Welcome to the cKotch.Com blog. I’m Christopher Kotcher, and this is my final post for cKotch.Com’s special Videogame Month, all about games which have inspired my writing. This is the trilogy which really sparked my love for games.
The Post Begins…
Time to finish with a classic. Time to share my love for Insomniac Games’ original Spyro the Dragon trilogy on the original Playstation.
There have been plenty of other Spyro games and series, and I have enjoyed most of them to some degree.
Still, I will discuss only the original trilogy here. These are the Spyro games with the most impact on my writing.
I also make no reference to the trilogy’s remake, the Reignited Trilogy, because I have not yet played it. At least the Nintendo Switch version has finally been announced for this September.
With all that said and without further ado, let us get going with the post proper.
Discovering the Dragon
Playstation was not my first game console. I started with Pokémon on Gameboy then moved to the Nintendo 64. For a while, Playstation was the cool kid console I had no interest in.
Funny story, in kindergarten, kids actually teased me for having a Nintendo 64 because it was apparently “only for babies.” Console wars start so young and innocent.
My interest for the Playstation grew from commercials for a feisty purple dragon named Spyro. There just seemed to be something interesting about him.
One commercial could show Spyro melting snowmen. Another would have him take over a city in the style of Godzilla.
I wanted to know what this character was about.
I made my interests known and found a Playstation under the Christmas tree that year.
And with that Playstation? My parents got me CTR: Crash Team Racing.
This actually makes some sense.
Our most played Nintendo 64 game was the racing game Mickey Speedway U.S.A. My dad and I raced all the time. Why not start my new system’s library with something similar?
Plus, CTR had a pretty good single player mode for when my dad could not play. I never got too far in this mode as a kid, but it still proved fun here and there.
Then I found a cheat code in the CTR instruction booklet. It would allow me to play a demo for the game Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage.
Demo with Dad
The demo placed Spyro in a world of mountain temples called Colossus.
Monks needed the dragon’s help to defeat a yeti. My dad and I found great fun in that quest.
We charged at goats, torched giant yaks, and glided across chasms.
The monks’ humorous chanting to open doors led to much laughter. Sounded like they were saying something along the lines of, “Why-I-I-yow!”
When we finally reached the yeti, his rampage made a statue fall and crush him. Spyro was barely even needed.
Still, the monks gave the dragon a special talisman, a golden monk statue, to end the level.
Thing is, my dad and I were not quite done.
We kept playing the demo when we learned there was still plenty of items left to collect and tasks to complete.
We kept exploring Colossus until we found everything. The search led to ice caves, evil spirits, and even a hockey game. Apparently, the monks viewed hockey as a calming and relaxing sport.
My dad and I would play that one Spyro level far more than the full game attached to it.
It was only inevitable he would come home one day with Spyro 2 in his hands.
We played it right away. Finally got the context for everything in the game.
Apparently, Spyro was a young, fiery dragon who had recently finished saving the Dragon Realms.
On a rainy day, Spyro went through a portal for a relaxing beach vacation at the resort Dragon Shores. Unfortunately, he was intercepted by a colorful cast of characters from a new world called Avalar.
Avalar was being terrorized by a short, dragon-hating wizard named Ripto. So, the Avalarians (I think that’s the right term) brought a dragon to gather some magic items and torch their foe.
This was not really the grandest fantasy epic, but this overall plot was charming enough nonetheless.
Each level had its own story too.
Colossus had its yeti, Aquaria Towers had creeps draining its water, and Metropolis was being invaded by evil farm animals.
At one point, Spyro even played both sides of a war. He helped the birds of Breeze Harbor invade the slug world of Zephyr. Then he helped the slugs repel that very invasion. All to get the talismans.
Many Hours Well-Spent
Many hours of fun were had. Only issue? This was game number two.
Spyro talked about past adventures, and my dad and I wanted to see them.
So, next Valentine’s Day my grandma surprised me with Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
Here Spyro would recover stolen dragon eggs taken to the dragons’ former home, now the Forgotten Worlds.
My dad and I had a whole new game to enjoy. We explored Roman villas, fireworks factories, and ancient tombs. We even had new playable characters to enjoy in the form of a kangaroo, flying penguin, yeti, and trigger-happy monkey.
Spyro’s first adventure was something to behold. Only, this was actually Spyro’s third game.
In hindsight, it should have been obvious. Returning characters often reference Ripto’s defeat and the worlds of Avalar.
We eventually found the true first game, Spyro the Dragon, one day while grocery shopping. I convinced my mom to get it for me as a gift for my last day of school.
Finally, I could experience Spyro’s first adventure to save the Dragon Realms. Apparently, some ugly brute (the game’s words, not mine) named Gnasty Gnorc had crystalized all elder dragons and stolen their treasures. Then he used magic to turn the treasure into an army to steal even more treasure.
I played and re-played all three Spyro games many times through the years.
When my Playstation and Platstation 2 stopped playing the games, I re-bought them digitally for my Playstation 3. I wanted to ensure I could keep enjoying them for years to come.
The Inspiration Continues…
Spyro was the first videogame series to really inspire me. Not because of an epic story or a grand world, but because this was a world where anything could happen.
I have mentioned my earliest creative endeavors in early posts. My first projects were sketching and jotting down videogame ideas.
Spyro claimed most of them.
The official games already had futuristic cities, dinosaur-filled mines, and nightmarish caves. I could create anything I wanted. Some ideas included hot springs caves, magic islands, and burning badlands.
I would have Spyro collecting everything from lanterns to dragon souls.
These were my first steps as a creator. Spyro defined them.
Even when I switched creative focus to writing my own books, Spyro still had a hold on me.
In fact, the last video game idea I created was my take on a story-based Spyro trilogy.
Still, working with other people’s characters gradually gave way to making my own, creating stories that were truly mine to tell.
Some of my ideas originally meant for Spyro have been adapted for my stories. Mainly, a few of my old level ideas have become places in my stories’ worlds.
Spyro and his world’s endless possibilities inspired me to flex my creative muscles as a kid. Now I continue to channel that creativity in my writing.
All those hours playing Spyro’s original trilogy with my dad were definitely well-spent.
Kotcher’s Call to Action
Before the usual links, I do have an announcement.
With Video Game Month ending, I have decided to do another theme month starting next week. So, this July, please enjoy cKotch.Com’s special Vacation Month. Each post will cover a different vacation spot of mine, and each week a new poem inspired by a vacation will be added to the portfolio. And with that…
If you like my content and wish to see more, then you have a few options.
You could check out my book Five Strange Stories on Amazon. Five Strange Stories is enrolled in the Kindle Matchbook program, so anyone who buys the paperback can also get the eBook for free.
You can also check my Essential Posts page for links to some of my greatest posts to the cKotch.Com blog.
Finally, be sure to like my Facebook page and share it with your friends. I post a link there whenever a new blog post goes live each Friday at 5:00 PM EST.