Why Pokemon Emerald Is My Favorite

I am not a diehard Pokemon fan. I like the games, hell I even love some of them, but you're not going to find me indulging in every Pokemon game that comes out, or getting into the competitive scene or the trading card game. So when I say that Emerald is my favorite mainline game, this has pretty much nothing to do with the gameplay. I have zero idea how well Emerald is balanced compared to other games in the series, this is purely a vibes pick for me, and Pokemon Emerald sure does have all the vibes.

There's this joke I've seen in a lot of gaming fandoms which goes something like "the best game is whichever one you've played as a child". In the case of Pokemon, yeah, that's entirely accurate. HGSS was the first Pokemon game I ever played and it's my second favorite in the series, BW is the first one I played for more than a few minutes and it's third, and Emerald was the first mainline Pokemon game I actually got fully invested in. I have an incredible amount of nostalgia for Emerald in particular, but like many childhood favorites, I can at least say that Emerald is a game I've come back to constantly and still find myself having an amazing time with, to the point where it's the mainline Pokemon game I've played through the most.

That being said, let me get a few gameplay stuff out of the way first because Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald does introduce a lot of cool features to the Pokemon formula. Double battles are probably the biggest change and are always a joy to run into, and Emerald adds even more of them compared to RS. There's multiple bikes each with unique properties, and certain shortcuts and areas that you can only use or visit with a specific bike, so that's pretty cool. Pokemon Contests are introduced in these games and they would end up being one of the most beloved series mainstays... at least until Game Freak forgot they existed for some reason. And most importantly, with the jump to the GBA, the menu UI has been dramatically improved over the previous two games making sifting through boxed Pokemon and items far easier and more streamlined. As for Pokemon Emerald specifically, it messes around with some of the gyms, area layouts, and battles to mostly greater effect, and best of all, it introduces the Battle Frontier which definitely stands out as some of the most fun postgame content in the series.

As far as the Pokedex goes, I'm someone who actually kinda likes it when Pokemon games introduce their own region-specific dex that players are just going to have to adjust to. I get wanting to bring your favorite Pokemon into the new game and it can feel especially frustrating if an entry chooses to bring along certain Pokemon but arbitrarily excludes others (cough Gen 8 cough), but I like getting to experience an entirely new lineup of Pokemon and forcing the player to stick with them for at least the main game shows a lot of confidence on Game Freak's part. It also helps that Hoenn's regional dex is easily one of my favorites in the franchise, there are so many standout Pokemon designs here. Grovyle, Torchic, Mudkip, Mighyena, Zigzagoon, Gardevoir, Ludicolo, Nuzleaf, Skitty, Sableye, Mawile, Plusle/Minun, Wailord, Spinda, Trapinch, Zangoose & Seviper, Milotic, Castform, Kecleon, Absol, Spheal, Salamence, Registeel, Latios/Latias, Rayquaza, Jirachi, the list goes on. There's just so many bangers here!

But ultimately, what makes Pokemon Emerald such a special game for me is primarily its region, Hoenn. I adore Hoenn, it's a perfect Pokemon region in my book. From a presentation perspective, it might not be quite as varied as Unova or Kalos, but it leans into this tropic vibe that feels tailor made to capture a kid's imagination. There are so many memorable locals like the ashy Route 113, the sandstorm in Route 1115, the ethereal Meteor Falls, the several Team Magma/Aqua bases you get to sneak into, and of course, Fortree City, because which kid wouldn't want to visit an entire village made up of treehouses? But it's not just the visuals that excel, the layout of Hoenn is also flat-out incredible. Just look at the map for a sec.

Pokemon games prior to Gen 9 are generally pretty linear, there aren't many entries that will really allow you to deviate from the intended path, but Hoenn at the very least manages to create the illusion of nonlinearity with its map design. Just look at all the junctions here! And as you gain new abilities like Cut and Swim, you can open up a ton of shortcuts that allow for even more paths to take. The individual routes are also incredibly well-designed, they're often big, multi-layered, and containing several deviating paths and hidden secrets. I'd argue Emerald has several of the best routes in the series, like the bike road on Route 110, the desert in Route 115, the bike-exclusive paths of Route 119, the large grass mazes of Route 120. Honestly, the entire midsection of the game is some of the best mainline Pokemon out there because of how creative and engaging those routes and towns are. As I've said about Final Fantasy V and Paper Mario: The Origami King, I think overworld design is criminally underrated when it comes to RPGs. Emerald's battle system isn't too different from most other Pokemon games, but it's the stellar world design of Hoenn that really elevates it above the rest for me. 

Complementing this fairly hands-off and sprawling world is the sheer abundance of stuff to do within it. I have a fondness for the earlier Pokemon games because they really tried to give off the impression that they're this large, living and breathing Pokemon worlds densely-packed with things to do. So Emerald is stuffed to the brim with fun side activities, from optional towns, to Pokemon Contests, to the Battle Tents, to the Trick House, to Trainer Hill, to the Battle Frontier, to multiplayer, to building a secret base, to playing games at the Game Corner, to getting interviewed and coining a catchphrase, to exploring all the islands in the water areas, to farming berries, there is just so much here. I already mentioned this, but I really do feel like Hoenn was intricately designed to provoke as much childlike wonder as possible. There's just something so magical about being able to wander around this huge diverse island setting filled with unique biomes and fun activities, and the fact that you can turn just about any tree or marked wall into a secret base you can decorate however you want really adds to the magic. You could argue that we don't need secret bases or Pokemon Contests, but it's these superfluous features that make me want to spend lots of time in Hoenn, and it's the lack of them which make later regions like Galar and Paldea feel so much emptier.

From a presentation standpoint, I wouldn't say Pokemon Emerald is one of the prettiest games on the GBA, but it is one of the most visually-pleasing in my eyes. GBA era Pokemon keeps the fairly simplistic top-down RPG look that the previous games, but just adds way more detail and color. The Pokemon art has more shading and dynamic posing, the environments make liberal use of bold greens and blues for the grass and sea, and there's so many little touches particularly with the water effects like reflections and ripples. It's no Drill Dozer, but Emerald is yet another showcase of how well Game Freak understood the GBA's strengths, and that especially shows in the soundtrack. Pokemon Emerald's OST is not just one of my favorites in the franchise but it's one of my favorites on the GBA, the instruments used sound particularly crisp and the melodies run the gamut from comforting to adventurous. From the wonderfully nostalgic town themes (Littleroot Town, Petalburg City, Rustboro City, Verdanturf Town, Fortree City), to the exciting route themes (Route 104, Route 113, Route 119, Route 120, Cycling), to the typically stellar battle themes (Trainer Battle, Gym Leader Battle, Elite 4 Battle, Champ Battle), Emerald has the definitive Pokemon soundtrack in my book and listening to it always puts a smile on my face.

Oh yeah, and if you're wondering about my thoughts on ORAS, I think it's pretty good, though it's not as obvious of an improvement as the Gen 2 remakes were. The 3D graphics and orchestral soundtrack remove a decent amount of what made the original game so charming, and the lack of Emerald's additions are a real shame, but ORAS still manages to maintain the open tropic vibe of Hoenn while adding some cool new stuff of its own. Flying around on Latias is awesome, the Gen 6 modernizations like bringing over Amie and the training minigames are cool, I adore the redone character designs for ORAS (funnily enough, I think Pokemon character designs have only improved over time even in the recent games), and the Delta Episode is fantastic and I'd even argue that it tells a better narrative than the base game itself. Shout out to Zinnia's boss theme which is easily one of the best tracks in the entire series, fitting for one of Pokemon's coolest characters. So while the base Emerald means a lot more to me, ORAS is still pretty sweet and definitely warrants a mention.

Pokemon Emerald is a perfect example of that special kind of GBA comfort that I can never get enough of. On the gameplay front, it's as fun as the best mainline Pokemon games, but it's the world and the overall presentation that really makes Emerald shine. Hoenn is such a vast, varied, and multilayered region filled with top-tier Pokemon designs, addictive side activities, and a general sense of childlike whimsy that permeates throughout. It's such a well-paced, content rich, and comforting experience that it's far and away the Pokemon game I have the easiest time replaying, and I definitely see myself continuing to do so for the foreseeable future.

Ranking Battletoads Levels

Battletoads is one of my favorite NES games of all time. No, I'm not a masochist.

Seriously though, for all of its design flaws and its infamously brutal difficulty, I've always had a strong love for the original Battletoads. I think it's the game where Rare as a company really came into its own, and it's one of the most ambitious showcases on the NES, with lush and vivid visuals, an experimental David Wise soundtrack, and a unique genre-blend where every single stage tosses something new and fun at you. But I also think it's unappreciated just how well-crafted and polished Battletoads is. Movement is fast, tight, and responsive in every mode of play, and all the vehicles have a satisfying sense of weight to them that feels unreal for an NES game. I do agree that the game is way too punishing, but in the same way that most NES games are too punishing, I just don't like lives and continues systems. However, putting that to the side, Battletoads is an absolutely incredible and mind-boggingly impressive title on the system.

So, having just replayed it, I wanted to rank all the stages in Battletoads. As I mentioned, each stage in this game feels entirely unique from the last which should make for a really interesting ranking. So without further ado, let's start with...

12. Clinger Winger

Clinger Winger is far and away the worst Battletoads level, and honestly, it's probably one of my least favorite video game levels period. The main premise is that you need to ride on the titular clinger, a unicycle that goes onto walls and ceilings, and you control it by holding the direction of the wall you're currently on. If you change the direction you're holding at the perfect time, you'll gain speed, and if you botch the timing, you'll lose speed. You're being chased by an insta kill Buzzball and you need to make it to the end of the stage, sounds simple right? WRONG. The timing for changing directions is not only incredibly tight, but also hard to gauge. There's no meter or indicator telling you when to change directions, you just have to feel it out, so a lot of the time, it's hard to tell what you're even doing wrong when you fail. And whenever I do make it to the end, it never feels like I accomplished anything, it just feels like I was lucky. At the very least, Clinger Winger is mercifully short, and you get to beat up the Buzzball at the end of the stage.

 11. Intruder Excluder

After how consistently strong its first half is, Intruder Excluder marks the point where Battletoads kinda dips in quality a bit. Not horribly, but the later levels do have a few more rough edges to them. Intruder Excluder is a simple climb up a tall shaft, bouncing up springs, hopping around corners, and timing your jumps through electrical bolts. It's mostly a fine if unremarkable stage, but it is held back by a fair share of really irritating enemies. One particularly annoying part of the stage has you navigate through two bouncing jellies who latch onto you and suck your health away, and this stage also introduces these cannons that shoot insta-kill gas at you, along with fans that also insta-kill you if they suck you in. Intruder Excluder isn't an especially bad level, I'd argue Clinger Winger is the only bad level in Battletoads, but it is an occasionally irritating one.

10. Rat Race

Rat Race is a level I'm honestly really split on. The main concept is that you need to race an increasingly fast rat down a shaft to disable three bombs before it can detonate them. There's a nice level of strategy in how you can punch the rat into a wall with the right timing to save you a bit of time, and pulling off a long, uninterrupted drop feels really good. The first two race are really fun and if the stage was just those two, I think Rat Race would be one of my favorites in the game. However, the final race is just plain ridiculous. The rat moves so inhumanly fast that you need to punch it into walls to not end up losing it, which is really hard to do at this point because of how easy it is to whiff such a fast-moving target. This is one of the hardest sequences in the entire game, and I honestly don't understand how you can do this without savestates.

9. Terra Tubes

Terra Tubes is another level that's so close to being incredible. The concept of working your way through these cramped pipes is fun, the art direction is especially clean and crisp, and despite being heavy on the water sections, I actually think the swimming controls in Battletoads feel really nice and accurate. Unfortunately, Terra Tubes also contains the most BS design choices in the game. There's a neat mechanic where you grab onto propellers that slowly float you down or up while dodging spikes, but the camera is so zoomed in that you have barely any time to react to them. Even worse are the giant gears that you need to run from before letting it pass you and destroy itself, a solid concept in theory but held back by the fact that there's no internal consistency to which direction the gears will go in. You just need to pick a hiding spot and hope it doesn't suddenly chose to go in there, it's pure trial and error.

8. Ragnarok's Canyon

I don't have too much to say about Ragnarok's Canyon, it's the basic bait-and-switch stage meant to trick the player into thinking they're just playing another standard beat-em-up. You get a safe place to mess around with the controls and combat mechanics a bit, and probably the coolest boss in the game which you have to fight from the boss's perspective. The main reason why this stage is so low is just that it's really short, you can get to the boss in about a minute.

7. The Revolution

Rare saved their most impressive visual spectacle for the final stage, as The Revolution has you hop up a rotating tower, like those bits in Kirby's Adventure but even crazier and made two years earlier. There's a solid balance of both platforming and combat, with some of the beefiest enemies in the game as well as a nice variety of platform types to deal with, and I even like the setpieces where you need to cling onto the nearest pole before an enemy blows you off the tower. This is also a much easier stage than the last few, and it feels a lot more fair. The only thing really holding The Revolution back is its crushing length, and doing nothing but hopping up a tower and fighting the same few enemies over and over again does get fairly repetitive by the end.

6. Surf City

Surf City is my least favorite of the three vehicle stages in Battletoads, though as you can tell, I still think it's quite fun. In Surf City, you need to ride on a surfboard, dodging logs, whirlpools, and mines. I like the variety of hazards on offer, and the movement of the surfboard is unique in that you can't jump. Instead, you need to use momentum to hop over and around obstacles which is always fun to pull off. However, Surf City also feels a bit too tepid compared to the Turbo Tunnel and Volkmire's Inferno. The best Battletoads take a fun concept and escalate it to absurd levels of difficulty by the end, but Surf City never really hits that kind of climax. The speed of the surfboard never ramps up, the obstacles never get more complex, the level kinda just ends.

5. Wookie Hole

Wookie Hole is the first sign that Battletoads is more than meets the eye. It's still primarily a beat-em-up, but the whole stage has you dropping down a large shaft on a bungee line, tossing kicks at enemies and dodging hazards on your way down. It's still a fairly easy stage, especially with how you can juggle enemies to rack up lives fast, but it's also just really fun to mess around with the rope physics here. You can pull off powerful swinging kicks, and even kick yourself off the wall to bounce across the room, there's a surprising amount of depth and nuance to the movement here. The only real issue I have with Wookie Hole is that it runs on a bit long, but it's still a very fun stage.

4. Arctic Cavern

Arctic Cavern is a fun encapsulation of all of Battletoads' various mechanics, offering a nice balance of platforming, puzzle-solving, and combat all in equal measure. As you'd expect, this is an ice stage entirely composed of slippery platforms, but the abundance of ramps makes it pretty fun to gain speed. There's some satisfying jumps across spike arrangements, and a bunch of increasingly complex puzzles about breaking down doors, either by hitting them with an ice block, tossing snowballs at them, and using an enemy to break them for you. This is where my only major gripe with Arctic Cavern comes in, it's very projectile-heavy. At its best, you get to partake in fun snowball fights with the other enemies, but it's also easy for those enemies to snipe you from off-screen when you're just trying to platform around.

3. Volkmire's Inferno

Volkmire's Inferno is the last of the vehicle stages and it's quite fun. There's a bit of a build-up before you reach the jet, but I love seeing the unassuming alien cavern suddenly set itself on fire right before your eyes. The jet's controls aren't quite as complex as the previous vehicles, but I like how the jet segment here blends both the speed of Turbo Tunnel with the variety of Surf City. You have to dodge lasers, fireballs, and missiles, and the stage keeps ramping up in speed until a blisteringly fast final gauntlet. Volkmire's Inferno is also noteworthy for its primarily RNG hazards, but there are ways to get around many of them, like hanging around the top of the stage as the fireballs come in.

2. Karnath's Lair

Karnath's Lair is a fun breather stage in the middle of the game that removes all enemies and focuses purely on platforming across moving snakes. The mechanics of these snake platforms are really fun to mess around with and learn, as you can climb up them vertically but not downward. You need to make your way across a few increasingly spike-filled rooms, starting off in a safe area, but ending with you need to carefully hop around intricate spike mazes on increasingly fast-moving snakes. The difficulty really gets wild by the end of the stage, but movement in Battletoads is so tight that it doesn't feel especially unfair.

1. Turbo Tunnel

What a classic stage. The Turbo Tunnel is obviously infamous for how much of a massive difficulty spike it is, but I also just think it's a really fun stage on its own merits. The speeder bike controls feel so tight and responsive, once you get into the groove of zig-zagging around those gates, it feels really satisfying and natural to make it through the stage. I love how the level slowly ramps up and adds more stuff to worry about, while also ramping up the speed and forcing you to think on your feet more, culminating in an absolutely bonkers final sequence where even the music starts to speed up to nearly indecipherable levels. Turbo Tunnel is absolutely a brutal gauntlet of a stage, but it's incredibly well-crafted and no other stage in Battletoads is anywhere near as exhilarating or satisfying to finally complete.

Sonic Frontiers Retrospective

Sonic Frontiers has been one of if not the most polarizing game I've played so far this decade, which makes it very strange that I just haven't talked about it on here much. I did make that post ranking the Cyberspace themes where I called it "one of the most enjoyable 3D Sonics we've gotten in a while" and... well... let's just say my opinion on the game has changed a lot since then. Let's talk about it.

Why I Love The Spyro The Dragon Trilogy

Sony's several 3D platformer trilogies across the first and second Playstations are easily some of my favorite games in that genre. Aside from Jak & Daxter which I have more mixed feelings on, they're all pretty spectacular and earned easy spots on my Top 100 list. Spyro The Dragon isn't my favorite of the Sony platformer trilogies, I'll get to that soon enough, but it is the first one I got truly invested in. For all intents and purposes, Spyro The Dragon was probably my gateway into Sony games, and what a gateway it was.

Like with how the Crash Bandicoot games demonstrated Naughty Dog's growth as a developer, it feels like the Spyro The Dragon games can serve a similar role with their developer, Insomniac Games. Insomniac is one of my all-time favorite video game devs, an easy Top 5 at the very least. Their games strike this distinctive balance between excess and polish, packing in loads of side content, mechanics, gameplay styles, and a generally massive scope while somehow managing to keep it all fun to play. I already talked about this philosophy in my Going Commando review, but you can definitely see the seeds of that game planted in the Spyro trilogy, though not immediately.

The first Spyro The Dragon is probably my least favorite game in the trilogy, and that's saying something because it's still incredible, partially because it nails Spyro's movement right off the bat. Spyro as a character is one of the more unique 3D platforming protagonists because he's a quadruped, his sense of weight and momentum feels pretty distinct. The move you'll probably spend the most time using is a charge that lets Spyro run fast and bash into enemies, and it just feels incredible. It's fast, but still controllable with enough skill, and dashing around the game's wide open landscapes never really gets old. Your other attack is a flame breath shot, but since you can do it while moving, the momentum never stops or slows down. While your glide does slow you down a bit, you can even get a little extra distance by charging right before entering a glide, which helps maintain the smooth flow of Spyro's gameplay. But the real highlight as far as movement goes is the supercharge, which functions a bit like the Speed Booster in Metroid and has a similar appeal. If you run down a steep hill, Spyro will begin to enter a super fast dash which will allow him to soar into the air once you hit a ramp. It's a tough move to get right at first, but once you do, you'll be able to soar over and completely break certain levels in immensely satisfying fashion.

Spyro 1 has the most basic gameplay loop out of the trilogy, you travel to a variety of open levels to hunt down all the Gems and Dragons scattered around them. It's this wonderful balance of linear and nonlinear level design where there is a goal you need to reach, but the stages boasts a ton of collectibles, hidden nooks and crannies, branching paths, and wide open areas. It's super satisfying to fully clean out a level, especially with how Gems magnetize themselves to you like the Bolts in Ratchet & Clank, and the stages are condensed enough that it's hard to get lost looking for those last few Gems. I think the real brilliance of Spyro 1 comes in the level design. The first world is standard enough, but the moment you hit World 2, you begin to realize that finding everything in a level might not be as intuitive as you initially thought. There are Dragons that seem just out of reach, dozens of Gems that you just can't seem to locate, and chunks of the level left completely unexplored, and trying to figure out how to reach them leads to some really engaging spatial navigation puzzles. Things get even better once you reach levels like Tree Tops and Haunted Towers which require you to plot out Supercharge paths to reach specific Dragons, none of which are especially hard to pull off, but require a lot of foresight and planning. None of the other Spyro games have anywhere near these kinds of complex movement puzzles, and they help Spyro 1 still stand out in my eyes. 

However, I do find it interesting that outside of the visual style (more on that later), Spyro 1 lacks a lot of the stuff you'd expect from Insomniac's games. It's quite short at around five hours long, and has fairly minimal post-game content outside of Gnasty's Loot. There aren't many NPCs outside of the dragons you save, and that cheeky meta humor you expect to see from early Insomniac only really shows up in the final cutscene. Like with the first Crash Bandicoot game, you can tell these developers are still finding their groove here, but unlike with Crash 1, I don't think these growing pains severely hamper the game. I've seen many people cite Spyro 1 as their favorite game in the series for its narrow focus, and for a decent bit, I held the same opinion. Its short length also makes for the Spyro game I've replayed the most by a long shot, it's so easy to get into and all of it is consistently enjoyable.

That being said, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is the point where the series really starts to get good, and it's predictably my favorite game in the trilogy. What can I say? I guess I just have a bias towards the second entry.

First off, Ripto's Rage actually has more of a story this time! The titular Ripto is a far more intimidating and defined villain than the first game's forgettable Gnasty Gnorc, starting the game already having taken over the setting of Avalar and frequently showing up to exchange barbs with Spyro. We also get the introductions of Elora, Hunter, and the Professor, all of whom are very welcome additions to the cast. The levels themselves also pack in way more NPCs and even boast pre-and-post-level cutscenes showing off each level's exclusive species and outlining the problem you need to resolve. All of this extra story and character helps the world of Avalar feel so much more lively and well-realized, and it helps that the writing and dialogue is also so charming and fun. Ripto's Rage is immensely quotable and boasts like at least 90% of the most iconic Spyro lines ("I'm a faun, you dork!", "Trouble with the trolley, eh?", "MY PENCIL!", "Boo.").

Spyro 2 doesn't change too much with the core gameplay beyond slightly changing how certain abilities like the supercharge and super breath work and giving Spyro solid swimming controls (at least in the original PS1 version), the real improvement is in the mission design. Each stage now has a unique objective for Spyro to complete to reach the end, whether it's moving turtles onto switches to free baby turtles, taking out all the evil robotic pests in a robotic farm, and my personal favorite setpiece, helping in a war between two stages from both sides. In addition, each stage has a few side missions you'll need to do which add even more variety ranging from simple platforming challenges akin to Spyro 1, to playing ice hockey, to defending an NPC from enemies, to partaking in races, to of course, riding around on that damn trolley. While there are a few dud missions (crystal popcorn my beloathed), the vast majority of the side missions in Ripto's Rage are an absolute blast and leave me constantly guessing with every level. Oh yeah, and there's even legitimate boss fights this time, all of which are really bombastic and fun. Insomniac would only continue to explore big gameplay shifts further over time, but I love the balance Ripto's Rage struck as the vast majority of its minigames and side missions still encourage mastery of the base Spyro moveset.

Speaking of Insomniac, Ripto's Rage is the first game of theirs to really pack in the abundance of side content they'd eventually become known for. The first game had a post-game bonus stage in Gnasty's Loot, but Spyro 2's Dragon Shores is a massive improvement in my eyes, a fun amusement park filled with rides to go on and challenges to beat, with full completion unlocking a cutscene theater. Getting all the Gems and Orbs in the game will also unlock an infinite superfire powerup that you can even carry into a fresh save life, making for one of the most worth-it 100% rewards in any game ever. Ripto's Rage also introduces an Insomniac mainstay in the form of the Skill Points, a unique take on the achievement system which focuses almost exclusively on doing niche and weird tasks in each level. You can get pretty much every Skill Point from the start, but it's not until you beat the game when you get the full list, it's a really cool concept and I'm very glad Insomniac would stick with it.

Spyro 3: Year Of The Dragon is similar to Warped in that it's even more ambitious than its predecessor, with more content, more gameplay styles, and higher highs... but it's not nearly as consistent. It's still my second favorite game in the trilogy, though, and it does a lot right.

First off, the story is probably the best-written of the trilogy. I do think Ripto's Rage's writing is a bit more memorable and enjoyable, but Year Of The Dragon has the far stronger narrative, introducing yet another strong villain in the Sorceress and my favorite Spyro character in Bianca. Bianca is a rare Spyro character to get a full-on character arc, as she starts off as a submissive ally to the Sorceress, only to slowly realize she's being mistreated, gain the courage to turn against her, and befriend Spyro and the gang. It's an impressively well-executed redemption arc both from a voice acting and writing perspective and ranks as some of if not the most effective story-telling in the entire Spyro franchise.

In terms of gameplay, Spyro 3 strikes an interesting middle-ground between the approaches of the first two games. Once again, each level has its own unique NPCs and objective to solve, but the focus mostly returns to pure platforming. While in Spyro 2, the side missions were squeezed into each stage, in Spyro 3, the side missions are relegated to their own challenge rooms which I think is probably for the best. The core levels in Spyro 3 are generally really good, especially in the second half where they really start to play around with structure and verticality. This new formula also allows the side missions to get a lot more varied, whether it's chasing thieves around massive areas, piloting vehicles, solving environment puzzles, and even facing off against mini-bosses. It's all great stuff, but of course, that's only the tip of the iceberg as far as variety goes.

Spyro 3 introduces a bunch of side characters to play as in their own exclusive levels and side missions, and they're... admittedly a bit mixed. I love Sheila and Sgt Byrd a lot, but Bentley is pretty sluggish to play as, and while a fascinating pseudo-prototype for the Ratchet & Clank games, Agent 9 doesn't really control the best (at least in the original PS1 version). That being said, I do think people tend to overstate how much time you spend as these side characters, they each just have one main stage and a few side missions to flesh them out, but you're still spending a vast majority of the game as Spyro. There are a few other playstyles though, Sparx has his own exclusive shmup levels in each world which are generally already and worth doing for the Sparx upgrades you get, and of course, there are even some skateboarding missions with their own fleshed-out trick system. It's obvious that Insomniac was trying to ride the hype of Tony Hawk with these missions, but in the PS1 version at least, I find the skateboarding areas to be an easy highlight of the game. They're so fun and fluid to control, and can be a massively addictive timesink.

In a similar fashion to Going Commando, I think part of the appeal of Spyro 3 is just how shamelessly maximalist it is. With a whopping 32 stages and 149 Eggs to find, this is far and away the biggest and most ambitious Spyro game out there. There's speedways, friend stages, Sparx stages, a huge unlockable bonus area, Skill Points, countless gameplay styles, and the list goes on. Of course, this does mean that there are far more weak missions and low points than in Spyro 2 making for my least favorite 100% of the trilogy, but it's hard not to get completely sucked into doing it regardless. Spyro 3's world just has so much to offer and get invested in.

Finally, it's time to get into the Spyro game's incredible presentation. If you know me, you'll know that I am a sucker for dreamlike settings and Spyro's world design absolutely fits into that niche. The soft pastel coloring, the dynamic lighting, the bold skyboxes, the large liminal spaces, those original PS1 games still look absolutely incredible to this day, dare I say even better than the far busier Reignited trilogy. Insomniac is so good at making these fantasy worlds that feel big and mysterious, just begging you to explore them. The first game probably does the best job at capturing a unique fantasy/medieval blend, particularly in the drop-dead stunning Dream Weaver stages, but I think Ripto's Rage has my favorite overall aesthetic of the series. The darker coloring really lends Avalar a moodier vibe that feels unique from any of the other games. I also need to shout out the muppet mouths Insomniac decided to use for all the characters, they're so cute and it's a crying shame Reignited removed them.

And of course, I can't talk about Spyro without talking about the phenomenal soundtracks by Stewart Copeland of The Police fame. His uniquely proggy compositional style does so much to give Spyro its own unique musical identity. Spyro 1's soundtrack is a phenomenal love letter to prog rock that could easily be argued as the strongest soundtrack of the trilogy, especially with all-timer tracks like Dark Hollow, Dry Canyon, Ice Cavern, Wizard Peak, Tree Tops, and Lofty Castle. Spyro 3's soundtrack goes for more of a pop style, but it's still got its fair share of real bangers like Sunny Villa, Charmed Ridge, Desert Ruins, and my favorite track in the series, Firework Factory. However, my favorite score of the three once again has to go to Spyro 2's soundtrack, which perfectly blends the rock and synth of the other two scores. The level themes sound adventurous (Glimmer, Idol Springs, Colossus, Crystal Glacier, Zephyr, Mystic Marsh), the boss themes are intense (Clash With Crush, Gulp's Overlook), the hub themes are downright ethereal (Summer Forest, AUTUMN PLAINS), and the whole soundtrack has this really atmospheric and dark vibe (Hurricos, Aquaria Towers, Icy Speedway) that's complemented by Copeland's fantastic usage of the iconic Distorted Reality 2 samples.

The Spyro The Dragon trilogy is pretty much phenomenal across the board. It follows a similar pattern to the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, but I generally prefer Spyro's strucutre and atmosphere, and the collective flaws aren't quite as noticeable for me. 1 and 2 are already close to perfect in my book, and while 3 has its fair share of issues, the highs it reaches more than makes up for it. And most of the things I love about Spyro The Dragon are things that all three of these games share: Fun and fluid movement, open but condensed level design that's a joy to explore, satisfying 100%, lovable characters, a stunning sense of atmosphere, and incredible music. As much as I love their future games, this is still where Insomniac Games peaked for me.