Spyro did not first appear in Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure, but actually first appeared in the game Spyro the Dragon (video game). That game is truly epic!!! In that game, Spyro could not fly because he may be a dragon, but he is too young for full on flight. However, there are Speedway levels that grant the power of flight. But he can breathe fire. And can charge, ramming his horns against whatever is in his path, breaking it in the process. Unless of course the object in question is bigger than Spyro, in that case nothing happens.
In Spyro the Dragon, One of the one hundred dragons is getting interviewed by the Dragon News Network (or D.N.N. for short) about the potential threat of a guy called Gnasty Gnorc (pronounced Nasty Norc. The D.N.N. reporters always pronounce it G-nasty G-norc). But the dragon simply comments on he cannot cause trouble in the Dragon Junkyard (not only does it serve as where the Dragons store garbage, they also banished Gnasty Gnorc here.). Then he calls Gnasty ugly. Gnasty actually managed to over hear this and, offended by being called ugly, turns every adult sized dragon into a statue made of jade. Spyro was the only one unaffected. Mainly because he was a kid at the time and the spell only works on adult size dragons and not kid dragons. So Spyro travels across to several realms beating up Gnasty's minions and collecting treasure (which Gnasty stole). Eventually, Spyro has to fight Gnasty Gnorc himself. Despite being a final boss, he is actually very cowardly. All He does is run for his life and you have to keep up with him and flame him with Spyro's flame breath.
Spyro reappeared in the game Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage. The events of the game actually wouldn't happen if Spyro didn't want to go on vacation. In fact, he wanted to go to Dragon Shores which the most popular amusement park that Dragons go to. But as he entered the portal to Dragon Shores, in a world called Avalar, A cheetah named Hunter, a Satyr (I forgot her name), and a mole calling himself the Professor hijacked the portal to Dragon Shores, hoping to bring a Dragon to Avalar. Even though Hunter is reluctant to this because he looked up Dragons that thought from the description that Dragons were even worse than Ripto, a dinosaur jerk that took over Avalar a few days ago. He said that he hated Dragons more than anything. So the citizens of Avalar thought "Hey Ripto hates Dragons, maybe if we get one he will get his sorry little magical butt out of here!".
Anyway, Spyro, now trapped in Avalar, has to help to citizens fix problems that were either created by Ripto or some mishap. Like helping a hippo reach a magic berry bush that makes whoever eats from it grow ten times their original size in seconds. And Spyro gets to fight Crush and Gulp, Ripto's right hand men, or dinosaurs, actually, seeing that Ripto, Crush and Gulp are all dinosaurs. Anyway, the only way to reach Crush and Gulp is to collect 14 talismans. But to reach Ripto in his castle lair, Spyro has to collect at least FORTY Orbs, green balls awarded to Spyro if he does a side task unrelated to the plot of the level, like riding on a manta ray, or keeping cave people from getting eaten by Lava Lizards.
In Spyro 2, Spyro is much older now, as he can now swim, climb special walls, and Head Bash anything below him. However, he can only glide most of the time and fly in Speedways. However, to gain any of these abilities you have to buy them from Moneybags. A schemer he is. He's always looking for a new way to make money. He is actually a neutral party, as he will sell anything to anyone that is willing to pay him a large quantity of treasure.
After defeating Ripto, Spyro finally gets his well deserved vacation. And Hunter forces Moneybags to hand over every shiny gem that Spyro gave him over the course of the game. And you can still play as Spyro even if he is having a vacation at Dragon Shores!!!!
Spyro returned in Spyro: Year of the Dragon. This time, he has to explore the Forgotten Realms. Because a Sorceress is having Rhynocs steal Dragon Eggs. Why? Because she is slowly dying, and she discovered a spell to make her immortal, killing dragon children and wearing their wings as a necklace. The good news is that her apprentice dropped a few eggs here and there and the Sorceress needs about a hundred and fifty (150) dragons. But most of the eggs have been scattered throughout the Forgotten Realms.
But later on the Sorceress' apprentice Bianca realizes what her mentor plans to do with the eggs. So she helps Spyro reach her lair. However, as she is still in training, she needs one hundred of the one hundred and fifty eggs to amplify her magic.
And Spyro defeats the Sorceress. Twice!!! In a row!!! Anyway, Hunter (he went with Spyro to the Forgotten Realms) falls in love with Bianca and they watch a fireworks show together.
And then comes Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly. Ripto returns, having survived by mere chance last time he fought Spyro. This is actually odd because when Ripto was defeated in Spyro 2, he fell in a pool of lava. And now he has an army of Riptocs!!!! But Spyro easily defeats him and rescues the dragonflies that Ripto Scattered. Because all dragons have a weird symbiotic relationship with Dragonflies. In Spyro's case, Sparx. Spyro and Sparx have been playable in every Spyro game. Dragonflies give their dragon counterparts life energy. Sparx is basically a living heath meter. Anyway, this game is actually very short, as it has only a short nine levels. But Bianca adds a little boost to Spyro allowing him access to new elements: Bubble (used to contain renegade Dragonflies), Electricity (used to power machinery), and Ice (for freezing things).
But this game reveals WHY Ripto hates dragons. Ripto not only is a dinosaur, he is also a wizard. But Dinosaur Magic is nothing compared to Dragon Magic. Dragons are literally MADE of magic. But he is jealous of Dragons because THEIR magic is a thousand times more awesome than his own magic.
Then there is the spin-off games, but I know very little about them. One spin-off game is called Spyro: Season of Flame, though I know nothing more about it, as I focus SOLELY on the main series games.
Then there is Spyro: A Hero's Tail, which is actually my favorite Classic Spyro Game. Spyro is now a thousand times more powerful than he was in the very first game. He now has a double jump, his flame breath is now more powerful, as instead of a cluster of fiery spikes coming out of Spyro's mouth (like in every game up until this point), Spyro can breathe a continuous stream of fire, which can be aimed. And he now has a Water breath in addition to the other breaths from Enter the Dragonfly (Water breath replaced Bubble Breath). Gnasty Gnorc is back, but his memory is not what it used to be, in fact he thought that HE defeated Spyro. Even though SPYRO defeated HIM. But he is surprisingly no longer a coward, for he faces Spyro instead of running away.
But Spyro K.O.'s him by flaming his butt. Literally. After that, Gnasty's mace reveals that there is a Fairy inside, named Amp and grants Spyro the power of electricity. And assumes that Spyro was only trying to save her even though Spyro was trying to save the Dragon Realms.
After smashing Dark Gems which are source of a renegade Dragon Elder's (named Red) magical power, Spyro fights a mermaid villain named Ineptune. After that, Spyro gets the Water Breath from another Fairy.
As Spyro smashes more and more Dark Gems, Red sends a Mammoth to finish Spyro off. Spyro never actually fights that mammoth, but he gets K.O.'d by the Mammoth. Mostly because Spyro got cocky.
Anyway, Sparx escapes and warns Hunter about Spyro getting kidnapped by the Mammoth. So the player plays as Hunter and he goes to rescue Spyro. After doing a classic prison break (or dungeon break, because they were in a dungeon), Spyro learns how to wall jump from a Dragon Elder, who was also a prisoner. In fact he kept track of how many days he was in the dungeon. He was in there for exactly two hundred and seventeen days (217).
Anyway, Spyro later fights Red himself, but Red retreats at the last possible moment, dropping his staff. Another Fairy pops out of the Dark Gem on the staff and gives Spyro the power of Ice.
Afterwards, Spyro goes to Red's secret laboratory on a secret volcano on a secret island, in a secret ocean. And the Professor is building robot Gnorcs. And accidentally turns Red into a giant Robot Dragon. With LASERS!!!!!! Anyway, now he is so powerful that Spyro must switch between Fire, Electricity, Water, and Ice to defeat him, depending on what mode he is in.
Anyway, after defeating him, The Professor then uses a shrink ray to reduce Red's size. Now he is tiny!!!! After seeing Spyro in his smaller state, Red becomes terrified of Spyro, because is now eight times bigger than Red. The Professor stuffs Red in a jar and keeps him in the Professor's Laboratory.
And finally there is the game Spyro Shadow Legacy. This is the final classic game before the Legend saga. In this game, Spyro now knows a martial art called Dragon Kata, and is now an expert a magic. In Shadow Legacy, a dragon called the Sorcerer (unrelated to the Sorceress from Year of the Dragon) is planning to draw the entire universe into the Shadow Realm.
I actually know nothing about the middle of the story. But here is the final battle.
After a long while of beating up Shadow Minions and casting spells, Spyro fights the Sorcerer, and defeats him. The Sorcerer retreats and goes into hiding. Spyro and friends then wait for the Sorcerer to return.
But the Sorcerer never returned, for after that game came the Legend trilogy, a reboot in the series, which means that they redid the series in a different style. And introduced a new and more mature Spyro.
The series does something new. They introduced a love interest for Spyro. Even though in A Hero's Tail a dragoness (A dragoness is what a female dragon is called) named Ember had a crush on Spyro, but is a minor character. But she suggested that Dark Gems would look good on an engagement ring. Anyway, Spyro's "girlfriend" is Cynder. Her role in the games changes. In A New Beginning, she was a villain. In The Eternal Night, she was the damsel in distress. And in Dawn of the Dragon, she was a heroine and a sidekick at the same time.
Anyway, the Legend trilogy also introduces a new villain, Malefor the Dark Master. He is by far the most evil dude ever. He believes it's his "destiny" to destroy the world. But before he could the Ancient Dragons banished him, destroyed his physical form, and locked up his essence and threw away the key. But this is why Cynder was evil in A New Beginning: Malefor sent his army of Apes to steal Cynder's egg, and when the egg hatched, Malefor infused Cynder with evil energy, thus accelerating her age from mere hatch-ling to adult sized dragoness. In mere seconds. So Cynder was sent to lead the Apes in Malefor's absence, as well as revive him. Malefor is actually very cunning, and clever. He PRETENDED to send his Apes to kill Spyro before his egg even hatched. But as revealed in Dawn of the Dragon, he needed Spyro alive to restore his physical body. If Malefor had his plan go his way then the egg holding Spyro would only be STOLEN, not SMASHED. And corrupted just like Cynder.
But Spyro's egg was hidden from Malefor, for the Dragon Guardians (mainly Ignitus) hid the egg in a river. Then some dragonflies found the egg and raised Spyro as one of their own. That's how Spyro met the Legend version of Sparx, who is Spyro's best friend and (in the Legend series) his adoptive brother.
After twelve years, Spyro and Sparx encountered, and escaped from, Malefor's Apes. So Sparx's parents have to reveal to Spyro that he is NOT a dragonfly but a DRAGON. You know, he should have realized that he was not a dragonfly because he is a giant compared to dragonflies. Anyway, Spyro and Sparx set out on a journey to discover what Spyro really is (he still does not know that he is a dragon). Spyro then stumbles upon Ignitus, who is the only Guardian remaining at the Dragon Temple, as the other three are kidnapped.
Most of the game is spent with Spyro rescuing the three remaining Guardians and learning the other three elements. But after rescuing Terrador, the Earth Guardian, Spyro has to confront Cynder's Corrupted form to save Ignitus. As Cynder prepares for a finishing blow, Spyro releases his full power: The Element of Convexity. It was later renamed the Element of Fury in Dawn of the Dragon. Anyway, Spyro uses that element to launch purple missiles made of energy, instantly defeating Cynder.
Cynder then returned to her true form. Spyro saves Cynder from being sucked into the portal that her Corrupted Form opened. But half of Malefor is free. Stage One of his plan is complete. But the good news is that he is harmless until the second half is revived. But the bad news is that when Spyro used Convexity, he lost all of his powers, thus he needed to rely solely on his hand to hand (or claw to claw?) combat.
In The Eternal Night, Spyro and Sparx follow Cynder, who was sneaking out of the Temple in the middle of the night. When Spyro caught up with her, Cynder is preparing to leave to find her destiny. Spyro attempts to chase after her, but after a few seconds he loses consciousness. Then the player gets to see Spyro in his dream world. While in the Dream World, a mysterious voice restore Spyro's Fire abilities, and teaches Spyro the art of Dragon Time, the ability to alter time itself. And shows Spyro a tree of supreme importance, as well as the Mountain of Malefor.
Spyro then exits his Dream World and returns to reality. But the Temple is under attack by Apes. After fighting a horde of Ape soldiers and an Assassin (a running gag in the game is that his thick helmet makes it impossible for anyone to understand him.) Anyway, after defeating the Assassin, Spyro tells Ignitus, Cyril, Volteer, and Terrador (the Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Earth Guardians respectively) about the dream he had. Ignitus then sends Volteer and Cyril to gather information about the Mountain of Malefor. Terrador is sent to warn the nearby locals of the Night of Eternal Darkness, which is about to happen in just a few days. In the Night of Eternal Darkness, two moons align, raising an army of the dead and if a young, noble, incredibly awesome, heroic, purple dragon with a dragonfly sidekick was right in the middle of the the dead reviving point, then maybe Malefor the Dark Master MIGHT be whole again.
Ignitus finally sends Spyro to find the tree he saw in the dream world. During the search, Spyro loses consciousness a second time. Back in Spyro's dream world, that mysterious voice restores Spyro's Ice powers, and show him the King of Apes: Gaul. He then tells Spyro to search for him at the White Isle.
But Spyro finds that tree, but it turns into a wooden monster, which Spyro destroys. Shortly after, Pirates kidnap Spyro and Sparx. Actually, they wanted to get that wooden monster that Spyro destroyed and force it to fight all sorts of monsters that the Pirates captured. So they wanted Spyro to act as a replacement. So they knocked him out. And forced him to fight giant killer birds, the Executioner, and a pair of Scorpions that have the stinger replaced with a cannon.
After fighting all those monsters, Spyro reenters the Dream World a third time, and had his Earth Powers restored. But as Spyro went into the arena to fight the last prisoner, SURPRISE!!!! It's Cynder!!!! Apparently shortly after she left the Pirates kidnapped her. But they did not fight, they PRETENDED to fight so that they could think up an escape plan without drawing negative attention from the Pirate Horde watching. But Gaul shows up in the middle of the fight, kidnaps Cynder, and plans to use Cynder to lure Spyro to the Mountain of Malefor.
After beating the captain of the Pirates, Spyro flies (the Legend Spyro can fly, unlike his classic counterpart) to the White Isle, only to pass out for the fourth and final time. But a giant "creepy turtle monster" as Sparx calls it carries Spyro's body to the White Isle. Inside the Dream World, Spyro gets his Electricity restored.
At the White Isle, Spyro meets the oldest dragon of all time: The Chronicler!!!!! He has been around since the beginning of time recording every minute of the universe in his billions of books. He even has a book written about Spyro's entire life story up until the present. Anyway, in a flashback, the Chronicler explains that Malefor was a purple dragon just like Spyro. First he mastered Fire, which was odd because he was not a fire Dragon, then he mastered Ice, Wind, Electricity, and Earth.
But the power corrupted him. He became focused on "creating a new world" by destroying the old world so the new one could take the old one's place. So the Ancients banished him and locked up his essence in two places, the Well of Souls (later renamed the Mountain of Malefor) and the Convexity portal that Cynder's Corrupted form open. When the Night of Eternal Darkness occurs, Malefor will need something, or someone, to serve as a portal back to the rest of the world.
So Spyro flies to the Mountain of Malefor and fights the Assassin again. This time the Assassin perishes. Anyway, Spyro eventually reaches Gaul's throne room. Cynder and Spyro do exactly what they did when they were held hostage by the Pirates. However, Gaul saw this coming and threw Cynder all the way across the room.
Spyro fights Gaul and in the middle of the fight, the Night of Eternal Darkness activates and Spyro is right in the middle of the beam. And infused with Malefor's dark powers, Spyro becomes DARK SPYRO!!!!! And Dark Spyro kills Gaul by turning him into a statue, then smashing the statue into a billion pieces.
Dark Spyro then absorbs more dark energy and almost attacks Sparx and Cynder. But Cynder knocks him out, transforming him back to his normal form.
But Malefor the Dark Master is revived and the Mountain of Malefor collapses. So Spyro uses Dragon Time to encase himself, Sparx, and Cynder in a massive crystal.
In Dawn of the Dragon, Malefor's new minions, the Grublins, Orcs, and Trolls, revive Spyro and Cynder after three whole years have passed and chained them together with a magic chain crafted by Malefor himself. Spyro and Cynder awaken just in time to fight a Golem. Before the Golem can finish Spyro and Cynder, a new character shoots the Golem right in the neck with an arrow. It's the Legend version of Hunter. Now he is more like Aragorn the Ranger from Lord of the Rings. They do play a similar role. They both help the main heroes of their respective series, are skilled at combat and traveling through difficult terrain with minor effort, and they both have similar accents and are almost identical in terms of speech. Only difference is that Hunter has a bow with arrows, happens to be a bipedal cheetah, and is skilled at falconry (the art of using falcons or other birds to send important messages). Now that I think about it, Frodo Baggins (also from Lord of the Rings) is similar to Spyro. They are the main hero of their series, share the exact same voice actor (Elijah Wood), and have identical accents. But Frodo is a Hobbit, and Spyro is a Dragon.
Anyway, after Hunter rescues Spyro and Cynder, he, Sparx and the two dragons escape the Catacombs and head for the Dragon City of Warfang, because the Dragon Temple is now Malefor's lair.
Along the way, Spyro, Cynder, Sparx and Hunter meet the rest of Hunter's clan. However, Chief Prowlus chained the dragons up because ever since Malefor became evil, Prowlus assumed ALL Dragons were evil. But Spyro and Cynder earn his trust by rescuing another bipedal cheetah named Meadow (by getting getting a secret key to the secret doors of a secret supply shack, from a secret hermit who lives in a secret hut on a secret cliff inside a secret cavern with a secret river running through it). But the Hermit who owns the key to the supply shack with the raft needed to bring Meadow back to the village (because he broke his leg) is guarded by weird skeletal beasts lurking in the shadows. This creatures are actually Apes. The hermit explained that the Apes only served the Dark Master for their own greedy benefit. So Malefor punished them by turning them into skeletons. How that hermit knows this is unknown, though many fans think that he once served Malefor. However, some fans believe that the hermit was actually Malefor in disguise, seeing how he upset Cynder by making her feel bad about being corrupted at birth.
After rescuing Meadow, Prowlus begins to trust Spyro and Cynder and reveals the location of a short cut to Warfang. But when they arrive the city is caught in a siege. Grublins everywhere!!!! So Spyro and Cynder put out wild fires, get cannons up and running, and get to lock up the front gates with a special locking mechanism that only a Fire Dragon can lock/unlock. Because the gate locks itself if two nearby torches are lit with Spyro's Fire. Or Cynder's Shadow Fire.
Anyway, after all that, the Golem comes back for revenge. It regenerates it's missing arm (When Spyro and friends escaped the Catacombs, the Golem's arm ripped off.) by fusing debris in the form of a hand.
Now the Guardians come back. Ignitus give gives a task for each Guardian (Cyril is to put out fires, Volteer is to distract the Golem, and Terrador along with himself were supposed to attack the Golem head on.). One by one the Guardians get K.O.'d by the Golem (except for Volteer). So Spyro and Cynder destroy the Dark Crystal that serves as it's brain. And the Golem falls off the building it was climbing as it's dead body falls to the ground.
But Malefor has a Backup Plan. He summons the Destroyer, a beast that can create a new world by destroying the old world. All it has to do is walk one lap around the planet. Which is easy for it because it is like big enough to cross a mile in a single step. Terrador reveals that the Destroyer is too quick to pursue, but Ignitus has a Backup Plan. They were to wait for it to return, and ambush it before it can reach it's starting point (the volcano it came from).
But the only way the destroy the Destroyer is to cover it's legs in water and Smash the eight dark crystals dotting it's body. But the eighth crystal is literally INSIDE the Destroyer. And the only way inside is to go inside the mouth and down the throat.
But Malefor has ANOTHER Backup Plan: He KNEW what Ignitus was doing and created a ninth crystal, which can keep the Destroyer alive even when the other eight crystals have been smashed. But the ninth crystal was with Malefor, not the Destroyer, so the Destroyer completed it's lap.
Ignitus then sends Terrador and Sparx to get the citizens of the Dragon City of Warfang and everyone else deep into the underground caverns underneath Warfang. Ignitus, Spyro and Cynder then go to get face-to-face with Malefor. But Ignitus' Flame Shield is not strong enough to protect him and the two dragons from the intense heat of the "Ring of Annihilation" left by the Destroyer.
Then Ignitus dies, but not before launching Spyro and Cynder to the other side of the Ring. But Spyro turns into Dark Spyro, refusing to believe that Ignitus has died in the flames. But Cynder calms Dark Spyro into turning back to normal.
After flying through the Burned Lands and the several Floating Islands, Spyro and Cynder confront Malefor. Malefor then reveals that Cynder did NOT play damsel in distress in The Eternal Night and tricked Spyro into freeing him. However, this does not make any sense at all. Because Cynder and Spyro are so close as friends that they would never under any circumstances, betray each other. However, he vaguely (because his voice is so distorted that you can barely understand a single world he says) sounded like he was trying to confuse them. Anyway, he managed to corrupt Cynder AGAIN, this time the only difference is being all black with blank white eyes.
But Spyro somewhat reveals his love for Cynder, transforming her back to normal. Then Malefor engages a BOSS BATTLE. But the Ancients suck Malefor into the Earth's core. Then Spyro uses Ignitus' last dying words to empower him to restore the planet (which was being destroyed during the BOSS BATTLE).
Then Spyro and Cynder get their well deserved happy ending. But wait, what happened to Ignitus? Turns out that the Chronicler revived his essence, and passed on the title of Chronicler to Ignitus, thus making Ignitus' scales turn blue, and gain the clothes of the Chronicler. This makes perfect sense because Ignitus was narrating A New Beginning and Dawn of the Dragon, so in a sense, it would be like he was reading the entire trilogy to the audience as the Chronicler.
And last but not least is Skylanders. But this series focuses on a army of heroes (including but not limited to: Spyro the Dragon, Cynder, a dragon-plant hybrid named Camo, A dude trapped in a suit of armor named Ignitor, etc.) saving the universe from Kaos.
It is worth noting that Spyro gets an upgrade with every classic video game. Here is an example. In the original Spyro the Dragon, Spyro cannot swim and would drown if he enters water. In Spyro 2: he can swim AND stay underwater indefinitely (he can breathe underwater).
TRIVIA TIME
- The color purple is actually the color of royalty, so it makes sense to make the most powerful form of dragon purple.
- Cynder is the first official love interest for Spyro, as Ember from the Classic games only had a crush on Spyro for the sake of humor.
- Spyro breaks the fourth wall in A Hero's Tail, by looking at, or talking to, the player.
- If you look closely at the Destroyer's back, you can see buildings identical to the buildings in the Dragon City of Warfang.
- It is unknown whether or not Malefor was the first Purple Dragon, because the Chronicler says he was the very first Purple Dragon, although Malefor himself claimed that there were many Purple Dragons before him.
- Malefor's alternate title, The Dark Master, sounds like the name of the final boss of a RPG video game.
- Sparx makes a direct reference to the fact that he always gets a new voice actor in every Legend game in Dawn of the Dragon by saying "Oh, little stiff. Voice keeps changing, but I'm good.". Sparx is also the "sarcastic" one of the heroes. So he said the phrase with sarcasm.
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