After 10 years, "Spyro the Dragon" is still a revolution.
The biggest innovation with Spyro is arguably the design of the game; rather than following paths, Spyro has huge free-roaming areas to explore, bringing more of an action/adventure feel to the game. To help him explore these worlds, Spyro has a number of useful skills; his flame breath can be used to dispatch enemies, while his charge ability allows him to cover ground faster and to take out armoured foes. Most innovative of all is his ability to glide over wide distances, opening up the world immensely. The controls are easy-to-use and responsive, making full use of the analogue stick. The bane of all 3D platformers is the camera, but Spyro manages to avoid most of the problems associated with it; the camera very rarely becomes stuck on scenery, and the player can control the direction of the camera by pressing the L2 and R2 buttons: it's not flawless, but it works.
There is an amazing amount of variety in the game: much of the game is spent exploring the many worlds looking for Gems and frozen Dragons to free (your main goal), but there are occasionally puzzles to break it up. In certain levels, Spyro will encounter different types of fairy who will either grant him a more powerful breath ability, or rescue him from falling. There are also Supercharge ramps which allow Spyro to charge incredibly fast, knocking everything out of his way. You will need to master your gliding and Supercharge abilities in order to complete the game 100% - there are two levels late in the game, Tree Tops and Haunted Towers, that are infamously difficult even for the most experienced gamers - but this is all part of the fun. In addition to regular levels, there are flight levels where Spyro can fly freely around a large open area, destroying a set number of items within a time limit. And as per usual for platformers, there is a boss at the end of every hub world.
Even 10 years on, the graphics are nothing short of beautiful; there is hardly any pop-up or fog, and the detail that has gone into the graphics is outstanding. Lighting is used effectively to create different atmospheres, and textures are usually detailed and look good even up close. The music is similarly good, composed by Stewart Copeland who would go on to score the next two games in the Insomniac Spyro trilogy. In short, it looks and sounds as good now as it did in 1998.
Like many platformers, "Spyro the Dragon" features a simple story to tie events together. It is set in the Dragon Kingdom, a peaceful world where dragons live in harmony with nature. However, a greedy Gnorc called Gnasty is jealous of the dragons and their treasure, so he freezes all of the dragons in crystal (except one, Spyro, who is so small that the spell shoots over his head) and turns their Gems into warrior Gnorcs. It is then up to Spyro to rescue all of the dragons and reclaim their treasure. Although the story isn't amazing, and it doesn't develop throughout the game, it serves its purpose and the fact that each dragon you rescue has full voice acting is impressive.
It's not all good news, sadly; the game can be incredibly frustrating at points, as it is all too easy to miss a few Gems in each world, making it very difficult to find them again as there is no way of knowing where they are. The levels themselves are sometimes large enough to become lost in, and a simple map would've helped. Most annoying of all, however, is the fact that nothing is there to tell you what to do; while this can sometimes be quite fun and exciting, it can be frustrating when confronted with a near-impossible puzzle, like the aforementioned ones in Tree Tops and Haunted Towers. Also, it can be said that "Spyro the Dragon" hasn't aged anywhere near as well as its two sequels.
Despite that, however, "Spyro the Dragon" remains a brilliant game for the PlayStation, and any platformer fan should definately try it. Many modern platformers, particularly Ratchet & Clank (also by Insomniac Games) can trace their origins back to this game, which despite some minor issues, is every bit as good now as it was back when it was first released.