Collection essentials #380: Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PS1)

Like his fellow semi-mascot Crash, Spyro would have a third outing on the original PlayStation. The title, as you can imagine, is a reference to the fact that the game came out in 2000 during the “Year of the Dragon” on the Chinese calendar.


Spyro YotD does not see the return of Ripto, the previous game’s antagonist. Instead, the big bad this time is a sorceress who for some reason does not have a name. She steals a bunch of dragon eggs during the “Year of the Dragon” celebration and has to get them back from her and her minions, including an apprentice named Bianca and a bunch of “Rhynoc” henchmen. Spyro must travel through different worlds in the “Forgotten Realms”, and he meets some new allies along the way.


Gameplay, again, is basically the same as the first two games. The biggest difference with Year of the Dragon is that there are many other playable characters that you’ll be controlling for specific segments, and some minigames too. Other allies you’ll be playing as include a kangaroo, a yeti, a flying penguin with a rocket launcher, and more!


This means that Spyro: YotD has a good amount of gameplay variety, which to some will be welcome. However, in terms of my own tastes, this is actually a drawback. You see, the joy of Spyro the Dragon is the unique fun of controlling Spyro himself. And with other characters and minigames occupying more of the game, that’s less time that I’m enjoying the main thing that I like about these games!


So, I think I would place YotD a little notch below the first two games, personally. But it’s still really good and an easy pick for this essentials list. Not long ago, all of the original three Spyro games got full modern remakes with beautiful new graphics in the “Spyro Reignited Trilogy” on modern platforms. No matter which version you go with, I’d definitely recommend giving these games a go!

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