Video game franchise started in 1998 when Universal Studios commissioned Insomniac Games, starring the eponymous purple dragon, Spyro. Activision is the current developer/producer/distributor of the franchise through its Sierra subsidiary.The story of the first game follows the young teenage (or child, hard to say) dragon Spyro, who must rescue his elders from Gnasty Gnorc, who crystalized them all, stole their treasure and eggs, and sicced his minions on their worlds, all because of a few insulting comments made by a Dragon during an interview.Two sequels followed, both developed by the original game's team, and they were hits as well.All games after the first three are not developed by Insomniac *
Insomniac Games President Ted Price later stated in an interview that they stopped creating Spyro games because the player character, Spyro, was too limited for them to add new features and actions. Ted states, as an example, that "he didn't even have hands, he couldn't even hold a gun."
Spyro the Dragon (1998) (developed by Insomniac Games)
Gnasty Gnorc is a greedy fellow, and he has his eyes set on the massive gem hoard they keep in the Dragon Realms. So he swoops in, steals their treasure, and turns all the dragons to crystal! Well... All but one, that is. A young dragon named Spyro managed to survive the crystalization. Now it's up to him and his dragonfly Sparx to recover the gems, rescue the dragons, and defeat Gnasty Gnorc!
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (1999) (developed by Insomniac Games) [the PAL version is called Gateway to Glimmer]
Spyro and Sparx decide they need some well-deserved R & R, so head off to the restful Dragon Shores. But their vacation is abruptly interrupted when an intrepid professor and his faun assistant, Elora, suck them to a far-off land called Avalar. The Professor's tinkering also released an evil sorcerer called Ripto, and they needed to find a Dragon to defeat him! Spyro's a bit smaller than they expected, but he'll do nonetheless—now the intrepid dragon needs to defeat Ripto so he can get back to his vacation!
Spyro: Year of the Dragon (2000 — which was a Year ofthe Dragon) (developed by Insomniac Games)
In the Year of the Dragon, a rare event that happens every 12 years, mass numbers of new Dragon Eggs are brought to the Dragon Realms. But they're stolen en route by a white rabbit thief who disappears into a strange hole. Spyro follows her and ends up in the Forgotten Realms (no, not those), where an evil sorceress rules. Now Spyro, with the help of his friends, has to recover all the dragon eggs and make sure the baby dragons get home safely.
Spyro: Season of Ice (2001) (developed by Digital Eclipse Software)
A sorcerer named Grendor has frozen all the fairies of the dragon realms into ice, and plans to take all their wings for a spell to cure his headache (ironically induced by tinkering with Bianca's spellbook without her permission). Spyro and Sparx set out to rescue the fairies.
Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly (2002) (developed by Equinoxe Digital Entertainment)
It's that time of year again when all the baby dragons in the land get their guardian dragonflies, who will guide and protect them through life (just like Sparx does). But Ripto decides to interrupt the festivities, and he scatters the easily-frightened baby dragonflies all around the world. Once again, Spyro gets roped into helping track the baby dragonflies down, and defeating Ripto.
Spyro 2: Season of Flame (2002) (developed by Digital Eclipse Software)
Ripto has returned and is enacting a plan to have the rhynocs steal all the fireflies from the dragon realms, so the dragons will lose their ability to breathe fire. Aided by Sparx, Agent 9, and Sheila, and utilizing fire, ice, and lightning breath, Spyro sets out to save the fireflies and stop Ripto.
This game was given its number because it was the second to appear on the Game Boy Advance, not to be confused with Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs (2003) (developed by Digital Eclipse Software)
In a terrible mishap, Spyro, Sparx, and the Professor have inadvertently torn a hole in the fabric of space between the Rhynoc and Dragon Realms. Now, at the command of the elusive Ripto, droves of Rhynocs are pouring into the Dragon Realms in yet another attempt to make life miserable. Spyro must help the Professor close the hole quickly before both the gate and Ripto's giant ego get too big and the two realms fuse together permanently!
Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy (2004) (developed by Vicarious Visions) - A crossover with Crash Bandicoot; the companion game is called Crash Purple: Ripto's Rampage.
Spyro: A Hero's Tail (2004) (developed by Eurocom)
There's a new dragon in town named Red, and he's not exactly happy with the other dragon elders. He and his army of Gnorcs and other baddies are planting Dark Gems in the Realm—horrible things that radiate dark energy, warping the world around them! It takes a dragon with tough horns—like Spyro—to break them and return the land to its splendor. There's a bunch of kidnapped dragon eggs, too! By now, Spyro's just gotten used to the whole "world-saving" thing—now if only he could figure out what Red's problem is!
Spyro: Shadow Legacy (2005) (developed by Amaze Entertainment)
The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (2006) (developed by Krome Studios)
Purple dragons are rare and have immense power, so it's no wonder that, when a purple dragon egg is laid, every evil man and his Evil Matriarch wants to get their hands on it. A hoard of baddies storm the dragon hatchery, breaking all the eggs—but wise Ignitus manages to save the little purple egg and set it downriver, where a family of dragonflies adopts it. Many years later, little Spyro begins to realize that he's not quite what he thought he was when he figures out he can breathe fire, and he and Sparx set out on a quest to stop the evil Cynder!
The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (2007)(developed by Krome Studios)
After defeating Cynder, she turns back to her true form—a tiny child dragon no older than Spyro. But she has seen the darkness, and is compelled by a shadowy force named Gaul to try and release the Dark Master from the Well of Souls. He wants to cloak the world in an endless night. Spyro, lead by visions of a strange dragon master, tries to pursue her and stop her from making a horrible mistake. But in the process, Spyro may just be touched by the darkness himself...
The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (2008) (developed by Etranges Libellules*
"Strange Dragonflies" in French.
)
Three years after The Eternal Night, Spyro and Cynder wake up from being Dragon Popsicles only to be unceremonious chained together at the neck. Luckily, Hunter the cheetah tracks them down and helps them escape. While they were asleep, the evil master Malefor rose again, and the world is in turmoil. Now, Spyro and Cynder must work as a team to help stop Malefor. But what's this? Both Spyro and Malefor are purple dragons? Maybe they're Not so Different after all...
In a world called Skylands, a group of warriors guard the world's magical core. All is peaceful until the evil Portal Master, Kaos, shows up and traps the Skylanders as toys in the real world. Now it's up to the player, taking on the role of a good Portal Master, to free the toys and use them to save Skylands.
The three (or four, depending on who you ask) series are different continuities, similar to the difference between the classic Mega Man and Mega Man Battle Network.The series has crossed-over or made cameos in a couple of Crash Bandicoot games.This game series has a Character Sheet.
Action Survivor - Of a sort. Spyro only avoids the crystalisation spell that gets everyone else in the first game because he's so small, the spell shoots over his head. He still jumps, however, even if there wasn't an actual call.
All Animals Are Dogs - In Spyro 3, many of the baby dragons show this behavior, e.g. wagging their tails or scratching themselves with their paws.
And I Must Scream: In the first game the dragons are frozen in stone but are still conscious and aware. Now imagine if for some reason Spyro never got to them. (like the one in the damn Tree Tops level)
Badbutt - Spyro is a prime example, as are Hunter, Sheila and Agent 9.
Bag of Spilling - Averted in Spyro's case in Year of the Dragon (he keeps his abilities to swim, climb ladders and headbash), though played straight with Sparx in the same game. He forgets how to point to uncollected gems by holding down the shoulder buttons, but you can regain this ability by clearing a special Sparx level after beating the second boss.
Played straight in that Spyro doesn't keep the 100% CompletionBonus from Spyro 2.
Spyro's name is a combination of the Latin spīrō (to breathe) and the Greek πῦρ (transliterated "pyr"; fire).
Also, some of the dragon hatchlings' names in Year of the Dragon. An example is Moira (from the first thief in Molten Crater), which means "fate" in Greek.
Border Patrol: Spyro 1 featured Spyro hitting an invisible bubble barrier that bounced him back.
Interestingly, in any levels where this border could be reached without cheating, small structures were placed every few yards, presumably acting like fenceposts to the barrier itself.
Most of the bosses will have sheep drop down occasionally to replenish health.
It should be noted that one boss in the second game (Gulp) can, and if you're not fast, will eat small creatures and regain health.
Bottomless Pit Rescue Service - High Caves from Spyro the Dragon; in this one level alone, falling into the abyss will cause a trio of fairies to rescue you and deposit you back on terra firma.
Bragging Rights Reward - The infinite superpowered flame powerup in Spyro 2. Getting all the orbs and gems in the game awards Spyro with a more powerful flame ability, but after completing everything, the only real use to this is making some of the completely optional Skill Points easier to get.
However, if you get the perma-fireball (or load a saved game with it) then quit game, and start a new game (without turning off your Playstation) you get the fireball from the start of the game, making some puzzles and levels (notably Aquaria Towers) much easier.
Busman's Holiday: In Spyro 2, Spyro just wanted a nice, relaxing vacation at the seaside. But no, he got roped into saving the world AGAIN...
Butt Monkey: Hunter. He has has his feet locked in solid rock, thrown into a wall, stuck in a hole, battered with attacks aimed at Spyro, being kidnapped, etc...
But Thou Must: Lampshaded in the beginning of Ripto's Rage.
Elora: Spyro's going to help us collect the talismans.
Canada, Eh?: The residents of Icy Peak in Spyro: Year of the Dragon appear to exhibit this. To top it off, when you opt out of paying Moneybags for an optional side quest, the negative reply is "Take off, hoser!" In case you were wondering, the mission involves protecting a ice skater... from Rhynoc hockey players.
The only two residents of the area you meet are named Bob and Doug.
Captain Ersatz: One of the characters in the Desert Ruins level in Year of the Dragon is one of Lara Croft.
Copy Protection: Playing a cracked copy in Spyro: Year of the Dragon? Zoe the Fairy appears at the latter part of Sunrise Spring telling you that your copy is hacked and may be an illegal copy, which will lead you to experience "problems" you would not experience on a legal copy. And as a Shout Out to EarthBound, the game recreates the " save file erasure" thing from said game, although in a more subtle manner: instead of just taking you back to an empty "select your save file" screen, it just stops the boss battle against the Sorceress and then a travel-between-worlds Saving-Loading Screen appears, and after it, you return back to the Sunrise Spring Home with your hot air balloon, with the only difference that your save file has been written with a new status - namely, a big fat zero over everything you can collect. To sum it up, instead of erasing your save file, the game resets it back to the beginning. It counts as a Shout Out as both cases of Copy Protection interrupt the Final Boss Battle. You can even see it here.
Genius Programming: In a World where most games are pirated less than a week after release, it took hackers two months to find a workaround for Spyro's crack protection.
Crapsack World: the Beast Makers world in the first game.
Defrosting Ice Queen - Bianca. She wears less and less clothing throughout Year of the Dragon as this happens; she starts off in a cloak and ends up in a halter top.
Degraded Boss: Buzz, the first boss in the third game, reappears as one of the Mooks the third boss, Scorch (a phoenix, spits out from eggs.
Disproportionate Retribution: Gnasty Gnorc enslaves all the dragons because they called him ugly. To be fair, he was probably just looking for an excuse to use that spell anyway... The manual gives a more fleshed-out version of the story; Gnasty Gnorc just kind of resented the dragons in general, because they were happy, good-looking, productive members of society, and he didn't care much for their gems either. The intro cinematic kind of gives you an idea of the plot if you haven't read the manual.
Double Agent: Spyro in the second game. He fights forces of Breeze Harbour when he travels to Zephyr. Guess what he does when he travels to Breeze Harbour. Done later in the game with the Robotica Farms/Metropolis battle.
That's not entirely a straight example. It seems to be more of a peace keeping function than switching sides.
Dream Land - The Dream Weavers world in Spyro the Dragon.
Everything's Louder With Bagpipes: Fracture Hills in Ripto's Rage has Spyro freeing satyrs from stone, who would then blast away a rock wall surrounding the end of the level with bagpipe music.
Precious Puppies: Subverted in the Dark Passage level, some of the enemies look like sweet, adorable puppies at first but once the lights go out they turn into massive frighting hell hounds.
Family Unfriendly Violence: You're killing things all the time, even children (think of the Breeze Builder Chicks) and random animals to get butterflies from. At times it seems like cartoon violence, but you're obviously roasting and breaking beings. Their spirits appear at times. Death is also a common joke in cutscenes.
Fauns and Satyrs: Ripto's Rage/Gateway to Glimmer has both fauns and satyrs. In addition to primary character Elora, there are humanoid-looking fauns and satyrs in the Fracture Hills, and more monster-y looking fauns in the Magma Cone. Exactly what differentiates them is not entirely clear. It's also worth noting that the Fracture Hills fauns, and to a lesser extant Elora, aren't all that humanoid to begin with. The ones in Fracture Hills in particular look more like anthropomorphic wolves with goat legs.
The fauns all appear to be female. The satyrs all appear to be male.
Floating Continent - A lot of the levels seem to be floating in the sky, so falling off the edge of the world will send Spyro plummeting into a blue abyss.
Follow the Money - the gems in the first three Spyro games would often indicate hidden treasures and passageways.
Year of the Dragon has a whole level devoted to this, Charmed Ridge.
The same game also has a mission which requires you to rescue Rapunzel from a tower. It turns out she's there of her own free will and has taken out a restraining order on the man attempting to rescue her.
Bianca is an anthropomorphic rabbit in a game where Spyro kills rabbits for health, and sometimes she'll appear in the very same level as the rabbit fodder. Try not to think about it too much.
The Sorceress used a rabbit fodder to create the first Boss in Year of the Dragon...
There are the Funny Animals, then there are non-anthropomorphic animals that appear to have at least some anthro behaviors.
Get Back Here Boss: Gnasty Gnorc is the biggest offender, but every boss fight in the first game has this, to a certain degree.
Gotta Collect Them All: Frozen dragons and dragon eggs in the first game, talismans and orbs in the second game, dragon eggs again in the third game, and of course the gems through the entire trilogy.
Götterdämmerung: The Sorceress forced the dragons out of what is now known as the Forgotten Worlds a thousand years prior, causing them to take residence on the other side of the world and restore their society there. Little did she know, though, that the dragons were the key to the magic of the Forgotten Worlds...
Green Hill Zone: All of the games feature one of these as the first Home World.
Grimy Water - ALL the water in Spyro 1, just the weirdly colored water in Ripto's Rage! and Year of the Dragon.
The original trilogy is full of this. Spyro the dragon falls in love with Elora the faun, Hunter the cheetah falls in love with Bianca the rabbit (which adds Carnivore Confusion to the mix), and Sgt. Byrd the flying penguin falls in love with a very humanoid fairy, and that's only naming a few.
Minecart Madness: One of the orb challenges in Breeze Harbor in Spyro 2 requires you to ride along a track collecting gears, whilst avoiding various pitfalls.
My God, What Have I Done?: Bianca's reaction when the Sorceress revels her intention to kill the baby dragons for their wings.
Romeo the landblubber and Juliet the breezebuilder in Zephyr. (Spyro 2)
In Year of the Dragon, Princess Ami of the fairies and Prince Azrael of the cat wizards in Charmed Ridge. The two eventually run off to elope.
Schizo Tech: Medieval elements in the first three games are used quite a lot, but there's also domed robot cities (Metropolis) and metal cities on the ocean (Metro Speedway) as well as smaller-scale technology mixes like electric floors in an area where the dragons still live on stilts in the swamp. It's quite rampant in the series.
Bentley [to Moneybags]: Why, you brazenly avaricious, duplicitous, larcenous ursine!
Sequence Breaking: The "double jump" bug in the second game allows for massive amounts of this.
Shifting Sand Land: Cliff Town and Dry Canyon (as well as the Peace Keepers homeworld) in Spyro the Dragon, Scorch in Spyro 2, and Desert Ruins in Year of the Dragon.
An odd one in Year of the Dragon to Never Cry Wolf, a book by Farley Mowat. An NPC named Mowat has you look for his pet wolf, Farley. At one point he says "Don't cry, wolf. Never cry, wolf!"
In the third game Spyro gives us this line: "The rumors of our extinction were greatly exaggerated".
The second game has one of the wizards in the Cloud Temples stage claiming that he knew the magic words to take Spyro straight to Dragon Shores: "Klaatu, barada, ni- nuh- na...Never mind."
In Year of the Dragon, there's a side mission as Agent 9, which is entirely a first-person shooter. The description in the atlas to get the egg for completing this is called "You're [[Doom Doomed!]]"
Super Drowning Skills: In the first game. Also applies to any non-clear water in later games.
Super Not Drowning Skills: Once Spyro learns how to swim in the second game, he can stay underwater indefinitely.
Tomorrowland: Several examples in Ripto's Rage! - Robotica Farms, Metro Speedway, and especially Metropolis. Although there are many modern elements in the other games of the original trilogy (the industrial sites of Gnasty's World come to immediate mind) these areas are much more in-your-face about their advanced technologies compared to nearby areas.
Played with in Ripto's Rage with some of the minigames, becomes incredibly prevalent in Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon included game mechanics like skate parks, speedways, first-person shooter levels, different vehicles, different playable characters with different game mechanics, and at least one minigame in each level. Compare this to the first Spyro the Dragon game, which only had the Speedways.
Not so unexpected though; the Speedways have their own portals and the minigames in Year of the Dragon are indicated with a starry portal in the level.
What Do You Mean, It's Not Symbolic? - In Evening Lake, the third world in Year of the Dragon, there is a whale swimming in the deeper regions of the lake. You can let the whale eat you which leads you to an egg. The dragon inside the egg is called "Jonah." On the other hand, a lot of these dragons have jokenames.
Wheel o' Feet - The Supercharge's effect in Ripto's Rage.
The games released between the classic and The Legend of Spyro trilogies
Big Damn Heroes - Butler preventing Ripto from killing the Professor at the end of Attack of the Rhynocs.
Boss Arena Recovery - Done to death in A Hero's Tail. Not only are there butterflies surrounding the arenas (with more appearing depending on your death count), but the game will actually save your progress in the middle of the fight when you hit the boss enough times, so if you die, the boss' health remains 1/3 or 2/3's gone. The only time the game expects you to finish the boss in one go is with the final boss.
To be fair, the bosses' dialogue implies that you actually have beaten them every time you take off a third of their health...but they have multiple lives.
Breaking the Fourth Wall - Happens quite often in Spyro: A Hero's Tail. In one particular case, Sparx will comment that he is "so awesome that this game should be called Sparx the Dragonfly."
Another one is when Ember asks Spyro if the dark gem next to her would make a good engagement ring. Spyro then turns directly to the audience with an Oh Crap look.
Chickification - Compare Bianca from the end of Year of the Dragon to her in Enter the Dragonfly. Not even her voice type and design is the same; Her voice is a lot more high pitched and has a different generic sound to it in contrast to her original Little Miss Snarker one.
Degraded Boss - Gnasty Gnorc: Final boss in Spyro the Dragon, the very first boss in A Hero's Tail. ...Well, he takes more hits to kill in the latter. Heck, there are mooks on the very first HUB who take more hits to kill.
Fetch Quest - Pretty much all of the games, but Spyro: Attack of the Rhynocs is especially bad at this, to the point where the entire gameplay is just fetching items to fetch other items to fetch the World Hearts.
Executive Meddling: Enter the Dragonfly was supposed to have 120 dragonflies, feature both Gnasty Gnorc and Ripto as villains, over 25 levels with several homeworlds, high framerates and low loading-times. Then it got rushed out the door for a Christmas release.
Genre Savvy: Spyro and Hunter both lampshade common game cliches in A Hero's Tail.
Interspecies Romance - In Spyro: Shadow Legacy, an armadillo cowboy falls in love with a dragon.
Man Behind the Man - The Sorceror of Shadow Legacy is revealed to have been controlling Red throughout his tenure as an antagonist, even through A Hero's Tail. Red promptly does a Heel Face Turn when he reveals this to you, going on to resume his Dragon Elder post in the epilogue.
Palette Swap - Flame in A Hero's Tail is basically Spyro with red scales instead of purple ones. There are some subtle differences (a wider snout on Flame, for example) but they're still really similar. Without going into the Model Viewer, it's hard to notice.
100% Completion: Spyro: Season of Ice forces the player to achieve this before facing the final boss.
You Have Failed Me - Red has a habit of killing off his mooks without a second thought for failing him.
Your Princess Is in Another Castle: Ripto's Rage attempts this - after you defeat Gulp (the second boss) you see Big Bad Ripto fall into an abyss, Elora congratulates Spyro and you have already collected all 14 Talismans, the game's standard reward for completing worlds. Then - just when it looks like Spyro might return home - Ripto comes back and there's a whole new home world with five new Talisman-free worlds. Your Mileage May Vary on his successful this was, because it was unlikely the game would end without you confronting the final boss.
Big Bad - Each original game really had stand alone Big Bad, but Ripto was a recurring villain. The Legend of Spyro Trilogy had Malefor as the main antagonist, though each game had a villain he was the Man Behind the Man of, Cynder in the first and Gaul in the second, Skabb was also an arc Big Bad in the second. Skylanders has the Portal Master Kaos as the primary enemy, though Hektore takes the lead in the DS version.
Averted though, in Dawn Of The Dragon, due to Spyro and Cynder both being able to fly. If they fall into a Bottomless Pit they'll eventually open their wings, and just hover there until you make them fly out.
Everything Trying to Kill You - Inverted. A lot of the on-screen creatures won't try to attack you. On the other hand, killing both the enemies and the peaceful animals has its own rewards, so in a way, this trope is reversed.
Executive Meddling: Heck, this whole franchise was built around this trope. Originally, Sony of America wanted to create a "kid friendly game and character for the Playstation" (considering the games at the time were... ratheradultandteen oriented), hence the creation of the franchise, in which Insomniac never even had the full rights of in the first place, which resulted after Year of the Dragon's release that the franchise was sold and then became a Franchise Zombie until purchased by Sierra, who being way past their time ended up being bought out by Activision games.
Funny Animal - Many of the level inhabitants from the second game onward.
Furry Fandom: You got dragons, cheetahs, rabbits, reptilian things, and "dragonflies"... obviously a no duh as to why they are here.
Also in some circles with the first three games, considering that there were several other characters you could play as, it was almost if as Spyro was just there to get you to buy the game.
Jerkass - Moneybags. He's well aware that Spyro is the only person that can stop the Big Bad and yet he'll still lower bridges and barricade doors and prevent you from continuing until you pay a small fee...
In the third game, he set up the obstacles and captured the characters for the Big Bad, for money. And subsequently freed them/let Spyro pass; for money. Why would anyone trust this guy?
At least in the third game you get to beat the crap out of him and get your gems that you gave him back, but still...
Kill It With Fire - Pretty much all of Spyro's enemies can be killed with his fire breath, with a few exceptions.
Magic Wand - the fairies' checkpoints; Ripto's scepter
Mascot with Attitude: During the original trilogy especially; there were even ads with Spyro "beating" Mario.
Which makes it ironically humourous when Ty does the same to Spyro. I suppose the exploding boomerangs took him by surprise.
The Napoleon - Ripto, obviously. Kaos also qualifies.
The UK instruction manual actually mentions Napoleon in Ripto's character bio. He fits the trope that well.
Nitro Express: Spyro The Dragon titles have several missions which involve Spyro clearing a path for a character who has lit a bomb and must run it to a destination. Expect much restarting while you learn the path the characters in question take to their destination.
The Other Darrin- In the first game Spyro was voiced by Carlos Alazraqui, then by Tom Kenny and Jess Harnell and now Elijah Wood. Within The Legend of Spyro Trilogy, Sparx changes voices in every game (David Spade, Billy West, and Wayne Brady), and Cynder goes from being Cree Summer to Mae Whitman, and then Christina Ricci.
Our Dragons Are Different - To the point where the dragons in the original series (Artisan, Peace Keeper, Magic Crafter, Beast Maker, Dream Weaver) are a lot different to the dragons in the Legend of Spyro trilogy, where more emphasis is placed on color and element rather than realm and occupation.
Stewart Copeland (drummer of the band The Police) did music for the Insomniac games. This might lead some to believe that he's the Pop Star Composer in this case, but shockingly, he doesn't fit that trope.
Year of the Dragon is full of Parental Bonus. Moneybags' comment regarding Sgt. Byrd and how 'he's pining for the fjords' and the references to games like Tomb Raider and Doom, for example.
Pirate Parrot - two parrots from The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night
Plot Coupon - Dragon Statues, Talismans, Dragon Eggs, Dragonflies, and Light Gems, just to name a few.
Redshirt Army - not only does Spyro have to help out the hummingbird army in Year of the Dragon, but also in Season of Ice. Admittedly these are two different divisions of the Redshirt (or Rubythroat) Army, but that still doesn't say good things about their effectiveness.
Running Gag - Dragons in the first game with decidedly badass names like Thor, Conan, and Asher failing to live up to the implied image.
In A Hero's Tail, the character Mergatroid (in Red's Laboratory) is the most blatant Shout Out ever. He's a fat robot, wearing a red cap, red shirt and blue overalls... And the cap and overalls have a giant letter M on them. Make it more obvious, why don't you?
Suddenly Voiced - Crush and Gulp in Enter the Dragonfly, Sparx in A Hero's Tail.
Year of the Dragon. Being silent in the first two games, he gained a Kazoo-esque voice, mostly to speak to you during the speedways (if you listen carefully, you can even make out the English words through the Kazoo sounds, especially in Enter the Dragonfly). A Hero's Tail was just the first game where his speech wasn't obscured.
Sugar Bowl: Pretty much played straight in the first three games, although with a dish of attitude. It's gone by the time Sierra stepped in though.
Take That: In one instance, if you didn't pay moneybags, he'd threaten to turn you into a blue hedgehog.
Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female dragons have long eyelashes and wear collars, and the two villainesses of Year of the Dragon possess eye shadow.
Theme Naming - Spyro, Ember, and Flame the dragons; all the fireflies, many of the level inhabitants
And every Legend of Spyro dragon including Malefor, for that matter.
Unnecessary Roughness - The hockey minigames generally involve using Spyro's breath weapon on the opposition.
Vague Age: Spyro is implied to be twelve at the time of the third game. The games are implied to not follow Comic Book Time, and Spyro does mature in appearance and voice over the original series. Other dragons that are implied to be his age sound noticeably younger then him in Hero's Tail so he's probably in his young teens, sixteen at most. Still, eggs are apparent in that game despite the fact that they only arrive once every twelve years. Subverted in The Legend of Spyro Trilogy, as Spyro is confirmed to be twelve at the start of the first game.
Videogame Cruelty Potential - If there are cute, cuddly animals roaming a level, chances are, Spyro can kill them for health.
Video Game Flight - Spyro has always been able to fly. However, because he's so young and his wings haven't fully grown, he could only ever glide without the assistance of magic until Dawn of the Dragon, which let him and Cynder fly freely.
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