Hey, I played this one recently enough that I have its completion date listed, cool. I'll cover this and the remake separately.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon was the first Spyro game I played. I played a little bit of it at a friend's house in middle school on his PS One, alongsite Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. I think I've mentioned before that before my family owned game consoles, we used to rent them (mostly PlayStation 2s) from Blockbuster, so I have a lot of extremely scattered nostalgia for various PlayStation games. Before you get too excited, said PlayStation titles were all for the PS1 (this being right after the PS2 dropped, PS1 games were most of what we had access to) and were all licensed titles (PS1 Harry Potter, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, etc). This would've fallen in a very particular sweet spot, coming after I had regular access to non-computer video games on my GBA but before I had regular access to console games on my GameCube. Thus, this one throwaway visit to a friend's house, in which I played a little Hot Air Skyway on CTR, the first few mini-games of Bash's story mode, and a couple levels of Year of the Dragon, constituted the last possible time I could have that mysterious, magical experience I always had, playing PlayStation games at a time I couldn't have regular access to them.
This is getting off-topic, but I don't really see any other opportunity to mention this on this website - I think the PS1 has my favorite video game bootup sequence. Something about that low, digital bass note on that white logo screen, the ambient beats, the shift to the pure black screen with the colorful alternate logo while the bass note sustains itself, and the digital chimes kicking in, becoming the main notes... I dunno. To me, there's wonder behind that opening. Like, I associate that sound with the rare experience of renting games (well, the back half of that, given how PS1 games boot up on PS2), so there's always the promise of, "you're about to go on a strange and marvelous adventure, the likes of which you've never been on before". It's... hard to explain, I think, but I think people who grew up with the PS1 in their lives in some way understand this. I of course love the GameCube's bootup, and the PS3 goes the easy route of starting with an orchestra tuning itself, but those don't replicate the same emotions I get from the PS1. Maybe I'll never again feel that way, and maybe that's okay.
Anyway, back to Spyro. Like I said, we played a little bit of Year of the Dragon that day. I wanna say my friend (good kid, hope he's doing all right) started a new save to show off, but I also remember us playing specifically Sunny Villa, Sheila's Alp, and Icy Peak? Definitely remember the hockey game, and how much of a silly juxtaposition that was in the middle of the standard adventure. It wasn't a LOT, but it was enough that the experience stuck in my head (even if it'd take me years to remember the specific game we played) and that it colored a lot of my fondness for Spyro overall. Probably not much of an exaggeration to say that this single day is why I'm more of a Spyro fan than a Crash fan; yes, CTR kicks ass, and Crash is excellent overall, but... I dunno. 6 times outta 10, I'd rather be playing classic Spyro than Crash.
With all this said, this is probably my least favorite of the original trilogy. The Sorceress is far and away the least compelling of the original three villains (Gnasty Gnorc sucks, but he's at least funny), and her fights kinda drag on and on. Also, she's trying to suck the magic out of these dragon eggs so she can live forever, but she was around when dragons were booted out of the ForgottenRealms Worlds a thousand years ago? Sure you need the extra juice, Sorceress?
The game also constantly gets distracted from playing Spyro levels, so if all you want is to scamper around as the li'l guy, you're gonna have to wait your turn. These days I know why - Insomniac was struggling with new things to have their quadrupedal protagonist do, so they distracted the point by inventing new characters and gameplay modes (notice how all four new animal friends are bipedal? Or how you first get playable Sparx AND Hunter in the same game?). And I don't mind too much, since the friends are all fun to play as and are over and done with fairly quickly. But it's not hard to see why Insomniac was happy to step away from the series at the end of this game.
I'm... sorta torn on Super Bonus Round, too. I kinda love it as a do-or-die, one-last-time encore victory lap, showcasing some final combinations of mini-games and power-ups. But ending on another Sorceress fight? I guess that's what you SHOULD do, reprise the final boss, but...
Ah, well. The core of it is still a ton of Spyro goodness. Even moreso than Ripto's Rage, there's a real "anything goes" sense to this title. Like, there's a world where everyone talks exclusively in haikus, apparently as some sort of compulsion. There's one sequence that's just straight up Insomniac recreating DOOM in their silly fantasy platformer, complete with a first-person perspective and a UI change. There's a shout-out to Tomb Raider, a 2D platformer segment, and you have to keep Nancy Kerrigan Polar Bear from getting kneecapped by Rhynocs. Why? Why not?
Actually, on the subject of Rhynocs, whaaaat the hell even are those guys? In the grand tradition of having weird gobliny blah-thingies as your 3D platformer enemy minions, now you have a buncha rhino-lookin' guys. What's their relationship with the Sorceress? Why do they keep showing up in post-Insomniac games??? Ah, whatever, they're fun little weirdos.
This has kinda been a rambly review, but the main of it is that Year of the Dragon is a great game, even if it's not my favorite in the series. I think it makes for a great ending for the original trilogy. As many bones as I might make of Super Bonus Round and stuff like that, I like the very very end of it, hinting at budding relationships and future adventures. That little message at the end of Insomniac themselves thanking the player and bidding them farewell, implicitly acknowledging that Insomniac themselves were gonna step away, is a nice little good-bye, closure the likes of which you don't really see anymore in major game releases. I dunno, there's something sweetly poignant to all of it. It's a game where the very start and the very end are some of my favorites in any video game, relics of things that no longer are what they are and can never be what they were. I think, even if these aren't our favorite things, these are the things that are most important to remember and to hold onto going through our lives.
Spyro: Year of the Dragon was the first Spyro game I played. I played a little bit of it at a friend's house in middle school on his PS One, alongsite Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash. I think I've mentioned before that before my family owned game consoles, we used to rent them (mostly PlayStation 2s) from Blockbuster, so I have a lot of extremely scattered nostalgia for various PlayStation games. Before you get too excited, said PlayStation titles were all for the PS1 (this being right after the PS2 dropped, PS1 games were most of what we had access to) and were all licensed titles (PS1 Harry Potter, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Buzz Lightyear of Star Command, etc). This would've fallen in a very particular sweet spot, coming after I had regular access to non-computer video games on my GBA but before I had regular access to console games on my GameCube. Thus, this one throwaway visit to a friend's house, in which I played a little Hot Air Skyway on CTR, the first few mini-games of Bash's story mode, and a couple levels of Year of the Dragon, constituted the last possible time I could have that mysterious, magical experience I always had, playing PlayStation games at a time I couldn't have regular access to them.
This is getting off-topic, but I don't really see any other opportunity to mention this on this website - I think the PS1 has my favorite video game bootup sequence. Something about that low, digital bass note on that white logo screen, the ambient beats, the shift to the pure black screen with the colorful alternate logo while the bass note sustains itself, and the digital chimes kicking in, becoming the main notes... I dunno. To me, there's wonder behind that opening. Like, I associate that sound with the rare experience of renting games (well, the back half of that, given how PS1 games boot up on PS2), so there's always the promise of, "you're about to go on a strange and marvelous adventure, the likes of which you've never been on before". It's... hard to explain, I think, but I think people who grew up with the PS1 in their lives in some way understand this. I of course love the GameCube's bootup, and the PS3 goes the easy route of starting with an orchestra tuning itself, but those don't replicate the same emotions I get from the PS1. Maybe I'll never again feel that way, and maybe that's okay.
Anyway, back to Spyro. Like I said, we played a little bit of Year of the Dragon that day. I wanna say my friend (good kid, hope he's doing all right) started a new save to show off, but I also remember us playing specifically Sunny Villa, Sheila's Alp, and Icy Peak? Definitely remember the hockey game, and how much of a silly juxtaposition that was in the middle of the standard adventure. It wasn't a LOT, but it was enough that the experience stuck in my head (even if it'd take me years to remember the specific game we played) and that it colored a lot of my fondness for Spyro overall. Probably not much of an exaggeration to say that this single day is why I'm more of a Spyro fan than a Crash fan; yes, CTR kicks ass, and Crash is excellent overall, but... I dunno. 6 times outta 10, I'd rather be playing classic Spyro than Crash.
With all this said, this is probably my least favorite of the original trilogy. The Sorceress is far and away the least compelling of the original three villains (Gnasty Gnorc sucks, but he's at least funny), and her fights kinda drag on and on. Also, she's trying to suck the magic out of these dragon eggs so she can live forever, but she was around when dragons were booted out of the Forgotten
The game also constantly gets distracted from playing Spyro levels, so if all you want is to scamper around as the li'l guy, you're gonna have to wait your turn. These days I know why - Insomniac was struggling with new things to have their quadrupedal protagonist do, so they distracted the point by inventing new characters and gameplay modes (notice how all four new animal friends are bipedal? Or how you first get playable Sparx AND Hunter in the same game?). And I don't mind too much, since the friends are all fun to play as and are over and done with fairly quickly. But it's not hard to see why Insomniac was happy to step away from the series at the end of this game.
I'm... sorta torn on Super Bonus Round, too. I kinda love it as a do-or-die, one-last-time encore victory lap, showcasing some final combinations of mini-games and power-ups. But ending on another Sorceress fight? I guess that's what you SHOULD do, reprise the final boss, but...
Ah, well. The core of it is still a ton of Spyro goodness. Even moreso than Ripto's Rage, there's a real "anything goes" sense to this title. Like, there's a world where everyone talks exclusively in haikus, apparently as some sort of compulsion. There's one sequence that's just straight up Insomniac recreating DOOM in their silly fantasy platformer, complete with a first-person perspective and a UI change. There's a shout-out to Tomb Raider, a 2D platformer segment, and you have to keep Nancy Kerrigan Polar Bear from getting kneecapped by Rhynocs. Why? Why not?
Actually, on the subject of Rhynocs, whaaaat the hell even are those guys? In the grand tradition of having weird gobliny blah-thingies as your 3D platformer enemy minions, now you have a buncha rhino-lookin' guys. What's their relationship with the Sorceress? Why do they keep showing up in post-Insomniac games??? Ah, whatever, they're fun little weirdos.
This has kinda been a rambly review, but the main of it is that Year of the Dragon is a great game, even if it's not my favorite in the series. I think it makes for a great ending for the original trilogy. As many bones as I might make of Super Bonus Round and stuff like that, I like the very very end of it, hinting at budding relationships and future adventures. That little message at the end of Insomniac themselves thanking the player and bidding them farewell, implicitly acknowledging that Insomniac themselves were gonna step away, is a nice little good-bye, closure the likes of which you don't really see anymore in major game releases. I dunno, there's something sweetly poignant to all of it. It's a game where the very start and the very end are some of my favorites in any video game, relics of things that no longer are what they are and can never be what they were. I think, even if these aren't our favorite things, these are the things that are most important to remember and to hold onto going through our lives.