Individual ratings;
Spyro; 5/10
Spyro 2; 6/10
Spyro 3; 4/10
Was shocked by how poorly these held up to my memory of playing them in my childhood. You don't get to get away with not having much in the way of compelling gameplay by just stuffing a bunch of gems in worlds; exploration should be motivated by worlds being interesting to explore, not by having treasure spread out on every single inch of the floor. Most challenge presented by the game isn't intentional but instead due to poor game design; it's both frustrating that the games generally aren't remotely challenging and also frustrating that the bits where you do struggle are due to bad design.
The series in general seems like it doesn't believe its platforming is actually compelling enough on its own (correct) so inserts a bunch of underdeveloped minigames and side-distractions. This gets particularly bad with the third game where all five of the additional characters control and play much worse than Spyro does.
Spyro; 5/10
Spyro 2; 6/10
Spyro 3; 4/10
Was shocked by how poorly these held up to my memory of playing them in my childhood. You don't get to get away with not having much in the way of compelling gameplay by just stuffing a bunch of gems in worlds; exploration should be motivated by worlds being interesting to explore, not by having treasure spread out on every single inch of the floor. Most challenge presented by the game isn't intentional but instead due to poor game design; it's both frustrating that the games generally aren't remotely challenging and also frustrating that the bits where you do struggle are due to bad design.
The series in general seems like it doesn't believe its platforming is actually compelling enough on its own (correct) so inserts a bunch of underdeveloped minigames and side-distractions. This gets particularly bad with the third game where all five of the additional characters control and play much worse than Spyro does.