Immediately after I completed Spyro The Dragon, I played what was argued to be the best Spyro game: the sequel. With all of that out of the way, Spyro The Dragon is entertaining to play, even now. The first one takes barely any skill at all and is really pathetic. The bosses aren't challenging too compared to some of the regular enemies. A few enemies pose a real threat, but controlling Spyro when he's jumping and flying is somehow a little bit worse. Spyro can lose lots of lives because of those annoying and cheap moments. Landing on certain platforms require the right precise jump and flying and the right elevation. That doesn't mean the game isn't perfect. One can easily hit an enemy before they can hit Spyro, and there are different amount of wildlife that provide butterflies, which Sparx can eat to replenish his life.
After that, Sparx dies, and then a life is lost when hit once more. When Spyro is hit, Sparx turns to blue, then green. Sparx, Spyro's companion, is his life bar. It's not a nitpick, but something unusual I found. What threw me off at first was Spyro's bouncy movement, since his movements seemed sharper in the original game. As for the controls, Spyro can burn and charge enemies, and can jump, charge, and glide for a certain amount of distance. (The Police is one of my favorite bands.) And unlike the original, the voice acting for the rescued dragons doesn't sound horrible, even if a few dragons repeat or paraphrase the line "THANK YOU FOR RELEASING ME, SPYRO." Each of them have a different aura to them too, and that mention goes to Spyro as well.
It's been twenty years since, and I must point out that the game is beautiful, and the soundtrack still has the Stewart Copeland feel behind it. As someone who loved Spyro 3 and puts in on a pedestal, I love that Spyro 1 is simple in its story. Spyro not only has to de-crystalize his kin, but has to stop Gnasty Gnorc from taking over the world. Gnasty proceeds to turn every dragon into crystal, except for Spyro, a small purple dragon. During an interview in the peaceful land of dragons, Gnasty Gnorc gets angry when one dragon says he's "simple, no threat, and UGLY" on television. With the Reignited Trilogy out, I've always wanted to finally give this game a real shot. The first Spyro is the one I've rented, while the other two are what I bought. Ever since I played Spyro 3 and defeated it about two decades ago, I've never went back to the original Spyro trilogy.