History YMMV / SpyroTheDragon1998

** As if that wasn't enough, once you're in the secret area, you must climb up the stairs to where the fairy is as quick as possible, or else the wizard will animate the armour in front of the door. [[TheKeyIsBehindTheDoor Since the only way to destroy that armour is the fairy behind the door]], you're left with not option but to kill Spyro to reset the armours.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When it came out, this was the only game on the [=PS1=] that offered an open 3D world with wraparound scenery; other games had to restrict the playing spaces or the camera. Making distant objects lose details allowed for much further draw distances than anything before. Today this approach is standard and new players are unlikely to notice the innovation.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: When it came out, this was the only game on the [=PS1=] that offered an open 3D world with wraparound scenery; other games had to restrict the playing spaces or the camera. Making distant objects lose details allowed for much further draw distances than anything before. Today this approach is standard and new players are unlikely to notice the innovation.

** The penultimate level, Twilight Harbor, has some tough enemies, but the Survivalists take the cake due to some ridiculous HitboxDissonance coming from their grenades. The gatling-wielding Commandos aren't much better due to their tendency to attack in groups and open fire on Spyro when he's well out of attack range.

* DifficultySpike: The Beast Makers world is considerably more difficult than any of the other worlds before it. It has a higher completion requirement (50 out of 58 dragons) and it's the second world where you cannot skip without playing through at least one level (Artisans being the first). It also contains some rather hard levels in the game by that point, with notable mentions going to Misty Bog (tough enemies followed by healing butterflies being scarce), and Tree Tops (getting HundredPercentCompletion requires solving some tricky puzzles involving the supercharge ramps).

* UnderusedGameMechanic: There are lots of spring chests and fan chests in the game, but there's only one spring chest and one fan chest with a red gem in them, both found in Lofty Castle.

* FirstInstallmentWins: Even disregarding the [[BrokenBase varying opinions]] on what came after the original classic trilogy, there are those who greatly preferred the first games' platforming-focused gameplay over the more mini-game and GameplayRoulette focus ''Spyro 2'' and ''Spyro 3'' would adopt, with the level designs of the latter two feeling more linear and less interesting to traverse as a byproduct.

* CatharsisFactor: Haunted Towers is full of Ghost Armors that cannot be destroyed without a Super Flame, which are temporarily granted to you throughout the level. Once you reach the secret area, you have to deal with a relatively hard area where you have to run through a bunch of them until they activate, which one of them will block your path. If you get past all of them? You get granted a PERMANENT Super Flame (for the level) which you promptly use to get rid of them and other annoying Ghost Armors that gave you a hard time throughout the level.

** The [[CowardlyMooks thieves]] are the bane of players going for 100PercentCompletion. While they can't harm Spyro directly, trying to retrieve the EggMacGuffin from them requires the player to chase them through difficult sections of the level, and they are ''[[FragileSpeedster fast]]''.

* FirstInstallmentWins: A small subset of the community has this opinion about ''Spyro 1''. Even disregarding the [[BrokenBase varying opinions]] on what came after the original classic trilogy, there are those who greatly preferred the first games' platforming focused gameplay to the more mini-game and GameplayRoulette focus ''Spyro 2'' and ''Spyro 3'' would adopt, with the level designs of the latter two feeling more linear and less interesting to traverse as a byproduct.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny:
** While no one is going to say that the original game is bad, some fans and even critics in recent years [[HypeBacklash are not at all convinced that the first Spyro has earned it’s reputation as one of the best 3D platformers ever made]]. While the soundtrack, atmosphere and general design are still praised, it is often pointed out that the game really suffers from a lack of variety, the combat can get very repetitive after a while, and it has [[CameraScrew many of the camera issues that are common to early 3D games]], not to mention some rather unimpressive boss fights. The game's graphical prowess depends on one's nostalgia for [=PS1=]-era graphics, although as with Naughty Dog's ''Crash'' series, Insomniac's impressive engine eliminates common [=PS1=] issues like texture warping and visual seams. Even Spyro's MascotWithAttitude nature is no longer impressive due to the concept [[DiscreditedTrope falling out of favor]] shortly after his series heyday.
** The biggest place the game suffers from this reaction is in the whole concept: an open world 3D platformer on the [=PS1=]. At the time, nobody thought it was even possible; look carefully at the major games released during or before this on the console and you'll see they tend to take place in tight quarters or heavily controlled spaces[[note]]''Crash Bandicoot'' was confined to hallways that cleverly loaded scenery in and out of view with a strictly on-rails camera, while ''Metal Gear Solid'' took place in small rooms and always from a top-down perspective, to name two examples[[/note]]. It was the one area people thought only the UsefulNotes/Nintendo64 could excel at. This game completely shot all of those doubts in the face, and more importantly, it did it well, with draw distances not yet seen at this point[[note]]The big thing it did to accomplish this was by ''heavily'' relying on LOD (level of detail) changes as things moved further from the camera. Look carefully at the world geometry the further away you get and you'll see how it gets more and more primitive[[/note]]. Nowadays, with its sequels being more in line with the major platformers the rival console was seeing due to all the improvements, plus the console being further pushed to its limits as it tends to happen, some may not catch on to how big a deal this was when it came out.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The dragons can be released in any order and there is no clear hierarchy among the dragon realms in the games besides the different worlds. However, the first dragons you are likely to encounter -- Nestor, Titan, Cosmos, Bruno, and Lateef -- are referred to on fan wikis as possible "leaders" due to their MrExposition roles. Toys For Bob seems to think so too, considering they're the adult dragons present on the "Everybody's here" artwork for the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' (check the "Characters" page to see it). Even with this, the dragons chosen to represent the Artisans in Gnasty's worlds are actually Delbin and Tomas, Magnus represents the Peace Keepers instead of Titan, and Cleetus represents the Beast Makers instead of Bruno.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The dragons can be released in any order and there is no clear hierarchy among the dragon realms in the games besides the different worlds. However, the first dragons you are likely to encounter -- Nestor, Titan, Cosmos, Bruno, and Lateef -- are referred to on fan wikis as possible "leaders" due to their roles as {{Mr. Exposition}}s. Toys For Bob seems to think so too, considering they're the adult dragons present on the "Everybody's here" artwork for the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' (check the "Characters" page to see it). Even with this, the dragons chosen to represent the Artisans in Gnasty's worlds are actually Delbin and Tomas, Magnus represents the Peace Keepers instead of Titan, and Cleetus represents the Beast Makers instead of Bruno.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The dragons can be released in any order and there is no clear hierarchy among the dragon realms in the games besides the different worlds. However, the first dragons you are likely to encounter - Nestor, Titan, Cosmos, Bruno, and Lateef - are referred to on fan wikis as possible "leaders" due to their roles as {{Mr Exposition}}s. Toys For Bob seems to think so too, considering they're the adult dragons present on the "Everybody's here" artwork for the ''VideoGame/SpyroReignitedTrilogy'' (check the Characters page to see it). Even with this, the dragons chosen to represent the Artisans in Gnasty's worlds are actually Delbin and Tomas, Magnus represents the Peace Keepers instead of Titan, and Cleetus represents the Beast Makers instead of Bruno.

* {{Adorkable}}: Spyro has some shades of this in the ''Reignited Trilogy'', notably during some of the rescue animations and several of the credits' artwork. For instance, in one picture, he's sculpting with Nils of Town Square. Nils is making a picture of Zoe, while Spyro's making one of himself and putting CoolShades on it.
* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The dragons can be released in any order and there is no clear hierarchy among the dragon realms in the games besides the different worlds. However, the first dragons you are likely to encounter - Nestor, Titan, Cosmos, Bruno, and Lateef - are referred to on fan wikis as possible "leaders" due to their roles as {{Mr Exposition}}s. Toys For Bob seems to think so too, considering they're the adult dragons present on the "Everybody's here" artwork for the ''Reignited Trilogy'' (check the Characters page to see it). Even with this, the dragons chosen to represent the Artisans in Gnasty's worlds are actually Delbin and Tomas, Magnus represents the Peace Keepers instead of Titan, and Cleetus represents the Beast Makers instead of Bruno.

* AlternativeCharacterInterpretation: The dragons can be released in any order and there is no clear hierarchy among the dragon realms in the games besides the different worlds. However, the first dragons you are likely to encounter - Nestor, Titan, Cosmos, Bruno, and Lateef - are referred to on fan wikis as possible "leaders" due to their roles as {{Mr Exposition}}s. Toys For Bob seems to think so too, considering they're the adult dragons present on the "Everybody's here" artwork for the Reignited Trilogy (check the Characters page to see it). Even with this, the dragons chosen to represent the Artisans in Gnasty's worlds are actually Delbin and Tomas, Magnus represents the Peace Keepers instead of Titan, and Cleetus represents the Beast Makers instead of Bruno.

* FirstInstallmentWins: A small subset of the community has this opinion about ''Spyro 1''. Even disregarding the [[BrokenBase varying opinions]] on what came after the original classic trilogy, there are those who greatly preferred the first games' platforming focused gameplay to the more mini-game and GameplayRoulette focus ''Spyro 2'' and ''Spyro 3'' would adopt, with the level designs of the latter two feeling more linear and less interesting to traverse as a byproduct. This opinion became much more vocal during latter half of TheNewTens, thanks to [[VideoGame/AHatInTime several platformers being released]] [[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey that put much greater emphasis on the platforming itself]] over gimmicks and mini-games, which caused many to look back on ''Spyro 1'' as being rather ahead of its time.[[note]][[VideoGame/YookaLaylee And the one]] that did try to be a deliberate throwback to mini-game/gimmick platformers releasing to [[BrokenBase lukewarm reception at best]].[[/note]]

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While no one is going to say that the original game is bad, some fans and even critics in recent years [[HypeBacklash are not at all convinced that the first Spyro has earned it’s reputation as one of the best 3D platformers ever made]]. While the soundtrack, atmosphere and general design are still praised, it is often pointed out that the game really suffers from a lack of variety, the combat can get very repetitive after a while, and it has [[CameraScrew many of the camera issues that are common to early 3D games]], not to mention some rather unimpressive boss fights. The game's graphical prowess depends on one's nostalgia for [=PS1=]-era graphics, although as with Naughty Dog's ''Crash'' series, Insomniac's impressive engine eliminates common [=PS1=] issues like texture warping and visual seams. Even Spyro's MascotWithAttitude nature is no longer impressive due to the concept [[DiscreditedTrope falling out of favor]] shortly after his series heyday.

* FirstInstallmentWins: A small subset of the community has this opinion about ''Spyro 1''. Even disregarding the [[BrokenBase varying opinions]] on what came after the original classic trilogy, there are those who greatly preferred the first games platforming focused gameplay to the more mini-game and GameplayRoulette focus ''Spyro 2'' and ''Spyro 3'' would adopt, with the level designs of the latter two feeling more linear and less interesting to traverse as a byproduct. This opinion became much more vocal during latter half of TheNewTens, thanks to [[VideoGame/AHatInTime several platformers being released]] [[VideoGame/SuperMarioOdyssey that put much greater emphasis on the platforming itself]] over gimmicks and mini-games, which caused many to look back on ''Spyro 1'' as being rather ahead of its time.[[note]] [[VideoGame/YookaLaylee and the one]] that did try to be a deliberate throwback to mini-game/gimmick platformers releasing to [[BrokenBase lukewarm reception at best]].[[/note]]

* SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments: "Looks like I've got some things to do." For all his BadButt attitude in the first game, when Gnasty's turned the rest of the dragons to crystal, the ''first'' thing Spyro does is decide he's going to save them and get revenge on Gnasty.
-->'''Spyro:''' Where's Gnasty Gnorc? I'll ''torch'' him!

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: "Looks like I've got some things to do." For all his BadButt attitude in the first game, when Gnasty's turned the rest of the dragons to crystal, the ''first'' thing Spyro does is decide he's going to save them and get revenge on Gnasty.

* AccidentalInnuendo: One of the bosses is named ''Blowhard'', of all things. Though a blowhard is a term for a bore and a rambler.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: While no one is going to say that the original game is bad, some fans and even critics in recent years [[HypeBacklash are not at all convinced that the first Spyro has earned it’s reputation as one of the best 3D platformers ever made]]. While the soundtrack, atmosphere and general design are still praised, it is often pointed out that the game really suffers from a lack of variety, the combat can get very repetitive after a while, and it has [[CameraScrew many of the camera issues that are common to early 3D games]], not to mention some rather unimpressive boss fights. The visuals in particular, while certainly nice for an early [=PlayStation=] game, have not aged well at ''all''. Even Spyro's MascotWithAttitude nature is no longer impressive due to the concept [[DiscreditedTrope falling out of favor]] shortly after his series heyday.

** Metalhead is probably the hardest level to achieve 100% completion for thanks to five hard-to-reach gems placed on a platform next to the level exit. What should be a simple glide from the platform adjacent to it is made unnecessarily hard by how far away the platforms are from each other -- you must glide and land pinpoint at the edge of the platform or you will not make it. The European version fixes this by placing the gems on another platform.