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Sony Playstation:
Spyro the Dragon

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About This Game
History
Voice Talent



About This Game:  Rating: E for Everyone.  Publisher: Insomniac.  Year: 1998.

    This first game of "Spyro the Dragon" was a huge success, and rightfully so.  It's a bit surprising that this DID become such a big hit, though, because at the time, and to this day (2009), the big thing in games is the gory, shoot-em-up, stab-em-up, monster killer type games.  "Spyro the Dragon" is cute all the way around, and kid-friendly.  The 3-D animation is absolutely beautiful.  I don't normally approve of 3-D in video games, but 3-D is a perfect fit for Spyro.  Quite simply, you couldn't do a Spyro game without 3-D.  He runs, flies, glides, searches for treasure, and does all kinds of things that you couldn't capture in a two-dimensional game.

    Spyro is a cute little purple dragon.  The usual thing is that dragons are big, slow, and strong.  Spyro is small, fast, and agile.  He is constantly accompanied by a magical dragonfly named Sparx.  Sparx protects Spyro from damage and collects gems.

    In this first game, Spyro must save the land from the evil Gnasty Gnorc!  He must collect all the stolen treasure from the dragons and free all the dragons from their crystal statue prisons.  This is a big job, and it's not easy to find or reach all of the dragons and treasure.  The player must rely on his wits to find out how to reach certain areas or how to do certain things.  This game not only entertains, but is great for the mental development of young and old alike.

    What the heck is Gnasty Gnorc?  Well, Gnorc is a race of peculiar, oafish-looking creatures that you see throughout the game.  Gnasty Gnorc, the leader, is by far the largest of them all.  He has a green body, gray armor, gray metal helmet, and a mace.  Gnasty also has a great knowledge of magic.  Once you get to Gnasty Gnorc, he's not that hard to defeat.  You have to hit him twice with your fire breath.  The hard part is trying to catch him the first time, because he runs very fast.

    I don't normally pay attention to music in video games.  For the most part, I think video game music is either annoying or ignorable.  The music in THIS game, however, adds a lot.  Stewart Copeland handled the musical score and did more than a fine job.  It's funky enough and upbeat enough to be enjoyable as you play.

    The voice talent is also a plus.  I love how Spyro talks!  He's such a cute, tough little bugger!  His voice is done by Carlos Alazraqui.  The rest of the voice talent is excellent as well.  And the dialogue is a bit more lively and amusing than in most video games.

    This game is bright, colorful, cute, and funny.  It also challenges the brain a bit.  Great fun for all ages!

History:  Charles Zembillas designed the character of Spyro.  Spyro became such a phenomenon that he became one of Playstation's most recognized characters; not quite like what Mario is to Nintendo, but close.  The first game, "Spyro the Dragon", was a huge commercial success and received favorable reviews from most critics (the critics who were cool!).  It spawned several other Spyro games.  "Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage" (1999) and "Spyro: Year of the Dragon" (2000) were released on Playstation 1.  When Playstation 2 came along, so did "Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly" (2002), and "Spyro: A Hero's Tail" (2004).

    For some reason, the creators of Spyro thought the series needed a reboot.  In 2006, "The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning" was released on Playstation 2.  Not only is the basic story of Spyro a bit more serious, but it seems to be more of a sellout with top celebrity voice talent like Elijah Wood (as Spyro) and David Spade (as Sparx).  The characters are also designed to look a bit more frightening.  The original Spyro series was delightfully goofy and provided a good time.  This second phase of Spyro is too much story.  The people behind this new Spyro need to loosen up a bit.  Still, it's good that they do what they can to keep the adventures alive of this cute little dragon.

    "The Legend of Spyro" is, in fact, a trilogy.  EVERYTHING is a trilogy nowadays.  I guess it's the hip thing to do.  "A New Beginning" was followed by "The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night" (2007) and "The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon" (2008), all on Playstation 2.

    The original era of Spyro also produced games for the Game Boy Advance.  These include: "Spyro: Season of Ice" (2001), "Spyro 2: Season of Flame" (2002), "Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs" (2003), and "Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy" (2004).  The first two "The Legend of Spyro" games were also released on Game Boy Advance.

    "Spyro: Shadow Legacy" (2005), the last of the original era of Spyro games, was released exclusively on Nintendo DS (the successor to Game Boy Advance).  All three of "The Legend of Spyro" games have also been released on Nintendo DS.

"Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly" (2002) was also released on Nintendo Gamecube.
"Spyro: A Hero's Tail" (2004) was also released on Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo Gamecube.
"The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning" (2006) was also released on Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo Gamecube, Nintendo Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS.
"The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night" (2007) was also released on Nintendo Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Wii.
"The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon" (2008) was also released on Playstation 3, Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, and Nintendo Wii.

Although consistently popular in video games, the character of Spyro the Dragon has yet to catch on in other media.  This is most likely due to the fact that he has never really been applied to media outside of video games...yet.  An upcoming animated feature film of "The Legend of Spyro" is in the works and planned for release in early 2010.


Voice Talent:

Carlos Alazraqui as Spyro/Useni/Marco/Hexus/Eldrid. 

Andre Sogliuzzo as Sparx. 

Michael Gough as Gnasty Gnorc/Sadiki/Claude/Cleetus/Bruno/Cyprin/Nevin/Astor.  This is NOT the actor from "Batman" films, but another talented guy named Michael Gough who has done tons of voices in cartoons and video games.

Jamie Alcroft as Lateef/Cosmos/Kosoko/Zane/Interviewer/Trondo/Oswin/Tomas.

Clancy Brown as Obasi/Revillo/Unika/Enzo/Maximos/Nestor/Titan/Boris.

Michael Connor as Tomas/Gildas/Darius/Boldar/Dragons.

Peter Kleiner wrote the dialogue.