Each stage has its own little tale of animated hijinks that plays out, from a tribe of Himalayan telepaths being terrorized by a Yeti, to my personal favorite, helping superspy moppets Hansel and Gretel stealth their way into a heavily guarded fortress of nomadic lizards so they can use their psychic powers and take over. The sequels are much better in that regard. If anything, the first game's biggest weakness is that there's so much other stuff to collect, between the hundreds of gems, hidden treasure chests, and dragon eggs stolen by hidden-and super annoying-Egg Thieves, but only freeing the dragons really matters in terms of progress. There's some minor puzzle solving, and an enormous amount of treasure to be found, and that’s about it. Every area has a number of crystallized dragons to find, and once enough of them have been freed, you take a balloon off to the next dragon realm, and repeat until you reach Gnorc's trashy fortress. Thankfully, Spyro’s moveset need not do much heavy lifting, especially in the first game. If there's a learning curve to be found, it's in the fact that it's all too easy to use Spyro's charge attack too recklessly, sending him flying off cliffs or missing the enemy he's aiming for by inches. Movement and attacks are one-button affairs, and the simplicity works in the collection's favor. The fact that they stand up so well mechanically against more recent games is the most pleasant surprise of the package. Ignore the graphical overhaul, and these are very much the games that released the first time around on PS1. The third has him facing off against the evil Sorceress, who has stolen over 100 dragon eggs with the help of her rabbit apprentice, Bianca. The second has Spyro attempting to take a vacation after his previous adventure, but winding up getting dragged into a realm being invaded by effete warlock Ripto. The first game has him traveling through the five dragon realms freeing his bigger, badder brethren from Gnasty Gnorc. His adventures are simple but delightfully cartoonish fare.

The trilogy includes the first three-and best-titles in the series: Spyro the Dragon, Ripto's Rage (also known as Gateway to Glimmer in Europe and Australia), and Year of the Dragon. Spyro the Dragon never quite got there, but he did manage to star in some of the most charming and accessible platformers of the PlayStation era, and the Reignited Trilogy is a grand testament to the little guy's staying power.

Many would-be mascots have come down the pike over the years, trying to capture just the slightest hint of Mario-level stardom.

Spyro trilogy