About the Spyro Games
Spyro is a magical purple dragon who first appeared in 1998. He was designed by Craig Stitt and Charles Zemillas, hired by Insomniac Games, and was originally green, which was later changed to avoid blending in to his grassy landscapes. Spyro was first jokingly named Pete, but this sounded too much like Disney's Pete's Dragon, so he was named after the Greek word for fire, Pyros, and the Latin word for breath, Spiro.
The game's developers were originally thinking of making Spyro the Dragon a much darker, serious game, but decided it would have more appeal if it wasn't so scary. However the later series, The Legend of Spyro, is much darker and serious, retaining the cuteness of the character, but almost nothing else.
Spyro is a unique platforming game, featuring the ability to glide to reach faraway areas. A former NASA scientist was hired to help tweak the programming to make the gliding as smooth as possible.
After Spyro the Dragon was released in August 1998 for Sony's PlayStation, it received praise and several sequels were made until 2005. The first three games were a trilogy for the PlayStation, but the final installment, Spyro: Shadow Legacy, was not released for any consoles but only the handheld Nintendo DS. The series switched developers midway, and the publisher, Vivendi (Activision) changed names and associates several times.
By 2006, the games' producers felt people had lost interest in the Spyro series, and decided to design a reboot. Weirdly, The Legend of Spyro was first advertised as a prequel to the original series, though in actuality the story is not consistent with the original series at all.
The Legend of Spyro series ran from 2006 to 2008. It comprises three games, which are of an entirely different look and feel than those of the previous series. The design had not only changed, but the music, too. The original series' score was composed by Stewart Copeland, and lent a joyful funky vibe to the worlds. The Legend of Spyro's soundtrack was created by composers Rebecca Kneubuhl and Gabriel Mann, known for their work in films, adding to the gravity of the new environment.
There was an animated motion picture, The Legend of Spyro 3D, planned to be released, following the plot of the recent trilogy. It was cancelled, however, even though the designers, developers and even the animation company where chosen.
Activision then decided to go in a new direction. First they designed a dark, more realistic Spyro, which included blood. That did not seem like Spyro, so they tried again, this time with a tiny Spyro that could travel into books. Then was the idea of an origami Spyro, who could transform into different items and weapons. None of these were good enough, so they settled on a game called Spyro's Kingdom, which was set years in the future where Spyro was an experienced guide helping the player. Activision was also experimenting with the idea of "Toys to Life", in which figures are implemented with NFC chips, allowing memory to be read and written yet stored within the figure.
In 2010, the website of Skylanders: Spyro's Kingdom was published, allowing visitors to click-and-drag multiple playable characters into the game and view their unique abilities. It just didn't feel right that Spyro was a non-playable character, so they made him playable, replacing the Fire Dragon character. The first five prototype Skylanders figures did not all make it to the release of the game Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure in 2011, which was once again accompanied by differing music, this time by Scottish composer Lorne Balfe. Strangely, the story plot of all six Skylanders games featured a different main villain depending on whether they were played on a handheld game or a console.
Throughout the Skylanders spinoff, Activision continually made the playable characters more customizable, to the point where the player could design (with limitations) the character's appearance, size, voice, and abilities. The 2016-2017 game Skylanders: Imaginators allowed this, and while the supplies lasted one could even order their customized character to be made into a 3D-printed working game figure.
The latest Spyro game is actually a pack of three games, which are remastered editions of the first three PlayStation releases. The gameplay is for the most part the same, with updates such as auto-save (the originals had to be saved manually at select save points), and the ability to select and play at any time any level which the player has already found a portal to. Additionally, the map feature and Sparx pointing to treasure were added to the three games, originally not appearing until 1999's Spyro: Ripto's Rage and 2000's Spyro: Year of the Dragon, respectively. Spyro: Reignited Trilogy was released in 2018, twenty years after the first Spyro game. It utilizes both the original Stewart Copeland tracks and updated versions, with the option to choose whichever you prefer. Spyro and other characters now have the same voice actor consistently, Spyro being voiced by Tom Kenny, who first voiced Spyro in Spyro: Ripto's Rage.
