Spyro the Dragon

• Toasty, a sheep on stilts
• Doctor Shemp, an armored voodoo doctor with a spear
• Blowhard, a wizard on a small tornado
• Metalhead, a large robot
• Jacques, a box-throwing "jack in the box"

Spyro the Dragon features several unique elements. It used Sparx as a sort of gauge of Spyro's health. Yellow meant Spyro was fully healthy, blue meant he is at 3/4 health, green being 2/4 health, and a missing Sparx altogether means Spyro is one hit away from death. Sparx can be healed (or revived) by butterflies. Another of Sparx's attributes is to collect nearby stolen treasure (gems, usually). Without Sparx, Spyro must manually go to each gem to obtain it.

Like all platformer titles, Spyro has only so many lives. Free Lives are scattered around the worlds, but can also be gained by obtaining several orbs. Orbs are found in enemies that have been defeated earlier (enemies that no longer have gems).

Spyro also features something very different  than other platforming games; the free-roaming aspect. While most platformers had you following a direct path, Spyro's worlds were wide and expansive, making it feel more like an action/adventure game than a platformer. The game was divided into several different worlds, all having 6 individual levels, and all of these worlds and levels were wide open areas. Being that the game was primarily searching for the Dragons, it seemed to fit.

Worlds

• The Artisans - dragon world; lush green plains and stone monuments.

1. Stone Hill
2. Town Square
3. Dark Hollow
4. Sunny Flight
5. Toasty (Boss)

• The Peace Keepers - desert world.

1. Ice Cavern
2. Dry Canyon
3. Cliff Town
4. Night Flight
5. Doctor Shemp (Boss)

• The Magic Crafters - mountainous world; druids and magic.

1. Wizard Peak
2. Alpine Ridge
3. High Caves
4. Crystal Flight
5. Blowhard (Boss)

• The Beast Makers - swampy world; full of oddities.

1. Terrace Village
2. Misty Bog
3. Tree Tops
4. Wild Flight
5. Metalhead (Boss)

• The Dream Weavers - medieval world; mages and knights.

1. Dark Passage
2. Lofty Castle
3. Haunted Towers
4. Icy Flight
5. Jacques (Boss)

• Gnasty's World - junkyard; Gnasty Gnorc's base.

1. Gnorc Cove
2. Twilight Harbor
3. Gnasty Gnorc (FINAL BOSS)
4. Gnasty's Loot (bonus)

Spyro also features several abilities, like breathing fire, charging enemies with his horns, and even flying (though, with Spyro's underdeveloped wings, he only gets so far). These abilities all have their purposes, from using the fire to kill the unprotected enemies, charging to kill the armored enemies, and flying to get to various hard-to-reach locations (including using speed and launch ramps to fly into very difficult areas).

In the end, Spyro must challenge Gnasty Gnorc, in something of a chase, where Gnasty flees in a circular path, and Spyro must give chase and hit him, while avoiding the lava below. Upon defeat, the dragons are safe and life goes back to normal. This is one of the games which has a percentage completion of over 100%. When the 100% mark is reached, you are able to enter a bonus area where there is an extra 2000 gems to collect making the final percentage to 120%.