History YMMV / SpyroYearOfTheDragon

** Bianca was quite popular for her role in ''Year Of The Dragon''. Even Legends series only fans find her character and development to be extremely enjoyable.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic: In Evening Lake, there is a whale swimming in the deeper regions of the lake. If you swim up to its mouth, the whale will eat you, revealing a dragon egg inside its stomach. The dragon inside the egg is called "Jonah." On the other hand, a lot of these dragons have joke names.

** The whole skateboarding mini-game, as explained below, was likely put in the game as a response to the wave of extreme sports games that followed the unexpected success of ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater''. Nowadays, both franchise are owned by the [[Creator/{{Activision}} same company]].

* HilariousInHindsight: If you turn down freeing Agent 9, Moneybags asks if Spyro is jealous that [[VideoGame/{{Skylanders}} no one has made an action figure of him.]]

** The Sorceress' boss battle on the original NTSC version. Due to a glitch, your final battle is being conducted to the tune of Sunrise Spring. The battle was SUPPOSED to have a unique theme as it is present in the disc, though this was fixed in the Greatest Hits version. Both PAL versions also use an incorrect tune, though the more fitting Spike boss theme.

* GoddamnedBoss: The Chinese Dragons of Fireworks Factory are not exactly tough, but they're still annoying to handle due to being very fast and slim, making them hard to hit with your fireballs. And God forbid if you get hit by ''their'' fireballs, causing you to plummet down into the ground, lose them from view and generally waste your time as they regenerate all the damage you inflicted on them.

* GoddamnedBoss: The Chinese Dragons of Fireworks Factory are not exactly tough, but they're still annoying to handle due to being very fast and slim, making them hard to hit with your fireballs. And God forbid if you get hit by ''their'' fireballs, causing you to plummet down into the ground, lose them from view and generally waste your time as they regenerate all the damage you inflicted on them..

* SugarWiki/SheReallyCanAct: Pamela Hayden is mostly known for comedic roles in voice acting and stand-up. Her role as Bianca, while also supplying funny moments, stands out as one of her most nuanced characters, starting off a convincing SmugSnake only to turn out to be a deeply sympathetic character. Of particular note is her very poignant warning to Spyro at the start of Evening Lake which really sets the stakes of the game and the painful conflict of the character. While Melissa Hutchison was well recieved as Bianca's VA in ''Reignited'' for the large part, her reenactment was inevitably compared a great deal to Hayden's, who many felt gave a more emotional performance.

** There's also some hot debate over whether or not it was an EvenBetterSequel to ''Spyro 2'' or if it's a ContestedSequel that shows the original trilogy isn't flawless. Pros often point to the more fleshed out Spyro parts, the pretty good boss battles, and the storyline being surprisingly deep and [[SurpriseCreepy creepy]] when you really start thinking about it. Detractors point out how less than half the game is spent actually ''playing'' as Spyro, with the other half usually consisting of being bounced around other characters [[GameplayRoulette with greatly different playstyles]], with quite a few of them[[note]]Shelia, Bentley, and a few of Sgt. Byrd's missions being the prime offenders[[/note]] controlling rather awkwardly at times.

** She's a perfectly good villain, but the total absence of interaction between the Sorceress and Spyro was felt and noted; especially since the SnarkToSnarkCombat between Spyro and the previous BigBad was a highlight of that game (and no doubt among the reasons [[BreakoutVillain he returned in the sequels]], while the Sorceress never appeared again). Spyro doesn't even meet her until the FinalBattle, and they don't have a single word to say to each other.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: The Greatest Hits rerelease polished up the game to remove a good amount of the glitches and add the missing music tracks into their respective levels.

** [[SuperSpeed Supercharge.]] The Supercharge mechanic was rather prevalent throughout ''VideoGame/SpyroTheDragon'' and ''[[VideoGame/Spyro2RiptosRage Spyro 2]]'', and for the most part, it controlled rather well, making it feel like a series staple. However, whereas ''Spyro the Dragon'' had Supercharge in seven levels, and ''Spyro 2'' had Supercharge in five levels, one being a boss, ''Year of the Dragon'' only features Supercharge in ''two'' levels. In fact, whereas Sunrise Spring has Superfly, Midday Gardens has Superflame, and Evening Lake has Supershield, there's no power-up gate for Midnight Mountain, which feels like a perfect fit for Supercharge [[spoiler:with the chase after Moneybags in the postgame]].

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The skateboarding minigame owes a lot to the ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' craze that was at its peak around the time of this game's release. Without knowing this background, its inclusion will seem as random and baffling as skateboarding dragon would be.

* ContestedSequel: Some feel like it's the best of the original trilogy, managing to build on the set formula from the first two games. Others feel it's the weakest of the trilogy, for the above reasons stated in BrokenBase. And others feel that it's better than the first game but not as good as the second one.

* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The skateboarding minigame owes a lot to the ''VideoGame/TonyHawksProSkater'' craze that was at its peak around the time of this game's release. Without knowing this background, its inclusion will seem random and baffling.

* GoddamnedBoss: The Chinese Dragons of Fireworks Factory are not exactly tough, but they're still annoying to handle due to them being very fast and slim, making them hard to hit with your fireballs. And God forbid if you get hit by ''their'' fireballs, causing you to plummet down into the ground, lose them from view and generally waste your time as they regenerate all the damage you inflicted on them..

* DesignatedHero: The Gnomes from Crystal Islands arere treated as allies due to stealing magic from the Sorceress, but in using this magic for their magic tricks, they end up crystallizing an entire ecosystem, which sends its residents on a rampage for very justifiable reasons... and yet Spyro still helps them.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: Bianca is a major supporting character throughout the game, eventually making a HeelFaceTurn just before Spyro reaches the final world. Despite being built up as the perfect character to become Spyro's final playable ally against the Sorceress, she remains an NPC and the game instead introduces Agent 9 as the last playable character to free. As a fledgling sorceress, Bianca would have had just as much room to be an interesting playable character, and was much more relevant to the story.
** In fact, given that every playable character has reason to have a personal beef with the Sorceress the fact that Agent 9 is the only one of them who turns up to help fight her is this trope in itself. The entire fight could've been a multi-stage fight with the whole crew going at the Sorceress in their way.

* DesignatedHero: The Gnomes from Crystal Islands. They're treated as allies due to stealing magic from the Sorceress, but in using this magic for their magic tricks, they end up crystallizing an entire ecosystem, which sends its residents on a rampage for very justifiable reasons... and yet Spyro still helps them.

** As mentioned above, the Gnomes in Crystal Islands are ostensibly the level's "good guys" since they oppose the Sorceress, yet they essentially warped the entire ecosystem of the islands by goofing around with the magic they stole from her and accidentally turning every animal and plant into crystal. It's no wonder the island's denizens have it out for them.

* UnintentionallyUnsympathetic: While we're expected to side with the Seals, the plot of Seashell Shore is kicked off by them stealing the Rhynocs' submarine, taking it for a joyride, and causing it to crash.

* UnfortunateImplications: The fact that Bentley wields a [[CarryABigStick club]] becomes more than a little uncomfortable when realizing that one of the enemies in Bentley's Outpost are ''seals''. Sure, the first three are defeated by reflecting their snowballs, but there's one in a cave which Bentley is able to crush with his club.

** Defeating the Sorceress [[spoiler:twice]] is also quite satisfying, especially after it’s revealed she [[WouldHarmAChild wanted to steal the dragon eggs so she could rip their wings off and use their magic to make her magic stronger]].

* {{Shipping}}: Quite a few fans ship Sheila with Rapunzel, even though the latter only appears in one mission.

* TheWoobie: Bianca. She just wants to become a sorceress and save her magic-dependent homeland, and in the process is constantly degraded by her boss, beaten up by Spyro and Hunter, and then is told that her boss isn't going to [[spoiler:take care of the baby dragons, she's going to kill them all.]]

* EnsembleDarkhorse:

** Bentley boxing the Yeti in "Frozen Altars". The first time isn't so bad and the yeti goes down pretty easy, but the second, 3-round fight can be the bane of a player's existence. The yeti is ''really'' good about blocking your hits - since Bentley's slow as a tank - and hitting back in the split seconds before you can block. The yeti's health also goes down slower compared to Bentley's, and he regains health after every round. You ''must'' knock him out to win, and outcomes for dubiously-connected hits tend to take the yeti's favor over yours.

** [[BrutalBonusLevel The Sasquatch Six]] in the Super Bonus World is this in droves. The entirety of the race track [[BottomlessPit is over a bottomless pit]], meaning you can’t risk falling off once. If so, you’re further behind in the race. Even worse is that there are no barriers to keep you from falling. You need to be on point and accurate with your jumps and turning as much as possible. Then there are the Sasquatches themselves. [[FakeDifficulty Right from the beginning they can boost faster, but you don’t, making the race damn near impossible to beat.]] Even after realizing you can kill the blue crabs to gain said boost before the race starts, as well as DynamicDifficulty kicking in and putting in a cheat code to lower said difficulty, there’s still the matter of boosting to go faster, making the controls feel stiff. More often then not it’ll lead to the player falling off the track. By the end, it’s all near luck base on whether or not you get first place.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** In each homeworld is a playable character locked in a cage guarded by Moneybags. Moneybags naturally will release them for a bribe, and in every case, the playable character then proceeds to attack him.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Moneybags after the first attack and ''especially'' the second to realize that the next one is probably going to do the same thing and either refuse to release the next playable character for any amount of gems or at least have the foresight to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere book it immediately]] after freeing them so they can't.\\
'''Instead:''' Moneybags not only keeps letting the playable characters out but just walks right up to them after doing it and seems to genuinely think that each of them will be grateful for the fact that he released them only to get attacked yet again.
** Moneybags has a new business idea that will make him a fortune: Selling dragon eggs.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' Him keeping it a secret, or at least not talking about it within the earshot of a dragon.\\
'''Instead:''' He outright tells Spyro about it directly in front of him, pissing him off and causing him to attack him and chasing him around Midnight Mountain, making him drop some of his gems as a result.
** Bianca is willing to collect dragon eggs for The Sorceress because she believes The Sorceress needs those eggs to bring magic back to her homeland.\\
'''You'd Expect:''' The Sorceress to keep up the lies and not telling her about what her actual plan with the eggs/babies AT ALL.\\
'''Instead:''' She tells her anyway, sparking her disappointment/dissatisfaction which ultimately leads to her defection to Team Spyro.

* BaseBreakingCharacter: Depending on who you ask, Agent 9 is either insanely annoying or insanely hilarious... or both. Add onto that the gamers who thought Bianca should have been the final playable instead of him.