Spyro (character)
Spyro is the draconic hero of the series of games released on the fifth, sixth, and seventh generations of video game consoles. The first three games of the series were created by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America for the PlayStation.
Biography
Early Life
Spyro's quest to discover his heritage and realize his destiny will be the subject for the upcoming gameThe Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Spyro was born somewhere in a swamp, then shortly discovered and raised by a family of dragonflies -- unaware that he was not a dragonfly himself but a dragon and a dragon of legend.[1] Note:It reminds of Tarzan when he was raised by a family of apes.
First Adventure: Dragon Realms
In Spyro the Dragon, Gnasty Gnorc attacked the Dragon Realms, freezing the all dragons in crystal statues. Spyro, the one dragon Gnasty failed to notice and capture, realized this, and set out across the Dragon Realms to free the resident dragons and recover their treasure, though a bit impatiently at first, as the elder dragons told him to be patient and deal with the local threats first. Ultimately, after travelling through many worlds and freeing many dragons, Spyro arrived at, challenged, pursued, and defeated Gnasty Gnorc; he was later interviewed about his efforts by the resident dragons.
Second Adventure: Avalar
Several weeks after defeating Gnasty, during an extended period of rainy weather, Spyro decided that he needed a vacation from the Realms. Noticing a portal to the location of "Dragon Shores", he entered the portal to escape the weather. However, to his surprise, he arrived in a realm called Avalar instead, whose residents had redirected the portal to bring him there instead. After a confusing moment, he encountered the dictator Ripto, who accused the residents of "bringing a dragon to Avalar". A brief tussle ensued, ending with Ripto's escape to Avalar's Summer Forest after his magical sceptre fell into the maw of his steed, Gulp. At Elora's request, Spyro visited the realms of Avalar and recovered several talismans, then pursued Ripto and fought against one of Ripto's minions, Crush.
Ripto himself escaped to the Autumn Lake, and Spyro pursued, where he was asked to help out the residents and recover the rest of Avalar's talismans. Spyro caught up to Ripto, and fought against his steed, Gulp. Elora assisted by providing weapons to use against Gulp; Ripto disappeared after the battle, and Elora gave Spyro a place to rest while she returned to the Professor to check up on a portal to return Spyro home.
When Spyro decided to search for Elora and found himself arriving in the Winter Tundra, he was met with news that Ripto was still alive, and had locked himself inside of the Tundra's palace. Once more, Spyro was asked to travel through the local portals, this time to recover enough Orbs to challenge Ripto with. Spyro succeeded, and challenged Ripto to a duel. Elora informed Spyro that the Professor was working on new types of Orbs, and a fierce battle ensued, with both Spyro and Ripto using powers from the Orbs for attack. Ripto used one Orb to create a large, mechanized version of his steed Gulp, and when Spyro destroyed it, used another Orb to transform the arena floor into lava, while creating a large phoenix to finish Spyro off. Spyro combatted him in an aerial duel, however, and defeated him once and for all.
Third Adventure: Forgotten Realms
InSpyro:Year of the Dragon,The Dragon Realms are celebrating its most important event that takes place every twelve years: the Year of the Dragon Festival.The fairies delivers 150 dragon eggs to The Dragon Realms as the dragons party until they fall from exhastion and sleep.While they are asleep,a mysterious rabbit girl named Bianca and a army of rhynocs came by and stolen the dragon eggs.The dragons woke up to notice their newest brood gone and finds Bianca trying to steal one of the dragon eggs.But Spyro,Sparx and Hunter came and tried to stop Bianca from getting the dragon egg.But it was too late,Bianca already stole the dragon egg and went to the realm the dragons once lived: The Forgotten Realms.Her master is known as the Sorceress who commanded her to steal the eggs so she could use the wings of the baby dragons in a spell that will make her live forever ever since she's 1000 years old and her magic fading away.It's up to Spyro,Sparx,Sheila the kangaroo,Bentley the yeti,and Agent 9 the space monkey to get all the dragon eggs and defeat the Sorceress.After collecting 149 dragon eggs, Spyro defeated the Sorceress in a space ship ever since Bianca turned good.
Forth Adventure:Dragon Realms
InSpyro:Enter the Dragonfly,the Year of the Dragon celebration continues as the baby dragons are preparing to receive their dragonfly companions.It was peaceful until Ripto returns after being defeated by Spyro in Avalar.Ripto has a evil plan to capture all the baby dragonflies,leaving the baby dragons weak and defenseless.But the spell misfires,instead capturing the dragonflies it scattered them across the land.It's up to Spyro to collect the missing dragonflies and defeat Ripto.After collecting 90 dragonflies,Spyro defeated Ripto again.
Personality
No character description is given for Spyro in Spyro the Dragon, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, or Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, but one is provided in Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, giving a definite personality written for at least one of the games in the series.
Spyro's character description in the game manual for Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage is narrated by Sparx:
- "Spyro is the mischevious hero of this tale. He may be the smallest hero in the Dragon Family, but even the Elder Dragons admit he's got gumption! Just ask Gnasty Gnorc - he won't mess with Spyro again! Spyro's always rarin' to go, especially when he can headbash some sheep or flame some frogs. He's so full of energy, he keeps me on the move! Spyro is extremely curious and hardly ever cautious, which sometimes gets him into trouble! That's why I stick around, to make sure nothing too serious happens to him!"
Current status
Spyro has become much more arrogant over the years since Vivendi took over, and in more recent outings, has actually denied help to those who did not expressly indicate that they would award him. Also, any friendship he had with Elora has seemingly been severed, instead having Ember in her place. Most will argue, however, that Elora and Ember are not to be considered as replacements for each other. In any event, Spyro is likely still friends with both characters.
Other Appearances
- Spyro has also appeared in several recent Crash Bandicoot games, such as Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage, Crash Twinsanity, and Crash Nitro Kart.
- Spyro made a hidden easter egg in the first Ratchet & Clank game.
Sparx
Throughout the series, Spyro has always appeared with one companion at his side: a gold-colored dragonfly named Sparx. In the world of the Dragon Realms, dragonflies offer protection for young dragons such as Spyro; without Sparx, Spyro would be much more vulnerable, susceptible to being killed or defeated in a single hit.
While Spyro and Sparx occasionally converse with each other, Sparx's focus in the Spyro series is more oriented towards gameplay than narrative: Sparx is the player's health meter personified. Whenever the player takes a hit, Sparx's body color changes, from yellow, to blue, to green, and ultimately disappearing entirely, leaving the Spyro vulnerable to defeat upon the next hit. The player can restore Sparx's (and, hence, Spyro's) health by defeating small creatures called "fodder" throughout each level. Doing so releases a butterfly, which Sparx devours, recovering one hit point in the process.
Aside from his function as a health meter, Sparx also assists by collecting nearby gems and treasure for the player, and in later games Sparx's own abilities can be upgraded, including the ability to withstand an extra hit (first with a brighter shade of yellow to represent full health, but later with a shade of red to indicate low health), being able to retrieve treasure from a larger distance, or even the ability to retrieve gems directly from boxes without requring Spyro to destroy them first.
Sparx also appears, as a playable character, in several mini-games throughout the later games in the Spyro series, such as several Gauntlet-style levels in Year of the Dragon and Season of Ice, and a rail shooter-style mini-game in A Hero's Tail. If the player has acquired the additional hit point, Sparx's own health reflects the extra hit as well.
In levels where the player controls a character other than Spyro (such as Hunter in A Hero's Tail), Sparx follows along with that character in the same manner as for Spyro.
Trivia
- Starting with Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, Spyro's rendered art displays a ridge of yellow spikes down his back, although this was not reflected by Spyro's in-game model until A Hero's Tail.
- Spyro has been voiced by three different actors so far:
- Carlos Alazraqui, for Spyro the Dragon
- Tom Kenny, for Ripto's Rage!, Year of the Dragon, and Enter the Dragonfly
- Jess Harnell, for A Hero's Tail and Shadow Legacy
- Elijah Wood will provide the voice for Spyro in The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning.[2]