Every Spyro game ranked

 Okay. I just finished playing every single Spyro the Dragon game in a row.

Here's my brief ranking for them, ordered from best to worst:

1. Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch)

Who would have guessed, a compilation of the three best games in the series is the number-one best Spyro game you can buy.

All three games have been remade beautifully. The gameplay has been brought over nicely, though there are some changes here and there that might throw off someone used to the originals. Many of the annoying minigames from Spyro 2 and 3 seem to have been remade to be less annoying? Either that or I've just gotten better at them. There are some major changes to the character designs in this remake - some fare better than others. Overall it's all very positive.

2. Spyro the Dragon (PlayStation)

The first game has a simple purity to it. A pure simplicity to it. It's 3D platforming, plain and simple, with no additional gimmicks, unlockable moves, extra characters, minigames, or anything else to worry about. There are a few rough moments, especially that one almost-impossibly difficult supercharge jump in Tree Tops, but aside from that, this game is pretty much perfect as an exploration collection platformer. The first Spyro is still the best Spyro, it turns out.

3. Spyro 2: Gateway to Glimmer / Ripto's Rage! (PlayStation)

The second game in the series has a good balance of pure platforming and added gimmicks. It's the halfway point between Spyro 1 and 3 after all.  The expanded moveset is great, especially the swimming. It's overall very much like Spyro 1, but it just has... a little bit more going on. I think that's cool. 

4. Spyro: Year of the Dragon (PlayStation)

This is Spyro 3. This game is still very fun to play just like the prior two, but it seems the series was introducing more and more gimmicks that feel annoying to play. I'm not a fan of the speedway races in this game, and the alternate playable characters are okay, but I always prefer just playing as Spyro, so it feels like a drag whenever I have to be someone else. I enjoy this game's storyline the best of the three though - Bianca is a good character introduced here.

Overall, it's still great stuff, it's just... starting to lose its focus at this point. Maybe that's why Insomniac Games gave up working on Spyro in favour of Ratchet & Clank instead. All games beyond the original three were made by an assortment of other developers. ...poor Spyro.

5. Spyro: A Hero's Tail (GameCube)

This is... Spyro 5, I think? It's a more open-ended exploration-focused Spyro game. I do enjoy running around and exploring, but this game is dragged down by a few awful segments where you have to play as Blink the Mole which I do not like playing at all. I also really dislike the boss fights in this game. But aside from these issues, the rest of the game is honestly really good. I like the changes to Spyro's moveset where he can double-jump and grab ledges now, it adds something to the platforming that wasn't there before. And I enjoy how the areas are more interconnected than before, it feels more like a world. Not a fan of the character design changes to Moneybags and Bentley though, I think they just made these characters less fun for no reason.

6. Spyro Adventure / Attack of the Rhynocs (GBA)

My favourite of the GBA games, this one is more open-ended than the others. And similarly to Hero's Tail, it feels more like a contiguous world than the other level-based games. I enjoy that aspect of it. Of the three GBA games developed by Digital Eclipse, this one is the most unique and interesting one.

7. Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly (GameCube)

This is the infamously troubled fourth Spyro game. This game almost feels like a level pack for Spyro 3. It's kind of like...here you go, here's a handful of extra levels in the style of Spyro 3, except you have to buy them as a separate game release. And you have to play them with much worse framerate and performance, and longer loading times. ....Enjoy?

It's okay for what it offers, but it is certainly not substantial enough to justify itself as a fully-fledged standalone game release. It doesn't even really have its own storyline or characters - unlike Spyro 2 and 3 before it, Spyro 4 here does not introduce any new major characters, and just uses Ripto as the villain again. 

I can see why this one is so disliked at the time for that reason. But what is there is actually quite decent fun Spyro gameplay, in my opinion. I don't hate it. 

8. Spyro 2: Season of Flame (GBA)

The second of the GBA games, this one is a lot nicer than the first GBA game. The levels flow better and it's less frustrating. It's decent, but not spectacular. ...It's fun to play, and that's all you could ask for a GBA platformer.

9. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Wii)

Eternal Night was the "Legend of Spyro" game which I thought was the most "okay" of them all. The combat is more interesting here than in the others due to the ability to slow time, which you can use to extend your combos or to run away from incoming attacks. It's also useful when platforming. This is a nice little platformer/brawler game, but like all Legend of Spyro games, it does get very monotonous.

10. Spyro: Season of Ice (GBA)

This is the first GBA Spyro game, and it's fun, but has some huge problems. The biggest issue is how 100% completion is required in order to just beat the game normally... this wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the fact that some of the Speedway levels are ridiculously difficult. Aside from this, the game is a decent mini-sized Spyro game. I liked it well enough.

11. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (Nintendo DS)

This DS game is awkward to play due to it using the buttons and touchscreen at the same time. But it was kind of fun in its awkwardness. There was something interesting about this control scheme, it's something that would only ever exist during the DS's early days. And I liked the mirror puzzle minigames. Overall, I had a good time with it.

12. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (Nintendo DS) 

I was impressed to see a full 3D platformer on the DS. None of the other Spyro games on DS are full 3D. The DS version of Eternal Night feels like a series of mini Spyro platforming rooms in a row, and I thought it was cute and satisfying. It has less emphasis on combat, and more emphasis on platforming compared to the other LoS games, which is preferable for me. I liked it, but it was quite simple overall. Though as a 3D platformer, it does not compare well to the original trilogy by any means.

13. The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night (GBA)

The GBA version of Eternal Night is a sidescrolling exploration brawler platformer. It's quite unique as a Spyro game, it has a combo system, and hidden abilities to find throughout the world. ... But I did find this game kind of annoying to play tbh. I respect it for trying something new.

14. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (GameCube)

The first of the Legend of Spyro series, A New Beginning, was an extremely monotonous slog. Just endless wave after wave of enemies and uninteresting levels. It was okay for one playthrough.

15. The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (PS3)

This game could have been better, but I hated the free-flying system so much. It is so impossible to tell whether you're able to fly somewhere or not. It kind of ruined the whole game for me. Even without taking the free-flying into account, Dawn of the Dragon also had less interesting levels compared to Eternal Night anyway. There was only one good level in this game, the Valley of Avalar. The rest were not very interesting, or downright frustrating. ...The back of the box claims that this is the first Spyro game where you can fly at any time... I guess that's true, but... did they never play any of the Speedway levels from the original trilogy? They implemented free-flying in a much more intuitive and fun way back then compared to this one.

16. Spyro: Shadow Legacy (Nintendo DS)

This game had some unique ideas - it tried to be a Spyro action-RPG kinda thing, but it was so poorly implemented, it makes it difficult to enjoy. They expect you to do platforming within these pre-rendered environments, and it never works well. There's also a weird combat system that is awkward and not very in-depth, and super easy to cheese into irrelevance. The game is too short, and the progression wasn't balanced very well - you're already at the end of the game before you've unlocked all your moves. ... This game had potential, but that potential was not realised by any means. Overall, Shadow Legacy is not very good at all. 

It seems people consider this a sequel to A Hero's Tail, making this ...Spyro 6? But that would mean you'd have to ignore the three Digital Eclipse GBA games in between, which are way more Spyro-y than whatever this mess is. So I think numbering the releases has become a bit meaningless at this point.

17. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning (GBA)

This game is like an hour and a half long. Just a small series of boring sidescrolling levels, and the entire game is already finished before you know it. There isn't much to say.

18. The Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon (Nintendo DS)

Just another substanceless Spyro sidescroller. I don't have a lot to say about this one either. This is the worst of the four Spyro games on the DS. There's not really much going on with this game. Just get through a handful of sidescrolling levels and it's already over. This game doesn't even feature all the locales from the console version of Dawn of the Dragon - you go straight from the Catacombs to the Dragon City without passing through Avalar on the way. ... They really couldn't be bothered with this one, huh.

19. Spyro Fusion / Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy (GBA)

This is the Spyro / Crash Bandicoot crossover game. It is the only game here I would say is just plain awful. The game is just walking through a series of hub levels in order to play a bunch of bad minigames to unlock the next hubs. There are no actual levels to play through, each portal in the hub areas just leads to bad minigames instead of real levels.

Once I reached the final area, the Professor appeared and said, "If you want to unlock the final world, you must go back and play through each minigame three times!". At this point, I turned the game off. This is the only game that was so un-fun, I didn't even finish it.

So overall.... there's 19 spyro games, but only a handful of good ones. I can see why the original trilogy of games are the only ones people tend to remember or care about nowadays. There were certainly games beyond the original trilogy I enjoyed, but yeah. The original three games ARE the undisputed best, and it really has been all downhill from there.

Oh well.

It was interesting to see what this little dragon had to offer. :)