the time when [I]Spyro the Dragon[/I] was big. Boy, those were the days. You know, the little purple almost never existed, had Sony not decided to try to appeal to the child audience. How crazy would that have been? The first Spyro game qas quite revolutionary. It made perfect use of the PlayStation’s limitations by, for example, making objects decrease in detail the further you get away from it. [I]Spyro the Dragon[/I] was the first game to feature this, and afterwards, many games followed. I still have [I]Spyro: Year of the Dragon[/I] lying about, so let’s give it a go and see what I think of it after all this time.
The plot is fairly simple (and quite similar to that of [I]Rayman[/I], might I add). Dragons are magic creatures, from the day they are born. An evil, power-mad sorceress has her henchmen kidnap all the dragon eggs, in order to harvest their magic and becoming all-powerful. It’s kind of messed up. Our favourite purple dragon, Spyro, is the only one who’s able to stop the evil sorceress. It’s up to him to stop her, and to return the dragon babies. It ain’t no J.R. Tolkien, but hey, it’s Spyro.
In one of my other reviews, I said 3D polygons age quite poorly as opposed to 2D sprites. This is because to this day, 3D animation is still in development, and getting better each day. However, when you look at 2D platformers, the SNES, which originates from the 1990s has some of the best-looking games you can find. This is why a lot of SNES games still look terrific to this day, and a lot of PlayStation games might look extremely dated even though they are from a newer generation of games. However, with [I]Spyro: Year of the Dragon[/I], this is not the case. The beautiful and colourful environments go paired with wacky creative character design, ranging from penguins with rocket launchers to cowboy dinosaurs. It’s really weird – I almost forgot I was playing a PlayStation game. [I]Year of the Dragon[/I] could almost pass for a PlayStation 2 game. The only thing that brought me back down to reality was that you can sometimes see the gems, that you need to collect, through walls. This is one of the few minor glitches you may come across, but they didn’t interrupt my fun with [I]Spyro: Year of the Dragon[/I].
Whenever people ask me about games with solid sound design, I mention the Spyro games, especially this one. You know who composed the music in the original Spyro games? Steward Copeland. Yes, the drummer from the band The Police, composed the music for the Spyro games. That’s incredible. What’s more, he would actually play through all the levels first to get a good feel for them, so that he could think of a tune that would fit the level just right. That’s what I call dedication. And it shows when you’re playing through parts of the game, the music is really varied and cool. There’s also really well-done dialogue and voice acting, which is always funny. Some levels blatantly use the same music as other levels, which is a bit of a pity, but other than that, kudos to the sound department.
On to what I think is the best thing about [I]Year of the Dragon[/I] – the gameplay. And rather, how much Insomniac Games raised the bar from [I]Spyro 2[/I]. For starters, Spyro is as fun to control as ever, with his iconic flame breath, charge attack which you can use to traverse through levels quickly, gliding and hovering, and the ever so fun headbash move. The super power-ups are back from [I]Spyro 2[/I], but back then, that was as far as the variety in gameplay went. Here in [I]Year of the Dragon[/I], though, you get introduced to four new playable characters, which all bring a neat twist to the gameplay. My favourite is Agent 9, the crazed-out genetically altered chimp made into a supersoldier. You also get to play as Hunter, Spyro’s cheetah friend. The extra missions you have to complete in order to reach 100% completion, are all varied and fun to play. Like [I]Spyro 2[/I], the game as a whole may not seem very long at first, but the backtracking you need to do to reach some dragon eggs you missed makes it huge. And it’s actually fun and rewarding too! This is partly what I meant with what I said earlier, when I said that I almost forgot this was a PlayStation game. It really is impressive that they managed to fit all that on one PlayStation disc. It’s nothing like Final Fantasy VIII, but for one PlayStation disc, that’s pretty cool.
What I don’t like about [I]Year of the Dragon[/I], though, is that it’s way too easy. The only time that I got challenged was at the second main boss, and that was mainly due to the reason that I had to adjust to it because the rest had been such a cakewalk. Let’s start with the main thing that makes this game so easy. You gain extra lives by torching 10 small animals (a little cruel). These small animals respawn at a hair trigger, so it’s very easy to farm lives. One time, I decided to see how much lives I could get by spending 10 minutes running through one of the hub worlds torching every little animal I saw. After 10 minutes, I had 36 lives. Wow. Then there’s the fact that you can take four hits (five if you decide to do a specific mission) before you die, while pretty much all the enemies die in one hit. You’re so much more powerful than your enemies, which is a pity. The game is still fun, but don’t expect it to be difficult. There is a cheat which is supposed to enable a Hard Mode, but even though it’s legitimate, I never noticed any changes in the difficulty whatsoever. Too bad. Yes, I know that it’s a kids’ game, but the fact that a lot of people claim it to be ‘fun for all ages’ make me feel I still have to be stern about this. This game is just way too easy.
Verdict
Easy gameplay aside, [I]Spyro: Year of the Dragon[/I] is a blast to play. The varied gameplay is full of fun and charm, with a lot of different, silly characters joining you in your quest to save the worlds. It’s also bound to occupy you for a good while, trying to track down every last gem and dragon egg. It is basically [I]Spyro 2[/I]. But bigger, and better in every way. Spyro: Year of the Dragon is easily one of the best PlayStation games out there.
Pros:
- Varied gameplay
- New characters are all fun to play as
- Backtracking is rewarding
- Looks and plays almost like a PS2 game
Cons:
- Way too easy
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 9 Story 7 Depth 9 Difficulty 3
Review Rating: 4.4/5
Submitted: 04-30-15
Review Replies: 2
10
Oh boy! Spyro Year of the Dragon Smashbros64z
Yay, I have gotten to this, Spyro Year of the Dragon is one of my favorite games of all time. It is so great of a game, I went out of my way to get it on eBay for Christmas. All around the best Spyro game of them all.
Graphics: 10 out of 10
This game has excellent graphics for the Playstation One. Many games have beautiful quality graphics for the system, and this case is no exception. This game has high quality graphics and they fit the game perfectly. There is so much to say but this is the simplest way to say that the graphics are top notch.
Sound: 10 out of 10
To put it simple, the sound for this game is not just awesome in quality and very catchy, but the sound fits the levels perfectly. Many themes will be in your head for a while due to the high work into it.
Addictiveness: 10 out of 10
This game is so fun that it makes the player keep playing it for long periods of time. The ideas of setting enemies on fire and ramming into them is so satisfying that I can play this game for up to 4-6 hours without getting tired. This game is addicting to the point of being perfect.
Story: 10 out of 10
The story of this game is great for the simplicity of it. The main character Spyro is on a hunt to recover the 150 lost dragon eggs stolen by the Sorceress with the aid of Sparx the Dragonfly, Hunter, and soon others. For the simplicity, it is great for a game like this.
Depth: 10 out of 10
The depth of this game is shockingly high. There are so many levels and stuff to get, this game takes a lot of time to get everything to complete it. The scenery changes frequently just enough to satisfy the person.
Difficulty: 6 out of 10
This game is not very hard. Later levels give a good challenge and the beginning is so easy compared to the later half. For a game like this, it fits really well.
Overall rating: 10 out of 10
This is one of my favorite games of all time. I would get the game to play it and recommend it for anyone wanting to seek it.
That's all needed to be said...
Graphics 10 Sound 10 Addictive 10 Story 10 Depth 10 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3.8/5
Submitted: 08-16-12
Review Replies: 2
9.2
Spyro: Year of the Dragon rb1295
Spyro: Year of the Dragon, a unique game which overall was, and still is, a pretty good game. This games unique adventure is one that many can enjoy.The quality of graphics for this game is great. By featuring a variety of different characters that all are different in some way, and a large variety of enemies, The player would have a hard time getting bored of seeing all the new thing this game has to offer. Along with the characters, and enemies, this game features a large variety of different landscapes that are all well designed and help the player enjoy the game more than they already would be.Decent sound effects and good background music. By having sound effects that are almost just right for the action they are for, a player doesn't get confused about what they did when they hear the sound effects, but rather are able to guess as to what they did. Along with the sound effects, there are different background music that help the player get "in the mood" to play in the area they are in.Having a good story, good sound effects and background music, and having great graphics on top of all the rest, make this game somewhat addicting. By offering different things for a player to do, they also enjoy the game more.Having a unique story that features both new and old characters helps bring in player who are both familiar with the game series, and those who have never player one of the games before. The unique story is simple, and not hard to understand, this makes it more enjoyable for people who don't want to have to deal with a long and much more complex story. At the same time, player who enjoy longer and more complex stories are also able to enjoy the story of this game; this is because of how the story is put together. By making the story unique, it becomes easier to have people who enjoy longer and more complex stories enjoy this game as well as.In this game, there are quite a few different things that a player can do other than just follow the story. With a variety of different things for player to do,its harder for them to get bored from playing this game.At first, the game is a little strange to play, but before long player will start to understand how to play, and have no problems with playing it. Players might encounter problems with completing some parts of the game, but after giving it a little time, and then trying again, they might not have the problem they had before, or if they still have the problem, they can always do some other things in the game until they are ready to try again.Overall, Spyro: Year of the Dragon is a good game that is worth playing. With many different aspects that make it good. One of the most distinct features to this game would be the quality of the graphics. The graphics are not the only good part though, the other parts of the game are good as well.
Graphics 10 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Story 8 Depth 8 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 2.9/5
Submitted: 05-21-13
Review Replies: 1
8.3
spyro 3 review theironhide
spyro 3: year of the dragon was the thirth game in the series of spyro and yet the only one i've played if you're not counting skylanders. It is one of those many plat formers which took the game play style of the very overrated Mario 64 and made an own game of it with a character that was combined with crash bandicoot pretty much the mascot of Sony for the time. But being a mascot of a company doesn't always say its the best the company has. Is spyro 3 an example of that, or is it an really good 3d game? We'll see now
graphics: 9 for now on everyone who reviewed this game gave the graphics an 1 out of 10. The graphics are pretty good for the time, but very outdated now on days. The graphics are still good when being compared to some other ps1 games like bubsy 3d (which i haven't played by the way). So the graphics get a nine
sound: 7 once again, not very memorable music. But the sound in itself isn't bad though. The voice acting is very well done (yes people, even for moneybags of which his voice really fits with his greedy personality). The voices fit very well with each character and the sound effects are pretty good too. So an 7 out of 10 for that
addictiveness: 8 even though i don't play this game as much as some other ps1 games on this site, i still admit its an addictive game. Mini games are fun, the bosses are a joy to fight and its very fun to play as your partners you free sometimes so the game play doesn't get boring way too fast. And do i have to say anything about the fact you get to chase moneybags so you get all your gems back? I think i've said enough, on to the story
story: 9 this game has a pretty unique story behind it in my opinion. While the dragons (including spyro himself) and hunter are sleeping, their eggs get stolen by an evil sorceress and her group of rhynocs ( are rhino's which can walk on 2 feet instead of 4 for the ones who didn't knew already) so spyro needs to get all of the eggs back and defeat the evil sorceress. I like the creativity as well as the rather simple plot design in this story so that's why i rate 9 out of 10.
Depth: 5 besides from the main story and the view mini games. There is not that much to play trough in this game. If you have played the game out, then you have pretty much played the game out completely. The depth of the game is probably the weakest part of the game so i rate a 5 out of 10
difficulty: 6 well looks like the games I'm reviewing are getting easier with the time (i think i need to review mega man x 4 if this keeps going on). This game is rather easy when excluding some annoying sub missions. The levels are rather short, its very easy to find gems and even thought i like fighting the bosses, they are still very easy. So a 6 out of 10
overall year of the dragon is an enjoyable experience for gamers who mainly play just for game play instead of challenge so i rate this game overall an 8,3. Thanks for checking out my review. The next review will be for final fantasy 7 for everyone who wants to know
Graphics 9 Sound 7 Addictive 8 Story 9 Depth 5 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 2.1/5
Submitted: 06-24-13
Review Replies: 0
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