Good Spyro Games?

Back in my younger days, I really enjoyed playing Insomniac's Spyro trilogy.

But like the Crash series, I completely lost interest once it's original creators moved on.

However, also like Crash, I find myself getting pretty excited for the remaster collection that's coming.

So I've been wondering...are there any other Spyro games outside of Insomniac's that are worth playing?

Not really. The first non-Insomniac game "Enter the dragonfly" is an infamous short and buggy mess. The second "Heroes tail" I remember not being terrible, but also not being that good. It changed the formula a bit, but not all the changes were good and the core of the game was not as solid as the original trilogy. After that they rebooted the series and made a trilogy of games called "The legend of Spyro" that were more linear and combat focused. They were basically God of War knockoffs and were not very good. Lastly there is Skylanders which I haven`t played, but seems to be both gameplay and character wise only barely related to Spyro.

There were also some GBA games, but I have no experience with those.

Since you mentioned Crash I would like to mention that he actually had at least one good non-Naughty Dog game. Crash Twinsanity is very different from the classic Crash games, but it`s really creative and fun and has some great stuff in it if you`re a Crash fan.

I briefly played Enter The Dragonfly and really didn't like it, back when that game released. I never heard anything particularly good about any of the ones released after, so I just ignored them. If it's been long enough, maybe just replay the original trilogy? There's a remake of the trilogy coming out soon, if that interests you; here's a trailer.

EDIT: Should probably read the entire post next time.

Ah, thanks for the info! I'll check out Twinsanity.

If you have to play one of them, Hero's Tail is your best bet. I haven't played it since it came out, and completely forgot about it until it got brought up in this thread, so I can't say if it's good, but I definitely enjoyed it as a kid.

As a curiosity, I'd also recommend looking up the cutscenes for the Legend of Spyro games on youtube, because the self-serious story featuring Elijah Wood as a melodramatic Spyro and David Spade playing a hideous comic-relief Sparx is fascinatingly stupid.

Honestly you should probably give all of them a shot, if nothing else than to see just how weird the journey has been up until these remasters.

I can vouch for the first two GBA games. They're a pretty faithful reproduction of the gameplay loop in an isometric perspective.

I was a fan of the original games and I remember thinking the GBA games were really good isometric versions of Spyro and also that even my younger self who liked bad games didn't make it to the end of Enter The Dragonfly.

I don't like either Spyro or Crash Bandicoot

There I said it

I actually didn't even know there were any Spyro games on GameBoy. I am kinda curious to check out the bad ones, to be honest lol.

if you didnt grow up with them it makes sense. older 3d platformers that arent mario dont hold up super well.

Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly is pretty bad, but it's essentially Spyro 4. You will still hear Stewart Copeland's music, all the sound effects are the same, the voice actors, the lore (ha!), etc. It's just a horribly stripped-down version of Spyro that felt like it was made in 6 months. I played it on GameCube and it runs alright there, but I've been told the PS2 version's unbearable in both framerate and its bugginess.

It'll be a nostalgia trip. The lost Spyro game you never played. On the other hand, with the remaster trilogy so close, there's not as much reason to seek this one out.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail is the far better game, but it's a soft-reboot. It's supposed to be set in the original continuity, but everything's been changed. The art direction, voice actors, humor, music, sound effects, level design, etc. The game feels more like the original Jak & Daxter than Spyro. That said, I'd call it a hidden-gem. Probably the worst-selling game in the series, but a fine platfformer in its own right.

Spyro: Season of Flame and Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs (a.k.a. Spyro Adventure in Europe) are two excellent GBA games. They could've just turned Spyro into a side-scroller, but they made it an isometric platformer that plays great and really captures the feel of the PS1 games.

I wouldn't recommend Season of Ice as much. It's a bit buggy and it requires you to 100% it just to beat it. On the other hand, you could just input the level-warp cheat and not have to worry about some of the absurd challenges it requires you to complete, which is what I did. All 3 games are set in the original continuity.

I've only played a little bit of the first Legend of Spyro game, but it didn't do anything for me.

Thanks for the info! I actually hadn't heard of Hero's Tail

@bioshocksurvivr: I'm gonna have to be that guy.

Check out Skylanders, especially now people are trying to get rid of their stuff so you can probably find it second hand for pretty cheap with a ton of the toys. The later games lean far more heavily on the Skylanders brand, but that first one is really Spryo heavy.

Spyro: A Hero's Tail and Crash TwinSanity are both pretty good.

Also the GBA games for both Spyro and Crash are great except for the crossover games, stay away from those.

Came across a teaser, Spyro is coming back in 2018. Have been waiting for it since then. :)