The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (2006, PlayStation 2/ Nintendo GameCube/ Game Boy Advance/ Xbox, Krome Studios).
The following Spyro games tried to rectify this issue by adding in various gimmicks, such as multiple elemental breaths, combat, and eventually even unlimited free flight.
As a youngling, Spyro was able to glide rather than fly freely (though he was able to fly in special levels and in later games via a temporary powerup).Īlthough the series was a hit, Insomniac left after the third game, partly because they felt it was difficult to create varied gameplay when the main playable character is a quadruped (their next series, Ratchet & Clank, made heavy use of gadgets and weapons). Seeing as making a platformer where the player can just fly over everything would've been difficult, it was decided this dragon would be a child, which had the added bonus of appealing to the target demographic. It was decided that it'd star a dragon because, well, dragons are cool! It was started in 1998 when Universal Interactive Studios commissioned Insomniac Games to make a child-oriented game on the original PlayStation. A platforming video game franchise (with a focus on combat in later games) starring the eponymous purple dragon, Spyro.