Blast From The Past: Spyro the Dragon

"Spyro" was just like "Crash Bandicoot" -one of the greatest PS1 titles- with a whimsical purple little dragon that was adored by all and played by thousands, this however was short lived as Insomniac gave their legacy over to new developers to potential wreck their creation and ruin it they did, but a small light for the "Spyro" series still lives on within the original trilogy. 

The favorite of many fans out there but just like it's counterpart Crash, this game too had some initial teething problems to start with. The idea of this game was to find all the dragons that were encased in stone and free them, so it was essentially a big game of hide and seek. These statues however  were usually easy to spot and the developers made little effort to hide them (they couldn't anyway as they didn't create any good hiding places in the first place), even if there were one's you could see but couldn't reach, you could still easily get to it if you decide too work backwards.

Since each level had an average of four dragons to free it meant that the stages in this game were very short, you could go straight from the initiation of the level to the end of it in a matter of seconds, this comes across as a bit disappointing as it seems to lack obstructions and obstacles making the only challenges finding the statues (which is quite easy), collecting all the gems (which is easy too but time consuming), and finding the hidden keys (well I say hidden but they weren't really) which opens a chest which will have some of the levels gems in it.

Despite "Spyro" having it's problems it still doesn't mean that everyone should avoid it, with an interesting soundtrack that covers a spectrum of atmospheric settings and well created level layouts (which were sadly too short), the first game in the trilogy was still a success. 

Insomniac looked back at their first game and made a note not to make the same mistakes in "Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer"and they were brilliant at fixing them, with much longer levels and challenges that ranged in difficulty, this game outshined the first one.

For this game you had two main goals rather than one, collect talismans by completing the level, and obtain as many power orbs as possible which were given to you by completing challenges or finding the rare one hidden in hard to find places (which was actually well hidden this time), this game did also have the time consuming task of being able to collect every gem but this time in doing so you were rewarded with a bonus level at the end of the game making your efforts worth it.

This game also gave players new abilities such as swimming and climbing ladders however there was a downside to it, you had to pay in order to get the ability which robbed us in a way of completing earlier levels in one go as you might have needed to climb a ladder but wouldn't have the ability meaning you would have to come back at a later time.

The challenges in this game as I said before ranged in difficulty but some of them were a bit too difficult, for example - you goal is to get the fishes into the idol's mouth, you needed to feed it ten fish, blue and orange fishes are acceptable but red fishes made the idol sick and decreased the amount you had already given him, oh but did I mention the fishes leap out of the water giving you a fraction of a second to determine the colour and chose whether you can feed him or not, while this may not sound hard at all I can assure you it was and still is a tough challenge.

 

This was the final "Spyro" game in the trilogy and was undoubtedly the most critically acclaimed and longest one. In "Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon" players would find themselves seeking out the stolen dragon eggs which is a bit similar to the first game but instead of 80 statues this game had 150 -or 151 if you count the twins- eggs, making it last much longer than the first game as collecting the eggs was a mixture of finding them (varying in how easy they were to find), doing challenges for them and paying for them.

Just like the second game "Spyro 3" allowed players to swim, climb ladders and so on but this time they corrected their fault and allowed players to have those abilities right from the start and required no gems to purchase the skill.

Along with the third game new content came with it, new playable characters, new types of gameplay such as FPS, top down shooters etc and skateboarding areas were newly added into this game but they managed to get this right the first time without another game coming out and fixing the problems, this game is hard to fault with it was the best and sadly the last great Spyro game that was created.

Blast From The Past: Crash Bandicoot

It goes without saying that everyone with some form of gaming history has played at least one of the original "Crash Bandicoot" games, just like it's rival "Spyro", these were the best of the best of PlayStation gaming and have proven to be a series that have given us a lifetime of memories, for this entry i will only be writing about the first three games and exclude "Crash Team Racing" and "Crash Bash".

Alot of people adored the first Crash Bandicoot game and so did I, however after playing it fully a few months back I've realized how naive I was, everyone probably remembers using the super cheat code in order to play any level you wanted but did any of you remember how you saved the game for the first Crash game?, well basically you had to find the three boxes labeled "?" that had a token inside it which would take you to in the bonus round, from there you had to complete the bonus round and once completing it you were allowed to save, if you failed the bonus round by dying you wouldn't get another shot at it and have to keep playing through to the end of the level and into the next level to try out that bonus round and cross your fingers hoping you'd be capable of doing it otherwise, yup you wouldn't be able to save and have to play on to the next bonus round hoping you'd do that one.

Apart from the dodgy saving mechanic some of the levels were just poorly designed, for instance those levels set in the native's village there were sections in that where you had to spin at a wooden device to create a ledge, climb on top of it, jump on that one to spin at the device above the one you were on, jump onto that one and repeat all before the devices change, another "fine" example of this was the bridge levels such as "The Road To Nowhere" in these levels you would progress only by moving forward however most of the bridge was missing and required you to jump with extreme precision from the narrow plank of wood you were standing on to another single piece of wood, trust me guys if you remember this you'll now how difficult it was.

Even though I have pointed out this game's major flaws it doesn't mean that it's a terrible game, nay it is actually still very enjoyable -just not as great as I once perceived it to be- with several interesting settings and obstacles this game is still highly enjoyable and challenging (even though some parts are a little too challenging).

Crash Bandicoot 2 may not seem like it now but for it's time it pushed the ps1 to it's hardware limits and capabilities. Out of the three this one is the most unique game with interesting recurring themes such as city ruins, sewers, back-lands and so on that didn't seem like a random mess like the themes for Crash 1, this was also the first game to introduce the crystal concept as the first one only had gems (but it never told you which levels had gems which resulted in you wasting time collecting all the boxes and not being rewarded for your efforts), had an improved save file system and allowed players to repeat bonus levels until they were satisfied. This game was perfectly balanced for all players, in order to complete the game you'd just have to collect crystals and defeat the bosses this is a challenge for kids but easy for experienced players however the challenge for experienced is collecting the gems.

Furthermore this game featured easter eggs for example in one of the sewer based levels there was a split path, if you decided to take one path in particular you would find yourself in a room full of nitrogen boxes (instant death if touched), seems a bit odd doesn't it, however if you go right to the back of the room and avoid all the boxes the wall that is there is like a hologram as you can jump right through it into a secret area. This game had numerous hidden areas that even teleported you to another part of a different level making every level blend into each other as the majority of them linked up nicely.

For many of you out there Crash 3 was your favorite however the themes for this game, Egypt, Medieval times, Persia and so on have all been a little overplayed in games to the point it can be considered a cliche however the layouts of these levels and the obstructions they present are far from cliche, the idea's and problems the game presents to us in the form of a challenge is highly creative and very enjoyable as it has the right balance, it is not too hard that it is frustrating but not too easy that it is considered boring, it is challenging and like Crash 2 it can be played by any level of experience a player possesses, crystals for children, gems for experienced players and a new collectable which is the relic, a time attack mode that is aimed at children for the first few levels and slowly gets harder as it is aimed at the experienced players.