I finally tried out the original Spyro trilogy and I must say I can only ask myself WHY.
Spyro 1 was a competent, original and pretty platformer with very wide levels with a strong focus on exploring every nook and cranny using your limited moveset at its max potential. I was surprised at how fresh and varied it felt until the end even if you were mostly collecting the same gems over and over. Simple and fun, as it should be.
Spyro 2 was a "Bigger, better, faster" kind of deal. New moves, cutscenes and orb challenges that change up things without straying too much from the base gameplay. While I wasn't too hot on either the stronger focus on plot and dialogues especially because most characters made me feel uncomfortable, like they were out of a furry wet dream or something, the orbs were a welcome change of pace compared to the gem-only affair that was the first game. What's important here, in my opinion, is that few to none of the orb missions discarded the core gameplay.
For example in a certain level there's an hockey minigame. Instead of giving you new controls, mechanics and stuff the game simply makes you eat the puck and throw it, like you normally do with projectiles.
Also you can swim too, and it feels good because it's fast and pretty responsive.
Still, I'm not sure if I preferred it to the first or not, mostly because some things felt like unnecessary bloat. But whatever is my bad opinion, it can't be disputed that it's a great sequel and I had lots of fun with it.
But then, Spyro 3 came. I figure that Insomniac wanted something that differentiated this from the other 2 games, so they added some new playable furry friends. Problem is they all feel awful to play, or at the very least not nearly as fun as Spyro. Why add content if that content is empty bloat that is not enjoyable?
For the sake of "variety"? I felt that both the first two games were varied enough to keep my attention at all times and push me to 100% them (which was not a chore at all), because all most content was quality content that featured polished 3D platforming.
Here instead in the name of empty variety they kept changing the core gameplay for too many times into too many genres.
This is especially evident in Agent 9, a funny monkey with a gun that sadly features some of the most boring and drawn out sections in the series. One level is an FPS, one is a TPS with wonky controls and then some light gun shooting.
But not only that, you have many, many turret sections with Spyro himself, and vehicles that mostly feel slower, weaker and more boring than the dragon itself.
I don't think it's an awful game, the "normal" parts are still good as ever, but so many times the pace slows down to a crawl and you have to slog your way through a shitty turret or vehicle segment when you'd rather just run around, glide and collect those jewels.
What are your thoughts on Spyro 3 anons, I'm really curious about your thoughts on this kind of Depth vs. Width game design.