by Jay "THE FLEA" Wade
Spyro has returned in his third instalment of the Spryo series. And I’d have to say the best of the series.
An evil sorceress has stolen all the dragon eggs and has taken them to her dimension.
Spyro. And a Cheetah buddy of his named Hunter, go to the world to save the eggs.
In his quest Spyro will find other characters who help him find the eggs. Including Sheila the kangaroo, Sgt. Byrd a flying penguin, Bently the Yeti and Agent 9 a space age monkey.
These characters bring some added freshness to the game.
You also meet a money crazed bear named Moneybags who charges you gems to enter places in the game or release a new character.
The levels and worlds play just like all the past Spyro games. But with new characters there’s new attributes to master. There’s also many mini levels hidden within main levels that are a blast to play. Racing, wack-a-mole, skateboarding, tank combat, cat hockey, and hunt and shoot to name a few. These fun mini games really give the game some verity in the game play.
The graphics hold up to the past Spyro games with colorful backgrounds, great animation and some nice voice acting. There’s tons of stuff to find in every level. To find all the eggs & gems is a real challenge.
The control is some of the best in any 3D platform game on PSX. With plenty of moves and tricks to master you can look any where in the game. The camera angles could be a little faster to keep up with spyro, but this isn’t as bad as some other platform games.
This platform adventure is really hard to put down, and once you beat it you want to go back and find all the eggs and gems you missed. And some of these are a real pain to find.
Overall if you loved the past Spyro games or are looking for a fun adventure game I highly recommend Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
PUBLISHER: SONY / INSOMNIAC
GRAPHICS: 10 MUSIC & SOUND: 10 CONTROL: 9.5
SECRETS: 10 ORIGINALITY: 9 FUN & REPLAY: 10
OVERALL: 9.5