You are a force of nature being contained against your will for reasons unknown. You will never learn why, only that the men who put you there will stop at nothing to put you down if you should attempt an escape. But you must. If you should hold back, slow down, or show mercy you will be put down within seconds. You act or you die, becoming a killing machine crashing your way past hoards of armed guards and tearing through a labyrinth of stone and steel, seeking salvation no matter what it takes. You've got to have freedom.

i love roguelikes, like a lot, and going under may not be one of the best gameplay-wise but it's one of the best i've ever played

let's start by the bad things, the gameplay is simple, and neither the power ups nor the weapons create cool bizzare cenarios like tboi or hades

also the way the powerups are unlocked is too bland, i would prefer a shop where i could buy the ones that i find more interesting instead of them coming in order

the main hub feels too empty, differently from hades or dead cells it's a really big place with few things to do, it's not bad just a first disapointing impression

and that's it, now to start the good things, the ost is incredible, each music ties perfectly to it's respective place, and while simple the graphics are really cute and the art design is amazing, each character has a bunch of panels that adds a layer depth to each one

and the characters are really fun, they are simple yet complex, the way their relationship to jackie grows every time you talk, and with almost non-repeating phrases, i can't help but love them

there are only 3 dungeons but each one of them are cool to explore with distinct enemies and really cool boss battles

but everything doesn't matter when the best aspect of going under comes out, the funny, i laughed at every part of the game, each weird thing that happenned, each funny line, each reference to the real world, god this game is so funny yet real

the jokes about business are so funny yet so real, it makes you think between the laughters, the whole game is created around this aspect, and it actually nails it

for last the story, it's actually good, not amazing but very much enjoyable, the final boss fight is one of the best moments in the game with one of the best songs

i wouldn't recommend going under if you dislike the majority of roguelikes or think that games are "only entertainment and shouldn't touch real life aspects and problems", this game is really good and if you don't have any of the mentioned problems, i recommend it 100%

The original Spyro is definitely the "purest" Spyro game in that it has less of the backtracking and gimmicky minigames for extra collectibles that future games would have, there's a nice simplicity in going into a level, collecting all of the gems in one run and just knowing that you're done with that level.

Because it's the first one though, there's a few things it clearly hasn't figured out yet. Namely boss battles, all of which are a total joke which usually come down to you hitting an enemy once, watching them slowly move to their designated next platform so you can hit them again and repeating until they're dead with no challenge having ever been posed whatsoever. The dragons you have to free are also obviously supposed to function as helpful tutorial-givers as well as a progression objective, but by the late game they've clearly run out of stuff to tell you so they just pop out and say shit like "yeah cheers Spyro!" and then immediately fuck off and it feels really abrupt, LOL

Future Spyro games would build out in terms of charm. They'd have NPCs who you talk to every time you enter the level and give you some background about the place and likely why it's overrun with bad guys. Spyro 2 has opening and ending cutscenes for every level, Spyro 3 has way more characters and cutscenes etc.

Lacking these things, Spyro 1 feel comparatively a bit empty? You go in, get to the end, maybe collect all the gems in a level, that's it, and like I say - towards the end the dragons aren't even saying shit to you.

It has a lot less fluff than its sequels, but honestly Spyro 2 & 3 are rare games in that I think their fluff is generally actually really good and helps make those games more charming and enjoyable. Without them, Spyro 1 feels like it's lacking something, but it's still a fundamentally enjoyable game with some fun gameplay. Harmless and unspectacular compared to its sequels.

The biggest thing Spyro 1 has going for it is some really dope level themes, both musically and artistically. This is by far the most fantastical and whimsical the series would ever get - particularly in the late game, and I kinda miss the fairytyle-style words that felt like they were really reminding you that Spyro is a dragon. Lofty Castle and Haunted Towers will forever be favourites.