Spyro: Year of the Dragon Critic Reviews

More creative minigames, a slightly higher difficulty level, superb level design and some of the best realtime graphics the PlayStation has ever seen all make Year of the Dragon a winner.

Don't be fooled by that cutesy purple dragon - this ain't just a kiddie game.

It's one of the best games to come out for the PlayStation in 2000.

Like "Sonic" and "Crash," Spyro grabs on and doesn't let go, and the complexity of the levels, hidden games, and non-stop action make it one of the year's best platform games.

One of the rare, few 32-bit games that still impresses, still retains magic after being beaten, and still begs for one last shot at exploring all its secrets and milking all its three-dimensional worth.

A universally excellent game.

The relative ease of the game means that seasoned platform gamers should blow through this one without much difficulty at all.

Clearly the product of a talented group of developers who apparently give a damn about whether or not anyone actually likes playing their games. And unless there's something severely wrong with you, you will certainly like playing this one.

The folks at Insomniac have built an incredibly detailed, fun, and immersive action/adventure that is definitely worth picking up, whether or not you're familiar with this franchise.

The game play in this episode is so thought out and well-realized that I found myself actually discouraged that this would be Insomniac's last venture with the purple dragon.

One of those exceptional games where the great gameplay makes up for mediocre graphics and sound.

It's an extremely well-made game that offers a lot of fun to the player, but these few factors cause it to score right outside the class of "Super Mario 64" and "Banjo-Kazooie," so it only gets very, very high marks, instead of outrageously high marks.

They obviously are not the most realistic graphics, having more of a fairy tale, storybook-like quality to them, but there is so much richness and detail that they really stand out.

Its true 3D exploratory gameplay, its vast and varied level designs, its colorful cast of characters, and its picture-perfect control create a fantastic atmosphere.

A good, solid 3D platformer that won't disappoint fans of the purple dragon, but may leave fans of the genre feeling a little empty.