It was interesting going back and replaying this because i discovered that all my childhood memories of spyro were from this game. I guess that says a lot about how iconic some of the imagery and design of this one would go on to be. It's a small thing but i really like how each of the worlds are connected and share characters, like you spend one level helping birds and then at the end they mention fighting slugs, and then you go on and help the slugs fight the birds on a different level. Stuff like that is really cool and makes you feel like an explorer visiting a lived in world with its own stuff going on.

The movement is really good in this one, I loved the addition of the flutter jump, and the bosses are by default better than the ones in 1.

But yeah this one is probably the best of the original trilogy ,it still feels pretty empty but there's more to do than in 1 and it feels more thematically consistent than 3.