Spyro the Dragon

I've moved completely towards Sony's little baby the PlayStation.  The first game I'm playing was developed by Insomniac and published by Sony: Spyro the Dragon.  Released in early September of 1998, Spyro the Dragon was the beginning of Insomniac's initial series before moving on to Ratchet and Clank and Resistance (which I shall move onto later).  

So the plot is simple, there are five families of dragons that are living in peace until Gnasty Gnorc attacks there realm and turns them all into crystals using his magic... except for Spyro because he's so small.  It seems that he should have turned Spyro into a crystal because all the other dragons are sort of peace loving and Spyro is the only one who really cares to attack.  But the game is a just a big treasure hunt, where you free dragons, collect gems, and collect the dragon's eggs.

I'm actually started on a previously saved game where I've already defeated the first realm and am in the beginning of the second (a giant desert).  The home world for the realm is filled with these green guys (gnorcs) dressed in the British Red Coat fashion but are easily charged down by Spyro.  After running around a bit to remember the controls, I decided to take on one of the actual levels: Cliff Town.

The Cliff Town level is relatively small, you start in a small building, cross a bridge and then have a cliff (surprise!) to ascend.  Once up top you can either finish the level and go back towards the home world or glide across the river to the desert to search some more.  The entire concept of the level is just the collection (three dragons, one egg and four hundred gems), so I'll just start off.  After exiting the building, I ran down a few enemies and decrystalized the first dragon: Haylor.  Haylor was kind enough to let me know that using my dragon flame would not hurt the armored enemies (you know, the ones I've had to defeat to get to him) and that I had to charge them with my horns.

Before getting to the next dragon, I found a egg bandit.  They are simply described as robbed guys with turbans who run away from you frantically in the same path holding the egg.  Once you run them down, you get the egg.  So I chased him down and grab the egg and continue on, platform up the cliff to climb higher and collect gems.  I'll be honest, I forgot how straight forward this game is: it almost walks you through it.  I got to the second dragon (Enzo) who straight out tells you to glide across the river to see what's over there.  So I did (If the game is going to tell me what to do to advance, I might as well listen). 


And across the river is: more gems and the last drgaon Marco.  Marco is kind enough to let me know that I've reached the highest point in Cliff Town and should be able to glide anywhere now.  So more exploring and looking for gems.  I kept exploring for a bit longer, but am only able to find 367 of the 400 gems (I'm picky) before I decide it's just time to quit and try later.  And so another game is down and it's the weekend now.  Adios for today though.