Spyro The Dragon is a child friendly plat-former made by Insomniac Games and published by Activision that started on the PlayStation in 1998,
The game originated because Sony needed more child friendly games for their console the first PlayStation. Insomniac games came to save the day, at the time five people worked at Insomniac and President Mark Cerny suggested they make a game that resembles to Nintendo's Mario series. This inspired Artist Craig Stitt to make concept art and he chose a dragon to be the main character because in his opinion "A dragon has all the best part of a creature".
This character was chosen and given the name Spyro. Spyro went through many changes including his color which was green but changed to purple because i was difficult to see him in the grass. The game would go on to be made by thirteen people.
Once released Spyro was a huge success being so popular with gamer's that Spyro became a mascot for the PlayStation one like Crash Bandicoot. Spyro The Dragons plot was simple so it could attract a younger audience. Spyro and his dragonfly friend "sparx" live in the Artisan world one of five realms in the universe. All live in harmony until Gnasty Gnorc an evil wizard traps all the dragons in a crystallized state apart from Spyro he is spared by Gnasty Gnorc because of his small size and lack of ability to fly. This leads Spyro to conjure up the courage to free his fellow dragons. Along this heroic path Spyro must fight Gnasty Gnorc's minions, spells and puzzles to defeat him and bring peace to the realms of dragons.
This plot fell positive in children's ever need to be entertained because many felt like Spyro themselves, older audiences we're interested in this story too because everyone likes an underdog.
Spyros game-play was simple too, his two attacks are breathing fire and charging with his horns. These moves had to be used strategically to defeat enemies as larger enemies wouldn't be affected by by charging at them but would take small amounts of damage from breathing fire. Charging is useful to brake enemies shields and armour or smash open crates, breathing fire on the crates would burn the contents inside like crystals used to buy lives. The fact that enemies were so strong you had the ability to run away but every time you beat a enemy it felt like a big accomplishment especially boss fights. This was a smart way to correlate the stories narrative into game-play.
Spyro can also glide across high castles and mountains to freely go wherever you want. To give the feeling of an open world Alex Hastings created one of the first LOD's (Level Detail Algorithms) to be used in video games, the game was given seven renderer's simultaneously working. This meant there could be more objects and buildings on larger levels. This revolutionary technique also meant surroundings you are closer to will be more detailed and as you grow closer to buildings in the distance they will become more detailed. To further elaborate lowering detail on environments farer away from the player means you can up the graphics in detail near the player. This also allowed more objects far away for a more immersive open world. Modern games today use this technique but with better rendering software.
The game was then turned into a PlayStation franchise with its next two games having celebrity influence from Stewart Copeland (The Police) who created the soundtrack for the first four games in the series, Stewart said he enjoyed the games and played each level over and over to get a feel for it before making the music. Then celebrity actor and gamer Elijah Wood voiced Spyro and still does now.
The second in the franchise Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage was then published by Electronic Arts who said the game needed a bigger world. So insomniac games create a new realm and the plot follows:
Spyro the Dragon and his dragonfly partner Sparx, feeling tired of it raining all the time, decide to take a vacation to Dragon Shores. Upon going through the portal, however, Spyro ends up in the fantasy realm of Avalar, having been summoned there by Elora the Faun, Hunter the Cheetah, and the Professor. They explain that whilst experimenting with a large portal device, they inadvertently summoned an evil tyrant known as Ripto, along with his minions Crush and Gulp. Pleased to find himself in a world without dragons, Ripto decided to take over Avalar, prompting Elora and the others to summon a dragon to fight against him. Currently stranded in Avalar because of Ripto destroying the portal he came in through, Spyro agrees to help fight against him, gathering up talismans from the various realms of Avalar in order to confront and defeat Crush and Gulp. Ripto then manages to steal a power crystal, which was used to power the large portal device, which he uses to create a new sceptre for himself, but Spyro manages to defeat him as well. With peace returned to Avalar, Elora and the others fix the portal device, allowing Spyro to take his long-awaited vacation to Dragon Shores.
In the game's epilogue, which is unlocked by completing the Skill Points list in the Guidebook, reveals what happened to various friends and enemies that Spyro encountered in Avalar, such as Spyro and Elora missing their chance to kiss, Crush being taught by the Professor how to spell, and a list of dummied enemies that didn't make it into the game. In the end, Spyro returns to the Dragon Realm, with Hunter joining him.
The gameplay was fairly similar once again you play the role of Spyro the Dragon as he fights against various enemies and obstacles using his flame breath, charge attack, and glide abilities. Like the previous game, Spyro's health is indicated by the colour of his dragonfly partner, Sparx, who can replenish his health by eating butterflies. Bottled butterflies will both completely restore Sparx's health and give Spyro an extra life. This time swimming was introduced this lets Spyro dive underwater to reach submerged treasure and hidden tunnels, climbing lets Spyro climb up certain surfaces, and the head bash lets Spyro perform an overhead smashing attack which can break rocks and certain cages. In addition, each level has a power-up gate, activated after defeating a specific number of enemies in a level, which grants Spyro a temporary super-ability. As well as flying and supercharging featured in the previous game, power-ups include super fire breath, ice breath, invulnerability, and a super jump for reaching high up areas. Insomniac used these new features to further progress Spyro's character development as well as making new and interesting game play. An example is in (1) which is the poster for Spyro The Dragon and picture (2) is the poster for Spyro: Ripto's Rage. In these posters you can see that Spyros wings have developed and his horns as well as head has gotten larger, Insomniac games did this because of the audience which it as aimed at children who found a character who they would grow up with. Until they decide to reboot the franchise and make Spyro look younger.... Pokemon! oops sorry.
Spyro 2 had very positive reviews with audiences and critics, the best review that summed up the second instalment was from Gamespot's Joe Fielder who gave the game a 8.6/10 as well as saying that the game "injected a dose of soul and variety into a game that was pretty fun to play". At this point spyro was head to head with Crash Bandicoot in sales.
Spyro went through many changes and platform including the Nintendo DS. Spyro even generated more popularity in 2009 when Activsion announced a Spyro film "The Legend Of Spyro" and then quickly cancelled it because of creative differences. This would be the downfall of the franchise, and Insomniac games left to series for good.
Now this is the part in my essay where I argue the point that the Spyro The Dragon games should be continued buy by Nintendo.
Activision made Spyro next title Skylanders (2011) which barely featured Spyro and simply made by Activision to sell toys this lead to disappointment with fans who grew up with the series. Although this cash out of the franchise meant disappointment the franchise continued but without Spyro. Skylanders sold 30 million copies. 80% of copies sold were for the Nintendo Wii. Dramatically dropping on the platform, it started on, the PlayStation.
The franchise went on to earn 500 million in toys sales becoming the number one children's game of 2012. The sequels would then drop even more in comparison to the original Spyro The Dragon games, and in sales as competitive titles like Disney Infinity (2013) and Nintendo Amiibo (2015).
Meanwhile Nintendo saw massive loss in sales with their newest console the Nintendo Wii U which also had a lack of sales in units, worldwide the Wii U sold 9.3 million units a dramatic drop compared to the original Wii. Even with its recurring mascots Nintendo struggled to sell for example Mario Kart 8 sold 4.77 million where as the previous title sold 13.94 million units. This was a massive loss for Nintendo furthermore frightening fans of the company and game titles as Nintendo also saw a 61% drop in profits.
This is my hypothesis:
"Nintendo's recurring titles isn't enough to sell their new console".
To elaborate, now Nintendo have started from scratch once again with the anticipated release of the Nintendo NX in 2017. In its announcement trailer for the console it only shown two games on the platform its own ageless Zelda series and Skyrim. Skyrim was released in 2011 on the PlayStation, Xbox and PC, this gave me an idea from what i can understand Nintendo are struggling to make and find new games even crossing platforms seeking for popular titles to save it. Many seem to be excited because of Nintendo's decision to adventure off to cross platforming, but i see it as weakness in the company as to my understanding they are publicly expressing that their own titles can not sell their new console.
