KYHO Ranks The Original Trilogy's 74 Levels! DUN.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Apr 06, 2014 3:06 PM

edit: ah, i see it now. it read differently to me.

Last edited by 36IStillLikeSpyro36 (Apr 06, 2014 4:48 PM)

s'pyromane · Apr 06, 2014 4:28 PM

Edit : Fine then, happens for me to be unclear sometimes since I don't speak English natively.^^'

Last edited by s'pyromane (Apr 07, 2014 1:21 PM)

Paranoia · Apr 07, 2014 2:11 AM

I've been quietly following this thread for a bit now. While your choices are a lot different than mine, I really do appreciate your detailed explanations of the levels. Always makes me want to go back and play the games again!

I really do like Dark Hollow through. The atmosphere is great, and it's a lot of fun as well. Can't wait to hear why Fracture Hills is in your top 10 though. I've always despised that level.

KeepYourHornsOn · Apr 18, 2014 2:49 AM

Jeez, it's been almost two weeks since the last update? I thought I'd been going at least a little faster than that. Well, only one way to fix it:

2. Icy Peak

Apologies to Flapjacks and anyone else who may have been silently rooting for this level, but it (along with the rest of these) ranks as the runner-up Spyro stage. It is an absolutely fantastic level, and I don't have a single bad word to say about it; I just happen to like one other a little bit better. Originally, I had Icy Peak quite a bit lower in this ranking -- probably at around #16 or #17, below Charmed Ridge -- but after replaying the top sixteen levels and paying particular attention to this level because of its popularity, I bumped it up all the way to its current placement at #2. I definitely understand now why it would be someone's favorite. I mean, it's very nearly mine.

There is one particular reason why I love Icy Peak enough to rank it as one of the absolute top-tier levels from the trilogy, and that reason is as follows. Something I've made pretty clear throughout this ranking is that, in general, I prefer the first game to the second and third ones: Terrace Village ranked low, but other than it and the anomalous Gnasty Gnorc "fight", it wasn't until #59 in this ranking that other Game 1 levels started to get eliminated -- about an entire fifth of the entire ranking, in other words, before that game was really even touched. Game 1 levels have done so well because I prefer the more level design-oriented gameplay of the first game to the more minigame-oriented gameplay of the second and third game. There are a few reasons for this preference:
- I think that navigating a level has more replay value than some challenge that relies on a control scheme that you've mastered as soon as you've figured it out once. Those kinds of challenges certainly can be fun time and time again, but it's just less likely that I'll enjoy them on a repeat playthrough the same way I'll enjoy entering into one of the game's magical worlds.
- The first game doesn't provide many tips but rather says "Here is the level; figure it out for yourself", and it's your job to think about what you have to do, a much more interesting challenge in my opinion.
- Additionally, a Game 1 level typically leaves me much less aware that I'm playing a game than a Game 2 or 3 level. When I have to stop and talk to people and have a text box come up explaining what I'm supposed to do now, I become aware that I'm playing a game. But in the Game 1 levels, the less stratified nature of things allows - forces, really - me to really get immersed enough in the environment that I don't really think about the fact that I'm playing a game. I simply get sucked into the levels.
- The primary reason why I prefer Game 1's setup, however, is that I think that puzzles built into the landscape itself will typically involve much more creative level design than a minigame will. Game 1 levels have no new characters and few gimmicks to be challenging; they rely on tricky glides and jumps and on puzzles within the level itself. A Game 1 level has to be structured in a way that makes it difficult to figure out while remaining an engaging, natural atmosphere that feels like a world of its own... and it's for that reason that Game 1 levels typically do better in this. Those levels are in general more meticulously, artfully constructed, because they simply had to be.

Icy Peak, however, is one of the levels from Game 2 and 3 that defies this trend more than any other.

Icy Peak manages to incorporate all of the new things that Game 3 is able to offer -- all the new mechanics and all the gameplay that relies upon figuring out how to beat this specific set of enemies/obstacles -- while not losing the way that the original Spyro game got its challenge simply through the design of the level. With Icy Peak, you basically get the best of both worlds, learning how to control cannons and fight on the ice and do the kinds of things Spyro couldn't do in Game 1... but at the same time, it has an absolutely remarkable layout. It has the polished veneer of a Game 3 level with a design that feels very much like something you'd get in Game 1, combining the best of the first game with the best of the last one, and the end result is one of the most breathtaking levels in the entire series. So that, essentially, is why I love Icy Peak so much: It feels like a vintage level taken straight out of Spyro 1... and then implanted into Spyro 3.

Some specific examples of what makes this level feel like a vintage one... One of the Eggs is sitting on a little cliff overlooking another part of the level. In order to get to it, you have to, upon walking out of the next little tunnel, turn around and notice a little stairway built into the rocks and then climb it. That feels completely like a challenge out of Spyro 1 (like having to make the hidden glide in Dry Canyon to get the key) or even more like something you'd find in a Ratchet and Clank game. Hidden passages like that are fairly rare in this trilogy, especially outside of the first game, but are basically my favorite thing that can ever be in any Spyro level. It's not a huge challenge, but the type of challenge that it is is something I appreciate, especially in Game 3. You also have to glide around the outside of the level using the whirlwinds, and the exploration of the level's exterior also feel like something from the first game -- making the level layered so that it has a lot of content in a relatively compact space -- as do the glides themselves. The biggest "Figure out what to do" challenge in this level, though, is actually one of the biggest ones in the games -- the gems hidden underneath the ice. It seems so obvious now to just headbash the icy part.. but since you can't jump on ice, I convinced myself it was impossible when I was a kid, and those gems were so tantalizing for so long. There is no set of instructions delivered before you reach the ice; it's just there, it is what it is, and it's up to you to get past it. It's just so nice to see that in a game where Insomniac could, and often did, simply make up new characters and minigames to challenge the player... they also remembered that sometimes they could just throw in a hard glide or hidden alcove and rely on the player to figure out on their own what they had to do.

I really just love the whole map of this level. It overlaps itself and requires a lot of backtracking to reach 100%.. but not in an annoying Idol Springs sort of way. It makes the level have more content than it has space, leaving you feeling like the level is much bigger than it actually is. At the same time, the entire area you play in feels very natural and believable; it really feels like it's just a bunch of cliffs carved into some icy mountain somewhere, not like some clearly constructed level in a video game (I'm looking at you, Agent 9's Lab.) It's an incredibly believable atmosphere and gives me that feeling that I'm really in the level, a feeling I rarely get from the latter two games. There are a lot of snowy, icy levels in the Spyro series, but this one is by far the best and most beautiful. The blue mountains, the snow, the ice, the wintry enemies, the snowflakes... all of it goes together to make for a level that fits its theme in a very in-depth and enjoyable way. And I also think the dome underneath the ice where the gems are is absolutely gorgeous. All of that stuff is the primary reason why it's so high: It's just a beautiful, beautiful level whose look makes me feel good. It's a wonderfully designed level both strategically and aesthetically.

But at the same time as being this really intricate, beautiful, well-crafted level.. it's also a level that succeeds in just being fun - in simply being exciting to play on a surface level. It has missions that are quite simply fun. Fighting off the hockey players on the ice is something that you couldn't ever do in Game 1 and that basically relies upon learning to control Spyro in a new environment, but it's an incredibly fun challenge nonetheless. It's one of the things in the series that still gives me trouble nowadays. As a kid, I hated it for how frustrating it was, but now I enjoy it for that same reason. The level also has the new cannons, which I mentioned before; similar cannons do appear in Game 3, but this one functions slightly differently, shooting a projectile in a straight line rather than in an arc. The enemies this level are unique; because at this point I seldom lose lives and never get a Game Over, I try to play through more familiar levels without taking a single hit, and the TNT enemies in this level make that incredibly challenging. They almost always hit me some way or another. And of course, this level has probably the largest supercharge track in the entire series -- I absolutely love supercharge, like I've said in the past (notice how three of the six levels I haven't discussed yet incorporate it), and with how pretty this level is, I could spend an inordinately large amount of time just circling that track over and over and enjoying the snowy environment. I mean, just look at that screenshot and tell me it isn't a *bleep*ing gorgeous landscape.

Icy Peak is a stellar level that really does have something for everyone. It's so gorgeous that it sucks me in, it's so well-crafted that I'm really in awe of the fact that they managed to design it from scratch, and it has little gimmicks and missions that are simply fun and exciting. Also, it has comical Canadian accents. Not many levels are able to deliver in the way Icy Peak does -- having a smart design and engaging atmosphere, as is typical for Game 1, while still having the fun, structured challenges of Game 3. It's an incredibly fun, incredibly engaging level that I appreciate a lot more now than I did at the start of this ranking, and it's one of the best levels in the entire series.. but just one level is just a little bit better.

But wait! There's more Icy Peak!

▼Hidden text

(Remember -- not all of the levels you see below this are ones I consider better than Icy Peak at this point. It, five of the six below, and all the other ones since Haunted Towers are equally good.. and then one level is a little better than them. The order in which I write about them now has nothing to do with their quality, except that the very last one is the very best.)

Six levels are still in the running...

The name of the next level I'll eliminate includes a word that's also in the name of another level in the series.

Last edited by KeepYourHornsOn (Apr 18, 2014 2:54 AM)

Flapjacks · Apr 18, 2014 3:59 AM

reported

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Apr 18, 2014 5:17 AM

awesome.

Icy Peak really is a beautiful level, isn't it? smile

KeepYourHornsOn · Apr 20, 2014 11:43 PM

2. Enchanted Towers

Not a single person has mentioned Enchanted Towers as a level they wanted to succeed in this, and I'm actually very surprised by that. It's a level that has totally stuck out to me ever when I first played YotD and has been one of my favorites ever since. The reason why, essentially, is that it's just really *bleep*ing fun. Honestly, in terms of sheer gameplay, I think that Enchanted Towers is easily the funnest stage in the entire trilogy. I do prefer the level design of the first game to the challenges of the later games, but that doesn't mean I don't like or even love those later challenges as well, and Enchanted Towers has the best selection of challenges of any level. (I also think that this level is probably the longest one in the entire series to get 100% completion from start to finish. I could be wrong on that, but I'd bet money that it takes the longest.) Every single egg challenge here is fantastic, and the fact that this level is more outright fun than any other one is more than enough to put it so high in the ranking. Brief rundown of the things in this level that I find so fun:

- Although the skate park does feature an annoying tutorial for Hunter, that's pretty quickly outweighed by how fun it is. It's far superior to the other, earlier skate park of YotD -- more ramps, larger ramps, and exclusive tricks make it easy to rack up several times more points here than you could possibly get in Sunny Villa. The two skate parks are probably my favorite addition to YotD. I love hopping on a skateboard as Spyro every single time I do it, and it's more fun here than anywhere else. It also has the incredibly energetic Desert Ruins theme in my copy of the game, and in other copies it gets its own unique theme, but unfortunately I'm not as familiar with that one.

- The minigame with the wolf is adorable. It's a somewhat short one and the puzzles are incredibly easy (though they were hard when I was a kid), but it still stands out to me as among my favorite egg/orb challenges (maybe that's something I could do a much shorter ranking of eventually...) simply because the wolf is so darn cute. I love dogs and I love anything relating to dogs, so watching the little wolf pup playfully chase around the huge enemies to scare them, bark at his owner, and stare adorably at Spyro is so charming to me. <333

- Above all else... the flying. I mentioned earlier that Sgt. Byrd is by far my favorite of YotD's five new playable characters (incl. Sparx), but in Molten Crater and in much of his own level (though not the end), he's cooped up in cramped, indoor areas that don't really offer him the freedom he needs to live up to his potential. Enchanted Towers definitely offers this. I absolutely love being able to fly around in video games, or do anything similar to it -- exploring Spyro 2 levels via double-jumping, exploring R&C 2 levels via a similar glitch, exploiting swimming-in-air glitches, cheating on emulators to fly around ordinary levels as if they were Flights/Speedways, flying around in the Dragoon in Kirby Air Ride with a friend for hours on end when I was younger -- and in all of Spyro, this is the one time where we really get to fly (without the aid of a glitch or cheat.) Spyro typically only gets to glide, and occasionally fly around levels that are designed exclusively for flight (Flights/Speedways + Gnasty's Loot + some powerup areas).. but when you play as Sgt. Byrd here, you get full freedom to explore this giant level however you want after you've already traversed most of it. I adore that total freedom and have probably spent way too long just flying around as Sgt. Byrd in this level, even after getting 100%. The ability to fly around as Sgt. Byrd probably brings this level higher than anything else -- and it means that this level is designed very well, because you have to be able to navigate it as Spyro and as Sgt. Byrd. There are areas Spyro can handle much more efficiently than Sgt. Byrd, but then there are the places Spyro can't even reach... so it feels like unlocking an entirely new, second level when I step through the Sgt. Byrd portal. Enchanted Towers' Sgt. Byrd mode is hands-down one of my favorite things in the entire trilogy and it is by a wide mile as fun as the extra playable characters ever were. I really can't put into words just how much I love traversing the giant towers in the flight mode in this level. A+, Insomniac.

This level isn't #1 basically because it doesn't have the most interesting environment: the music is a kinda unappealing track that's a repeat of another level; aesthetically, I do really like the ~magical~ architecture of the towers and how gorgeous they are on the inside, but a lot of the level is simply grass, and it just doesn't come together to give me a clear "feeling" like Icy Peak, Aquaria Towers, or Dark Hollow do, to name a couple. So much of what I care about in these levels is the environment, and this level lacks that, which prevents it from reaching #1... but it still places above almost every other level in the entire series, which goes to show just how *bleep* entertaining all of its gameplay is. Like I said, I honestly think that this is the funnest level to play through out of them all, so if you're looking for awesome gameplay, then Enchanted Towers is definitely the level for you. This level is designed to be fun and it's absolutely perfect in that regard, and I very seriously considered putting it at #1. Other than the level I ultimately did put at #1, Enchanted Towers is the only one that even stood half a chance at that... I mean, you can skateboard, you can fly, and you can shoot rockets at flying monsters; what more do you *bleep*ing want?

But wait! There's more Enchanted Towers!

▼Hidden text

Five remain... which do you think will succeed? yikes

The back-to-back eliminations of this level and Icy Peak mean that we will not have a victor from Midday Gardens -- in fact, the only YotD level that is still in contention for my #1 spot is the Fireworks Factory.

Flapjacks · Apr 21, 2014 2:58 AM

Yeah, I didn't really like Enchanted Towers' music. It's catchy, but doesn't really have that sound that some of the other tracks have.

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Apr 21, 2014 3:28 AM

in the Greatest Hits version (at least the one i have; there must be 50 million versions of Spyro 3) the skate park gets its own theme. it's good, but not really necessary listening, and the main level just has Sgt. Byrd's theme.

it is a really fun level overall, isn't it?!

but (i think) you forgot to mention finding the bones tongue big_smile

Last edited by 36IStillLikeSpyro36 (Apr 21, 2014 3:30 AM)

Swaffy · Apr 21, 2014 3:53 AM

*shakes fist* Fireworks Factory, Fireworks Factory, Fireworks Factory ... nnngh.

s'pyromane · Apr 21, 2014 10:46 AM

I underestimated enchanted towers a bit, but it has indeed top 10 potential, yep I forgot it had the wolf minigame and sgt bird mode. tongue

I see a swamp level still running + Fireworks Factory + Lofty Castle... [breathing intensifies]

KeepYourHornsOn · May 01, 2014 2:01 AM

Laptop broke about a week ago.

Using someone else's currently.

Apologies for the hiatus this is causing.

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 03, 2014 8:36 PM

Got a new laptop. Presently undergoing the process of transferring over all my files from the old one, including the hundreds of screenshots I have that I include in the write-ups. Once my new laptop is all set up, this will resume!

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 04, 2014 5:09 AM

looking forward to it! man, i was going to post here the other day, but then i forgot again.

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 12, 2014 8:40 PM

Alright! After a long hiatus, I'm finally in a position to update this again. Early in the morning on Monday, I'm going to be leaving on a week-long vacation with no Internet access of any kind, so I'm hoping I can get this ranking (finally) finished up by then. With only five updates left, it's possible!

Since it's been so long since this ranking has been updated, let's get back into it with a big, big update and take out the biggest fan favorite level there is... let the fireworks begin!

2. Fireworks Factory

Holy hell, I was excited to get to this level in my replay long before I even reached it. I knew that it was the most popular level in the series and while I had always really liked it, I questioned whether it was really that good or whether it was maybe a bit overrated. But as I went through grabbing screenshots from the levels, I grabbed more from this one than just about any other one in the trilogy, and that made me realize what a beautiful level it is. The Chinese architecture, the lava, and the mountains all go together perfectly. One of my favorite little details is the orange reflections the lava has on some of the big brick walls. The level has a massive, sprawling layout, which makes it really pleasing to stand on any one of the high vantage points and rotate the camera, just looking around the entire gorgeous level.

What I think most sets this level apart from others is that it has so many contrasting elements. It features Chinese architecture and ninjas (that come out of metal boxes labelled "NINJA!", because why the *bleep* not?), fiery mountains reminiscent of Jacques, a whole "spy" theme with the NPCs, and an outer space feel: the musical track sounds like something I think you'd hear in an outer space level, the backdrop is full of stars, and you have Agent 9 and a spaceship as plot points... all of this while billing itself as a 'Fireworks Factory', despite having very few fireworks and no factory element whatsoever. This level's name might be the biggest misnomer in the series. You'd think a level with so many different themes in one would never work, but it all just comes together somehow and the end result is a very engaging, memorable environment. Somehow, the combination of factory + China + spies + lava + outer space comes out to something fantastic that feels really coherent in the end.

I've already touched on it, but I also, of course, love the Fireworks Factory music track. It pulls you in from the very first note and is a pretty fast-paced track after that with a sense of urgency, which fits perfectly with the level's spy storyline. At the same time, something about all the different tones in it makes it sound really futuristic to me, adding to that as well. It's a great, great fit for the level that makes me much more invested in it than I otherwise would be... and, of course, is a really catchy, memorable track that I love listening to on its own as well.

The side missions, too, are all very fun: the tunnel you have to navigate that's full of enemies is a nice expansion to the level; the long Agent 9 one is among my favorite challenges in any Spyro game, and it's actually pretty intense the second time through as you go on and the rooms have increasingly large numbers of enemies (brief aside: holy *bleep* @ this game featuring a young child being strapped to a bomb; how the hell did he survive the explosion?; and how the hell is does me watching him blow up count as 'saving' him??); and the superflame/superflight powerup challenge is definitely one of the most entertaining and memorable of the series. It was probably my favorite part of the entire trilogy when I was a kid, and I still love it now. Flying around in combat like that is a really unique thing in a Spyro game, and it's always sufficiently frustrating when the dragons get down to just their heads and are nearly impossible to hit. And the thing is, none of these challenges feel gimmicky; as Agent 9 and superflame/superflight are in other games, and as the tunnel is basically just an extra portion of the level, none of them rely upon mastering a specific kind of gameplay that doesn't show up anywhere else. All of the different Areas feel like an expanded part of the main level rather than separate levels as is the case in some other levels. As I've made apparent so far, I prefer a solid coherent feel to a collection of fun minigames most of the time, which is why the levels of the first world have dominated this ranking. Like Icy Peak, this level stands out as almost feeling like a Game 1 level but with all of the extra Game 3 features, which is, for me, a very good thing.

Explosions are fun, too.

This level really is a great one all around and I don't have a negative word to say about it. From the enemies to the challenges to the music to the aesthetics, everything works. Everything combines to create one of the most entertaining levels of the series, and it's no wonder that it's such a big fan favorite... but it isn't my favorite.

But wait! Of course there's more Fireworks Factory, Fireworks Factory is *bleep*ing amazing. It was really hard to pick just one.

▼Hidden text

And just like that, there are no more YotD levels in this ranking! Which of the following levels do you think will win?

Flapjacks · Jun 12, 2014 8:43 PM

hahah you all got owned

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 12, 2014 8:48 PM

I don't update it for two months and you get in here that quickly? Dayum.

Flapjacks · Jun 12, 2014 8:50 PM

can't smack the flapjack

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 13, 2014 9:24 AM

It's true, you can't.

Alright, time to make some people happy.

2. Fracture Hills

So, apparently, people don't like Fracture Hills! They really don't like it, it seems. But I'll absolutely defend its placement in this ranking as being on par with such popular levels as Fireworks Factory and Icy Peak. I'm actually.. really surprised that it seems to be one of the outright least popular levels, because it is definitely one of my favorites in the series, and it always, always has been, ever since I was a little kid. Very similarly to Dark Hollow, another top-tier level on my list, Fracture Hills has a very pleasing, summery feel to it. The music (although it does also appear in Idol Springs, I associate it more with this level) just feels like something I'd hear on a warm, summer night. The clear, blue sky with a shining moon lighting up the level, the incredibly green grass, and the fireflies all make this level look like it's taking place on a summer night, and just as I thought it made Dark Hollow a great level, I think it makes Fracture Hills a great one, too.

But even while containing all of this nice, warm, summer stuff... the level also has a completely different, red, cratery section full of lava. Even though those are almost polar opposites, they manage to fit together very well. It's somewhat similar to how all the different elements in Fireworks Factory play off one another to make a great level, though in Fireworks Factory it's more that they all combine into one specific atmosphere; here, on the other hand, the level has two totally different atmospheres without feeling chaotic, and the fact that it contains such different landscapes while somehow feeling very fluid and natural makes Fracture Hills a very unique addition to the Spyro series. In addition, something I love that I didn't think about until the replay is that this level is very non-linear: it's just a sprawling landmass without a singular, clear path to take from start to finish. It's actually laid out very similarly to a homeworld, and I wonder whether any of its elements were originally supposed to be in a homeworld; I can imagine portals being located inside the temples, on one hill in a divet in the wall where there's a satyr, in the lava, etc., and maybe the passage to the boss and next world would be where Hunter or the alchemist are. Maybe it's a coincidence, but it definitely feels, to me, like a homeworld, because it's set up in a fairly unique way. (If anyone from Insomniac Games, by some astronomically small chance, ever comes across this... weigh in! Were any parts of this ever going to be in a homeworld?) It's not that I have any inherent problem with linear levels... but most levels in most video games are linear, so one that isn't is definitely appreciated, and I don't think any level accomplishes the non-linear setup quite as much as Fracture Hills does.

The Hills also have one of the best collections of enemies in the series: The Earthshapers are very memorable and, since they're invincible themselves, they have to be fought in a unique way. They're freakishly big and freakishly strong, and quicker than you'd think for beasts of that size; never underestimate how quickly an Earthshaper can draw its little pointed hammer on you. The green bushes that are identical to the totally harmless scenery are usually pretty startling, and it's almost impossible to get away from the beehive trees without taking a hit (and they scare me a bit, too, since I'm horribly scared of bees in general.) All the enemies here are quite memorable and quite unlike those found anywhere else in the series, and it might be the most challenging set of enemies in any Spyro level.

From what I can tell, the challenge of this level is what makes it so reviled. I bring this up because now, we go on to the orb challenges, and you all know who I'm thinking of... the mind-numbingly stupid Alchemist. He was someone whom I despised as a kid because his orb is just so *bleep* tough to get at first. In my notes for this level during the replay, I wrote, "The alchemist is difficult (maybe notoriously so?)"... and now I can pretty clearly see that, yes, his difficulty is definitely a notorious thing. But I've had these games for my entire conscious life, over a decade and a half by now, and I've sat down to play them more times than I think I could even count. So is the Alchemist hard? Sure. But I'll tell you what... anything that still manages to challenge me after this much time is something that I just have to respect, and hell, something that I enjoy, if only because it breaks what is otherwise a bit of a routine of going through levels that I can basically beat with my eyes shut. Of course, I don't necessarily mind that routine; if I were just playing these games for the challenge, then I'd have stopped long ago, but as this ranking illustrates, I still love them despite the general lack of difficulty, simply because I love the worlds themselves. But still, adding a level of challenge does add some fun... so the fact that the Alchemist has such a hard time navigating the Earthshapers and chooses to walk through the most convoluted path imaginable is, to me, a definite strength, not a weakness.

There are two more orb challenges besides the Alchemist: Killing the Earthshapers with Hunter, and supercharging around the track. Killing the Earthshapers before they get up is also one of the parts of the game that I have some trouble with even now, but it's also pretty *bleep* satisfying to just watch them die. And there's nothing like when you finally beat the Alchemist for the very first time... then find out that you have to *bleep*ing come back later after you've learned how to do something called "headbashing." Which really just makes the revenge on them even sweeter. As for the supercharge, it doesn't carry nearly the challenge of the first two... but it's just *bleep*ing fun. I mean, I just love supercharge, and I don't know how many other ways I can say that at this point, so for me, supercharging in laps over and over again, even past the point of getting the skill point, is just really entertaining. (Smashing the treasure chest isn't a part of the orb challenge itself, but it definitely is challenging, so I have to give a nod to it as well.)

And on top of all of that, you have a lovely bagpipe melody and adorable pigs that dance around! I mean, what more can you want? With all of these things that to me seem so fantastic, I am really just amazed at how much hatred people have for this level. Honestly, if there is any other level that could have been #1 in this ranking... it would be this one. For a while, I was seriously considering it as #1, which I can't say for the other levels that received the same placement. It's an incredibly challenging level, with its enemies who are either plants that blend into the scenery and startle you, plants that are nearly impossible to get away from, or near-indestructible juggernauts that seem to be carved out of the mountains, and with its challenges that involve a wandering old man and well-timed smashing of said juggernauts. But those challenges, and mindless supercharging, are very fun. The level also combines a nice, sunny, summery area with a burning crater of lava, all over a sprawling layout with a fair amount of freedom in how you navigate it. And, again, it has dancing pigs. This level is just so *bleep* great to me on every level. It actually came closer to taking the #1 spot than any other level in this ranking, besides the one that did. Fracture Hills kicks *bleep* and nearly won this ranking, and it'll always be a favorite of mine. <3

But wait! There's more Fracture Hills!

▼Hidden text

And just like that... there are no more Game 2 levels in the running, either! I've made it abundantly clear throughout this ranking that Game 1 is my favorite and has my favorite levels... so I figured it only makes sense to let it come down to three Game 1 levels at this ranking's conclusion. And those three Game 1 levels are:

Stay tuned and watch as ONE of them takes home the coveted title of my all-time favorite Spyro The Dragon level! Place ya bets, place ya bets! Hot action, big numbers!

Last edited by KeepYourHornsOn (Jun 14, 2014 8:25 PM)

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 13, 2014 5:39 PM

you definitely made a lot of good points here, Fracture Hills never was a really bad level, just... i hate the alchemist challenge so, so much. tongue

and you have a point with its layout. ...... what if Fracture Hills was going to be the spring homeworld?

Flapjacks · Jun 13, 2014 7:53 PM

I actually do like Fracture Hills, just not as much as some of the other levels. I do agree that it is a pretty hard level, and killing all of the earthshapers was definitely pretty challenging for me.

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 13, 2014 11:01 PM

2. Tree Tops

Oh maan, Tree Tops. Tree Tops is the level. It's that one level that everybody remembers. I wouldn't call it the definitive Spyro the Dragon level, and while things like Fireworks Factory exist, I wouldn't call it the most iconic... but I would absolutely, without a doubt, in a heartbeat call it the most memorable level in the entire series. No question. Everybody remembers this level, and everybody remembers it for one reason: Because it was *bleep*ing impossible. If you claim you didn't have any semblance of a hard time with this level, you're lying. It's almost unanimously considered the hardest level in the series, and it's really no wonder as to why.

The level's difficulty comes from its design: Elegant in its frustrating simplicity, Tree Tops consists of a series of strategically placed islands (with some tunnels inside) and supercharge ramps, and that's it. That's all there is to this level. And it's up to you as the player to look around at the ramps, construct a mental path, and figure out how to get wherever it is you want to go -- typically, to the island in the distance where Jed, the de facto hardest dragon to reach in the first game, is frozen and where the green thief teased so many children. The gamemakers designed this level brilliantly: they put in exactly as much as you need to complete the level, and nothing more. It's just a ton of small little trees, and absolutely none of them are connected; you have to navigate your way around the level yourself via a bunch of incredibly well-timed glides, Supercharges, or double-Supercharges. As I've mentioned countless times, what I really love and appreciate in these games is when the challenge feels like it develops organically -- when it's not a question of mastering a specific control scheme but rather of solving a puzzle built into the design of the level itself. Tree Tops is the most (in)famous example of this in the entire series, so it's only natural that it's one of my favorite levels.

Reaching Jed is just such an iconic challenge in the Spyro trilogy, and he sent countless little Spyros falling to their doom when I was a kid. I've figured out how to get him now, of course, but as a kid, he taunted me.. he just sat there in a far-off island, with a fence making it so I could see him but not actually glide to him, and no matter what I tried, he seemed impossible to reach. And it never got any less tantalizing. I have mentioned previously, in the write-ups for Dry Canyon and Haunted Towers, that there were four levels I never, ever managed to beat when I was first playing these games. Tree Tops, quite obviously, is one of the other two, and I don't think there's anybody who didn't share that experience. To finally reach him, you have to go through a convoluted path where you go down two ramps, but up two others, all across four different islands, and then glide off in the distance to him while going at breakneck speed... obviously. It's such a hard process and while the entire level is full of challenges, Jed specifically is such an iconic part of this series.

I believe I mentioned this offhand back in the write-up for High Caves: This level's musical track is a sped-up remix of the High Caves theme, which I think was a brilliant choice. High Caves was the first level where you really had to use Supercharge, while Tree Tops is the one that most clearly tests what you have learned. I've given a lot of props to Supercharge-oriented levels throughout this ranking, and Tree Tops is the definitive one, and the last one in this ranking that really contains Supercharge as a significant feature. Outside of its great symbolism, the music of this level sucks you in right from the start into an intense whirlwind of speeding and jumping, and it never lets up for a *bleep*ing second.

But beyond the top-tier gameplay, the atmosphere of it is actually really, really well done, too: looking down and seeing how far down the huge trees extend, and imagining how much further it would be to the ground, is breathtaking. You're set up as if you're incredibly high up in the air, and it really, really feels like it, as all of the structures in the level extend down far past what you can actually see. This level's backdrop is possibly the best of the entire game as well. It's filled with other tree designs, and with how far apart the ones in the actual level are spread, it really does feel like those are actual, solid trees sitting there miles off in the distance. And of course it's topped off with a brilliant, shining, full moon to add to the atmosphere of the level and make it all more dark. So when I'm playing this level, I really do get immersed in it, not despite the minimal nature of its scenery but rather because of it; it feels like Spyro really is high atop any other level in the game at the peak of the Beast Makers jungle canopy, with the number of trees that actually reach that high few and far between.

A big part of why I love Tree Tops is how iconic its difficulty level is, and another big part is just how much *bleep*ing fun I have nowadays wasting lives by supercharging around in random paths to my doom over and over and over. (I really love supercharging.) But the biggest reason why I consider this a top-tier level is that it's just amazing to me when the creators of this game put together a level whose design both works as a landscape and provides a challenge, and no other level combines these two things quite as well as Tree Tops does. The scarcity of the structures in this level makes it really feel like you're in the treetops and is simultaneously at the core of its gameplay, which revolves around figuring out for yourself where you have to go and how you have to get there. This level is designed perfectly, both practically and aesthetically, and it's such a unique concept for a level that they -- smartly -- never even tried to recreate. Tree Tops is a brilliant, one of a kind concept in this series, and it is executed perfectly, so for that, I think it is easily one of the best levels in the entire series.

But wait! There's more Tree Tops!

▼Hidden text

So, it has come down to this...

DARK PASSAGE vs LOFTY CASTLE. It comes down to a Dream Weavers showdown... *plays the Dream Weavers Homeworld theme on my iTunes*

Dream Weavers has *bleep*ing dominated this ranking so far: It took 27 other eliminations before the boss Jacques was eliminated at #47, making Dream Weavers the last level to take a single hit, and after that, no Dream Weavers levels were eliminated until the top twelve. An entire freaking third of the top-tier levels (per the color-coded list on the first page) are Dream Weavers levels, and all three of its main levels ranked in the absolute top section. In this ranker's opinion, Dream Weavers is by far the best world in the Spyro the Dragon series. It is the fantastic pinnacle of everything that these games have to offer... the only question now is which one takes home the title of my favorite Spyro level of all time. Place ya bets!

Last edited by KeepYourHornsOn (Jun 14, 2014 8:25 PM)

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 14, 2014 6:47 AM

▼Hidden text

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 15, 2014 6:01 AM

2. Lofty Castle

Now, like I've said about a hundred times before and like the results of this ranking have made clear, Dream Weavers is my favorite world in this series by far. Because it was the last full world of the game, they went completely over-the-top to make it an extravagant, whimsical, fantatsical adventure, and I love every second of it. I love the point in the first game where it just stops giving a *bleep* and we get the most shamelessly unrealistic, borderline gaudy world imaginable. I would love to play a whole entire game of Dream Weavers-style levels... and Lofty Castle is, without a doubt, the prototypical, definitive Dream Weavers level.

It's a beautiful, surreal level: The backdrop is fantastic, with two moons, an orange and purple sky, a dark abyss below Spyro; most of the level consists of floating, mystical islands with glowing pools and waterfalls; there are also the giant, towering castles of orange and purple and pink, whose intricate architecture feels just as magical as the rest of the world; and the characters are all bizarre, surreal things: fairies who create rainbow whirlwinds to aid you, cupids with arrows, Gnorcs floating up and down on bespectacled balloons, and very strange, levitating birds. Everything is tied together through its dreamlike nature in this level -- nothing feels out of place -- and it's all gorgeous. When you fly down into Lofty Castle and see all of these things, the sky-high towers and the multiple moons and the fairies, it's almost impossible to believe that you're actually playing the same game that has the simple levels of Artisans, the dry levels of Peace Keepers, and the dark worlds of Beast Makers. Just as the Dream Weavers Homeworld first shows you the mystical nature of the world, Lofty Castle epitomizes it.

And the music... ohh, God, the music. I can't do a Lofty Castle write-up without praising this track. Throughout this ranking, I have placed a lot of focus on the soundtrack of the game. The reason why I care so much about it, as far as my judgment of a level is concerned and beyond simply how much I enjoy listening to the songs, is that (other than the few that repeat) each track was specifically composed for a specific, individual level; therefore, the musical score of any given level is how the game's creators want us to feel about the level. It's the mood they want to set; it's what they want us to think about every time we see it; it is, in essence, the auditory conveyance of everything that the level is. Just about every track in these games perfectly encapsulates the entirety of what the level is meant to be... and the track that Lofty Castle got is far and away my favorite track in the entire series.

Some time ago -- after I'd already started this ranking, after I already knew that Lofty Castle would do well, and obviously years after I'd already fallen in love with this level and its music -- someone shared with me an obscure Stewart Copeland interview, in which he talks about creating the game's soundtrack and actually creates most of the Wild Flight theme during the interview itself. (Sidenote: the Wild Flight theme <3) Towards the end of the video, he says that at the center of all art is the process of creating tension, building it up... and then eventually releasing and resolving it. He says that it happens in a less clearly discernible, more esoteric and subtle way in the case of music.. and I always found it so perfect that he commented on tension and its resolution, and so entertaining that he thought it was more esoteric and subtle, because that idea of building and releasing tension is exactly, almost word for word, what I had always thought about when listening to this track. You can hear it all over the place in this game's soundtrack, but I've always noticed it more here than anywhere else, and it's always been what I've loved most about this particular score.

It starts off as a light piano track, but with some lower-pitched notes in the background, creating this undercurrent of tension... and then, at around the 50-second mark, the tension is broken: there's a huge, striking orchestral hit, and from then on, with hit after hit after hit, the track is so much louder and bigger than it was before. It is the best and clearest example of what Copeland was talking about in that interview, and it's something I've always adored: the creation of tension, and its subsequent resolution. It's beautiful. And as I said, from that point forward, the music is so much larger and more grand than it was before... and because any score in this series is its respective level translated into the form of music, having such a fantastic, larger-than-life musical track makes Lofty Castle feel so much more fantastic and larger-than-life than it already is. With Lofty Castle's sprawling mass of islands, giant glides, and skyscraping castles, such a gigantic piece of music is is a beyond perfect fit for the level, and it pushes Lofty Castle forward from being a great level to being one of the absolute masterpieces of the entire series. (That track, of course, is also very great to listen to on its own: with 138 plays, it ranks as my 18th most played song of all time on last.fm, and it is just eight plays shy of being my most-played Spyro track. [Buzz's Dungeon, which is also great but for a completely different set of reasons, has 146 plays; I enjoy Lofty Castle's track much more than any other, but Buzz's Dungeon is something that I put on repeat for quite a while, which bolsters it play count significantly.])

So, the biggest strengths of this level, as I see it, are how fantastical it is and how larger-than-life it is... and the layout of this level contributes to both of those. How it makes the level more dreamlike is pretty obvious: It's comprised of tons of disconnected little circles and strips of land in the sky that don't connect at all and that you have to navigate by jumping, gliding, or using whirlwinds (whirlwinds that themselves add to the fantasy nature of this level, as they're made of rainbow sparkles and constructed by fairies.) The Dream Weavers Homeworld is set up similarly, and I think it works so well for a true Dream Weavers level to have everything so disconnected and far apart, just as dreams are often disjointed and illogical. There's very much overlap and not a totally clear sense of where to go -- the level is an organized mess, and it took me years to figure out how you're actually "supposed" to go through it -- so even the gameplay and physical construct of this level makes it feel more dreamlike. But additionally, in the case of the grand and towering Lofty Castle, having all these different islands makes the level feel so much larger than it is; I described it earlier as a sprawling mass of islands, and that's the best description I think I can use. I don't know what the most massive level is in the first Spyro the Dragon game, but it certainly feels like this one is the largest, if only due to how spread out it is. This level is so decentralized among all the different islands that it is, or at least feels, incredibly massive.

I think I've done a pretty sufficient job of explaining why this level placed so high in this ranking, but there are a few other miscellaneous features of it that I want to bring up:

- You know those funky little crates introduced in Town Square that you flame or bash with your head, and then a gem shoots up into the air briefly? (I love those. I miss those. They should have been put into future games. Maybe they're just a relatively recent development, so they didn't exist in the forgotten lands of a thousand years ago, and they're unique to the main Dragon Kingdoms, so they aren't in Avalar?) Well, Lofty Castle is the only one of those that features a red gem. (When I was a kid, we'd call them 1-pointers, 2-pointers, 5-pointers, and so on. <3) So, that's neat. I mean, it's not like it's the reason why Lofty Castle ranked #2.. but hey, it's still something worth mentioning.

- There's this one specific area in Lofty Castle that I absolutely love. It's inside of a castle. There's this zigzagging bridge that goes uphill around the perimeter of the circular room, cuts across the diameter, and then goes back around another quarter of the perimeter before you exit out an opening that's perfectly aligned with where you enters. Geometrically, it's very pleasing, first of all. But also, there's a Cupid (or two?) sitting at the end of it; you can't reach the Cupid to flame him, but he can shoot his arrows at you, and if you're hit with even one of them, it knocks you off the bridge. It's definitely one of the more challenging areas to traverse. And if you are knocked off the bridge, you fall off the bridge, and you hit one of the walls of the room, which gradually curve inward into a small opening down into the spacelike abyss below... it's really unique (as opposed to if there were just a whole empty space there) and very aesthetically pleasing. If you haven't ever died in that area or don't know what I'm talking about, then go back to Lofty Castle and intentionally fall off the edge of the bridge in that area. I've always loved the way Spyro slides down there, ever since I was a kid.

- The Supercharge ramp. I've mentioned that there were four levels I could never, ever beat as a kid: Tree Tops and Haunted Towers were the obvious first two. Dry Canyon was the moderately tricky third one. And then the fourth, kind of random one was Lofty Castle; you know how there's that supercharge ramp, and you go off of it onto the circular ramp, and then you fly off of that onto the blue platform? Well this, actually, was the very last thing that I ever managed to complete in Spyro The Dragon. On my very first save file where I ever reached Gnasty's Loot after years of trying, the very last thing I ever did in the game was grab those gems at Lofty Castle. So there is some sentimental appeal there. Even though the second, circular ramp goes directly outward towards the blue platform... I still never figured it out. I just went back and replayed this level, and you can actually reach the treasure without even using the circular ramp... so honestly, I have no idea what mistake I was making here as a kid, but for some reason, I never beat that part.

Overall, this is... an incredible level. Really, an incredible one. In fact, it's so good that after writing all of this up, I went back and replayed both it and Dark Passage, because I was seriously considering going against the conclusion I've had in my head since this ranking began just to put Lofty Castle at #1. And I went back and forth a fair amount between the two after typing all of this. I absolutely love it, and it's not an easy choice to rank it #2. Lofty Castle, like the rest of the levels in this tier, has no weaknesses. It's a fun, unique, phenomenal, grand, spectacle of a fantasy level. It's perfect for what it is and I absolutely adore it. But Dark Passage just feels a little bit better to me.

But wait! There's more Lofty Castle!

▼Hidden text

And with that, we have our winner... Dark Passage.

I'll try to get the write-up posted tomorrow!

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 15, 2014 5:07 PM

i was wrong. D:

Lofty Castle is a cool level! so is Dark Passage. though i'm curious to see why you put it at #1. it's a cool level though, for sure.

Last edited by 36IStillLikeSpyro36 (Jun 15, 2014 5:09 PM)

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