Normally, when I play through a game, I will accumulate about two and a half pages worth of notes on whatever game I am playing. These couple of pages are usually filled with things about the game that I find interesting, as well as any meaningful ideas I find interesting; I find that writing down interesting findings helps me remember the games better later on, as well as help me better write the reviews for them. Spyro: Year of the Dragon has barely a page for its entry. This is not because I think it is a bad game, not by any means; it is honestly a great improvement over Spyro 2. But, that improvement doesn’t necessarily come from a place of innovation, rather a correcting step backwards; a step that was definitely needed, but in the process, creates an experience that is very much more of the same.
What I have come to realize is that Spyro suffers from what I like to call the Tomb Raider dilemma. This is a dilemma where the first game in the series comes out the gate near perfect, and it leaves the developer in a situation where they don’t really know where to go. Either, they do more of what works and risk being criticized as derivative, or they try new stuff and risk alienating the players. Spyro 2 attempted the latter and, for the most part, failed; it ended up being an experience that just lacks the sense of flow and progression that the first game had, and replaced with boring and infuriatingly bad mini games and side quests. Conversely, Year of the Dragon corrects the additions made by Spyro 2 by having its side quests function within the realm of the games core mechanics, rather than them having their own proprietary controls and mechanics. The primary form of these changes comes from the new playable characters; there are five of them in total, and while each of them do play differently from Spyro, they aren’t too dissimilar and the objectives of their stages/quests are the same as the rest of the levels, that being to collect gems and save dragon eggs. Compare this to the mini games from Spyro 2 like the ice hockey and or crystal popcorn section that don’t follow the core gameplay loop and are really jarring in conjunction with the rest of the game. Though there are still a couple of mini game type challenges that made their way into Year of the Dragon, they control way better than the predecessors and are overall more fun; the skate boarding challenges are a great example of this. But, these improvements are not without drawbacks.
Year of the Dragon is a big game, it is bigger than Spyro 2, and it is much bigger than the first game; and because of how this game streamlines and uses the Spyro gameplay loop, it is really noticeable just how big this one is. Spyro 2, despite its bad game design choices, still distracts you from its increased run time by having you do different tasks; but here in this one, it is very much noticeable. The new characters do help slightly with variety, but their sections are so few and far in between, it feels like an eternity before you get to play as one of them again. Because of this, and the prior mentioned streamlining, a lot of this game’s levels kind of overstay their welcome. Personally, I felt really burned out by the end of the game because I felt like I just played a longer version of Spyro 1, which isn’t a bad thing per se, but nonetheless that's how I felt. Additionally, none of the levels reach the peak that they should, there is no real crescendo if you will. Spyro retains all the abilities he gained in Spyro 2, yet there is no level that pushes the player to utilize those abilities in interesting and creative ways; the game is just content with giving the player easy as all get out levels throughout the entire game until it is just over. There is a slight difficulty spike in the final world that I enjoyed, but still nothing stands out. I don’t think I could name a level from this game that isn’t one of the new characters' home world missions. It all just adds up to a game that just doesn't do a whole lot
I know the general fan consensus is that this is the best game in the trilogy, and I can understand that, but for me it's just ok. I think overall Year of the Dragon is a good game, not quite as good as Spyro 1, but definitely better than Spyro 2. It just doesn’t do anything that hasn’t already been seen in the previous games, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetic. It is more of the same, albeit a good more of the same.
What I have come to realize is that Spyro suffers from what I like to call the Tomb Raider dilemma. This is a dilemma where the first game in the series comes out the gate near perfect, and it leaves the developer in a situation where they don’t really know where to go. Either, they do more of what works and risk being criticized as derivative, or they try new stuff and risk alienating the players. Spyro 2 attempted the latter and, for the most part, failed; it ended up being an experience that just lacks the sense of flow and progression that the first game had, and replaced with boring and infuriatingly bad mini games and side quests. Conversely, Year of the Dragon corrects the additions made by Spyro 2 by having its side quests function within the realm of the games core mechanics, rather than them having their own proprietary controls and mechanics. The primary form of these changes comes from the new playable characters; there are five of them in total, and while each of them do play differently from Spyro, they aren’t too dissimilar and the objectives of their stages/quests are the same as the rest of the levels, that being to collect gems and save dragon eggs. Compare this to the mini games from Spyro 2 like the ice hockey and or crystal popcorn section that don’t follow the core gameplay loop and are really jarring in conjunction with the rest of the game. Though there are still a couple of mini game type challenges that made their way into Year of the Dragon, they control way better than the predecessors and are overall more fun; the skate boarding challenges are a great example of this. But, these improvements are not without drawbacks.
Year of the Dragon is a big game, it is bigger than Spyro 2, and it is much bigger than the first game; and because of how this game streamlines and uses the Spyro gameplay loop, it is really noticeable just how big this one is. Spyro 2, despite its bad game design choices, still distracts you from its increased run time by having you do different tasks; but here in this one, it is very much noticeable. The new characters do help slightly with variety, but their sections are so few and far in between, it feels like an eternity before you get to play as one of them again. Because of this, and the prior mentioned streamlining, a lot of this game’s levels kind of overstay their welcome. Personally, I felt really burned out by the end of the game because I felt like I just played a longer version of Spyro 1, which isn’t a bad thing per se, but nonetheless that's how I felt. Additionally, none of the levels reach the peak that they should, there is no real crescendo if you will. Spyro retains all the abilities he gained in Spyro 2, yet there is no level that pushes the player to utilize those abilities in interesting and creative ways; the game is just content with giving the player easy as all get out levels throughout the entire game until it is just over. There is a slight difficulty spike in the final world that I enjoyed, but still nothing stands out. I don’t think I could name a level from this game that isn’t one of the new characters' home world missions. It all just adds up to a game that just doesn't do a whole lot
I know the general fan consensus is that this is the best game in the trilogy, and I can understand that, but for me it's just ok. I think overall Year of the Dragon is a good game, not quite as good as Spyro 1, but definitely better than Spyro 2. It just doesn’t do anything that hasn’t already been seen in the previous games, both in terms of gameplay and aesthetic. It is more of the same, albeit a good more of the same.