The Complete History of Spyro the Dragon

From the ashes, a purple dragon shall rise! For many years, we’ve been longing for the return of a classic “Spyro” game, and our scaly pal has finally returned thanks to “Spyro: Reignited Trilogy”. As many hardcore “Spyro” fans know, it hasn’t been an easy road for the franchise. So, join us as we tell you about the history of the dragon, the myth, the legend - “Spyro the Dragon”. In the winter of 1996, Insomniac Games released their very first game, “Disruptor”. Despite the game seeing solid review scores, sales numbers were less than stellar. Consequently, this put Insomniac on the verge of bankruptcy. Thankfully, Universal Interactive Studios (who published “Disruptor”) wanted to continue working with the studio. Mark Cerny, then-executive producer for Universal, advised Insomniac to develop a game geared towards younger demographics, something more family-friendly. The company settled on two ideas; a game about aliens invading Earth, or a game about a dragon. Insomniac went with the latter while the former would eventually become “Resistance: Fall of Man”. (But, that’s a story for another time…) Getting their game to run properly would prove to be a challenge, as Insomniac had difficulty gauging the processing power of the PlayStation. The team would have to cycle through numerous kits due to consoles freezing up or catching on fire. Insomniac quickly found the solution to save power. The game would be programmed to merge two different models of the environment - one with simplistic polygons and another with more details in textures and models. This would allow the team to do more with the game without worrying about more broken consoles. Of course, you can’t talk about “Spyro” without the game’s composer, Stewart Copeland. Before the project’s inception, Copeland was famous for his work as the drummer for The Police and worked as a composer on multiple movies and television shows. Insomniac commissioned Copeland late in development. His process involved playing one level of the game before writing the music for said level. Copeland has admitted that he was terrible at the game and would sometimes need cheat codes in order to progress more easily. “Spyro the Dragon” landed on North American retail shelves on September 9, 1998, arriving in Europe a month later. The game received sizeable praise for its vibrant and detailed visuals, and the game would sell more than five million copies. Before they knew it, Insomniac had successfully created another PlayStation mascot to stand alongside Naughty Dog’s Crash Bandicoot. It was clear what Insomniac’s next project would be. Development for the “Spyro” sequel began shortly after the first game’s release. While there weren’t too many complaints about the first game, Insomniac felt that “Spyro” had focused too much on collectibles, making part of the game feel like a chore. The studio decided to scrap most of the collectibles in favor of various missions and quests. This was to keep the game feeling fresh, making the player do different tasks almost all the time. “Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage” launched in November 1999, receiving positive feedback from fans and critics. The game was lauded for including new moves for Spyro to learn and providing unique gameplay with its various quests and minigames. Sales weren’t nearly as high as the first “Spyro”, but it was enough to warrant another sequel. The goal for the third “Spyro” game was simple - make it bigger and better. How could Insomniac possibly achieve that without making the formula stale? In addition to including more minigames, the team took a different approach to combat and exploration. Instead of giving Spyro more moves, Insomniac decided to put in multiple playable characters. This would avoid bombarding players with a long move list while introducing new characters and experimenting with different gameplay. “Spyro: Year of the Dragon” released in North America on October 24, 2000. Europe would have to wait until November 10, 2000. Critics gave the game glowing reviews, and fans regarded “Year of the Dragon” as the best game in the series. The camera may have been frustrating, but the minigames and level design kept players coming back for more. Unfortunately, this would be the last “Spyro” game from Insomniac. The studio had felt like they had run their course with the dragon and had no more ideas. It was time to move on, but Universal wasn’t ready to leave “Spyro” just yet. With the next generation of consoles on the horizon, Universal was looking to get a new “Spyro” game out ASAP. The two studios who accepted the challenge were Equinoxe Digital Entertainment and Check Six Studios. These would be the companies behind the newest game, “Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly”. At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly, but this relationship would eventually reveal itself to be as stable as a three-legged coffee table. Teams at both Equinoxe and Check Six frequently butt heads over creative differences, and the growing tension eventually caused director Joel Goodsell to quit mid-development. “Enter the Dragonfly” was nearly canceled after an intense fight between managers. Senior Engineer & Project Coordinator Warren Davis had to actually lock them in a room to resolve issues, effectively saving the project and everyone’s jobs. Unfortunately, this would not be enough to save the final product. “Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly” released in November 2002 for PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube, and...oh, boy! This was a bad one… “Enter the Dragonfly” was given scathing reviews! The entire experience felt like an unfinished “Spyro” game, from the bland and empty worlds to the large assortment of bugs and glitches. This would be the absolute lowest point in the “Spyro” franchise. Over the next few years, “Spyro” was featured in a number of lukewarm handheld titles. “Spyro: Season of Ice” and “Spyro 2: Season of Flame” would see a decent following, but other titles like “Shadow Legacy” for the DS and the crossover with Crash Bandicoot would be abhorrent. The only console title the series would spawn in this time was “A Hero’s Tail”, which failed to bring the dragon back to his former glory. Despite “Spyro” not making as big of an impact as he used to, Universal Studios Interactive (now named Vivendi Universal Games) would eventually hire Krome Studios to reboot “Spyro”. Previously, the studio had been known for their work on the “Ty the Tasmanian Tiger” series. Throughout the development of the “Legend of Spyro” series, Krome changed the tone and focus that the original games built. This trilogy would be heavily focused on combat and granting Spyro more moves. Exploration was treated more as a side dish and wouldn’t become more prominent until the new trilogy’s last game, “The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon”. You could say this was the exact opposite of the philosophy behind Insomniac's original games. Nevertheless, the “Legend of Spyro” games would see a favorable fanbase, but it still wasn’t the same lightning in a bottle as the early years. In July 2008, during the last half of the new trilogy’s lifespan, Activision had merged with Vivendi Games, creating Activision Blizzard. With a new catalog of intellectual properties, Activision had their studios select which franchises they’d like to work on. At the time, a studio known as Toys for Bob was seeking the opportunity to create a game that involved the use of toys. Spoiler alert - they chose “Spyro”. But, why? Was this just add a name to their original game? On the contrary, Toys for Bob believed this to be a way for Spyro to make a mark in the gaming industry once more. It was too far out not to give this a shot! Besides, Toys for Bob didn’t want to put the dragon through another reboot or retread familiar territory. This could also be a great way to introduce Spyro to a younger audience. Could this be the start of a brighter future? Fast forward to October 2011 when “Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure” launched and saw monumental success. The game received glowing reviews and made more than five hundred million dollars by December 2012. We suppose you could say the mission to bring Spyro back in the light was accomplished. Unfortunately, our fire-breathing friend would soon be overshadowed by the franchise due to annualized releases and marketing on new gimmicks with each title. At this point, he was now known as “Spyro from ‘Skylanders.’” Now, here we are, on the verge of seeing Spyro finally make his triumphant return with “Spyro: Reignited Trilogy”. Thanks to the jaw-dropping success of “Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy”, Activision has shown a new interest in revitalizing classic franchises, and our purple pal is next to receive the remaster treatment. Is this the first step to a full-fledged comeback? We’ll have to wait and see.