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

Stormy · Jun 15, 2014 5:21 PM

I'm a little late, but I appreciate your defense of Fracture Hills. big_smile I think I actually used to be one of the people who hated it, and it must've been because of the alchemist challenge, because it actually is a good level. Oh, and that one gem chest that you have to supercharge was kind of a pain, too.

I always found Haunted Towers harder than Tree Tops. At least there are the thieves you can follow in Tree Tops. Haunted Towers is easy when you figure it out, but it took me forever because there was no guide whatsoever.

Lofty Castle is awesome. I think I've been under-appreciating both the music and the level itself.

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 16, 2014 8:09 AM

I am going on vacation in an hour and a half to somewhere with no Internet access. I did not have the opportunity to do the Dark Passage write-up today.

I might be able to get online for a few hours on one day, maybe. If that's the case and if I have enough down time before that during which I feel like doing the Dark Passage write-up, I will definitely post it. But if I can't, well, I won't. I'd like to, though, so we'll just see what happens~

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 16, 2014 5:49 PM

no worries. take your time.

Sear/Burst · Jun 16, 2014 11:40 PM

I have games 2 and 3. Out of Ripto's Rage, the first world that come's to mind when I think about levels I do not want to play is Fracture Hills. But then I remember that it was because those tree-bush-monster-creature-things freaked me out as a kid. I played that level again... Last month, I think. It wasn't freaky anymore. But I do still think that those bushes are unsettling, this time when the bushes are just normal bushes, I think because they don't look anything like bushes. Are they supposed to be bushes, now that I think about it? But any way I look at it, Fracture Hills still has downsides. Like the enemies (rock monsters must be charged into lava, bee-trees are annoying, the bushes), the painful voice acting of the female fauns, ect.

One of my favorite worlds [EDIT: Out of Spyro Year of the Dragon] is Fireworks Factory. I haven't played that world for a long time. I'll need to get back to Spyro 3 sometime. But I just LOVE the music! Oh my god, love it to death! And the ninja rhynocs. Oh man, that world made me feel like a ninja warrior! But the children's voices ruin some of it... sad But who care's when the atmosphere make's you feel like you can take on a ninja rhynoc army of a million, in a castle of ninja (although the castle isn't actually that great), super-annihilate-everything-epic-ninja-unstoppable style!! >:D I can't see how anyone can dislike that level. *Sigh* I just grin whenever I think of the level. *Grin*

Last edited by Sear/Burst (Jun 16, 2014 11:41 PM)

Paranoia · Jun 17, 2014 4:05 AM

You should consider getting the original Spyro the Dragon if you can find it. The music's all great, and I think the atmosphere of the levels is even better than the later games.

It was an interesting to see your defense of Fracture Hills though, KYHO. Still not the level for me, but I can see where you're coming from. I agree with Dark Passage being high up on the list. If I had the time, it would be fun to try to rank all the levels myself. Maybe from Spyro 1.

RadSpyro · Jun 21, 2014 11:30 PM

I'm late, but I'm actually really glad I'm not the only one who loves Fracture Hills! There was always something about that level that I always found interesting. It's one of my favorite levels in the game.

KeepYourHornsOn · Jun 24, 2014 3:20 AM

Sear/Burst wrote:

I can't see how anyone can dislike that level. *Sigh*

I'm fairly certain no one does!

Alright, let's finish this at long last...

1. Dark Passage

The enemies here can be quite frightening...

Perhaps predictably, a Dream Weavers level takes the #1 spot on this ranking. But while the other Dream Weavers levels are bright and cheerful in their fantasies, Dark Passage is the nightmare side of the world. And honestly, Dark Passage has always just felt like my favorite level in my gut.

The music is obviously the first thing I have to mention. From what I gather, it's considered one of the best and most memorable tracks in the series even among those who don't obsessively listen to these songs thousands of times like I do, and it's no wonder why; it's one of the most unique scores there is. A lot of the ones in the first game have the same kinds of instruments in them, which I actually love because it makes the soundtrack feel like one album and because there is obviously diversity even within that... but Dark Passage is the one track from that first game that really sounds entirely different from the rest, which makes it a really strong one. It's one of the most immediately engaging ones -- from the very beginning, it's a series of loud, clashing tones, before a short keyboard section, and then a fast-paced breakdown. The entire thing contributes to the nightmare theme of the level: The loud tones are instantly scary, the keyboard bit sounds incredibly eerie and is my favorite part of the track, and then the faster part is intense as you run through the level. Other than Lofty Castle, this one is my absolute favorite music track in the series; I love so much how well it fits in with the level and how somehow all the totally different parts of it manage to contribute in their own way to the creepiest level in the series.

That, ultimately, is illustrative of why I love Dark Passage so much: In this level, literally every single aspect combines to fit the nightmare theme. Beyond the entirety of the music, the next thing that makes this level so nightmarish is the enemies. Gods, the enemies. When you first enter, they seem nice and playful: Aww, a cute little puppy -- sure, the cross eye is weird, but it's still cute and it's yipping adorably! Aww, a little turtle! But then, the lights go out... and when the lights go out in Dark Passage, things get a hell of a lot more frightening. The puppy out of nowhere turns into a giant *bleep*ing demon that eats you, with weird-*bleep*, spiraly teeth.

how. how is that also a dog.

And the cute baby turtles (much cuter than those punks at Sunny Beach trying to jump into the cauldron), more sensibly, change into giant, evil turtles. Because that's less shocking, you'd think it's less scary, and it initially is... but as you play through the level more, they're actually scarier, because the demon dogs -- though fantastic and horrifying -- are ultimately your typical large enemy who can be defeated with a quick flame (thx Darius.) But the giant turtles are invincible. There is absolutely no way to damage them. You have to wait until the lights go out... but then you get to that one room where it becomes apparent that the lights never go on, and you have to enter the fray and charge through the turtles. Yeesh. That scared me quite a bit as a kid. In fact, the whole thing scared me so much that along with Aquaria Towers, it was one of the only two levels that I flat-out would not enter as a kid because I was too frightened; I wondered why they put something so scary in to begin with. And those giant turtles' creepy red eyes and giant fangs don't help matters, either; yeah, it's not as jarring as a dog that turns into a giant red demon... but that doesn't mean it isn't pretty *bleep*ing scary.

Along with the enemies being nightmarish, they provide for some of the most unique gameplay in the series; having to wait for the lights to go on and off, or having to flame the jesters for yourself, is something really unique that isn't found in any other level in the game in any capacity. And they're very consistent through the whole level; the enemies that don't transform at all are only those found in places with lights nearby. It's just one more thing that sets this dream apart from the other ones in the world and from the rest of the series.

There are basically four components to any level: the music, the gameplay, the enemies, and the physical construct of it, and the latter contributes to the nightmare of Dark Passage as much as anything else does. Without fail, the aesthetics of this level (which consists of narrow passageways that go back and forth between two towering islands, floating bizarrely in a dark abyss) all feel as nightmarish as anything else: the islands themselves, when viewed from the outside, are just weird dark mountainous islands floating in the air; the backdrop is dark and foreboding; the architecture is all slanted, disjointed, and pointed, like something out of a Tim Burton movie. This level does a great job of sounding, feeling, and looking the same way, and for that, it's one of my favorites.

But what really sets it over the edge in addition to that is how long it is. The only level in the first game with 500 gems and 5 dragons, it's almost certainly the longest from that game, and I think it's probably the longest in general if you discount the sidequests in later levels that obviously take up more time. The thing is, from start to finish, it actually feels quite short. When you reach the Return Home portal, you're still missing two dragons and quite a significant amount of gems... and what you have to do is glide into a secret, hidden tunnel, and then you go through the rest of the level, which is much harder than the first portion, is much longer than the first portion, and, I believe, contains no Fools lighting up the area. I once played through every level of the first game aiming to get through them without taking a single hit, and it's only when I did that that I realized just how freaking long and difficult this one is. There is a lot more gameplay here than meets the eye, and the enemies are fairly difficult in addition to being creepy. It's the extra length -- accessible via a tunnel that's relatively hidden, and I love hidden things in video games more than just about anything else -- that guarantees this level a #1 placement.

From the music to the enemies to the design, everything about Dark Passage goes together to create a very unique nightmare theme that I've always found incredibly engaging, and the gameplay is unique, extensive, difficult, and fun. While other levels may stand out more in some other levels -- Enchanted Towers is more fun, Summer Forest has a better environment -- Dark Passage is the level that I think most succeeds on some level in all areas, and it's for that that it's my favorite.

But wait! There's more Dark Passage!

▼Hidden text

Of course, although I did this in the form of a ranking, it was more than anything just to pay homage to the games I love. I mean, there were only like two levels (Idol Springs and Agent 9's Lab) out of almost seventy-five that I'd really say that I disliked, and even Idol Springs had people crying that it was a good level which deserved a better placement, so there truly is no bad level in this series. So don't get too concerned about the placements in this ranking, because just about all of these levels offer something. This is especially true in the top tier; Dark Passage ranks #1, but mostly because something had to. I had more to say about other levels like Lofty Castle, and I have a more emotional connection to others like Summer Forest, and there are some I'm more nostalgic towards, and so on. So really, even Dark Passage's #1 placement isn't totally definite in my mind; I'm sure that after I play through the series again, I'll probably have a new favorite or two or five, because the fact is that these levels are really *bleep*ing great.

Insomniac Games did an unbelievably amazing job on this series, creating a huge amount of environments that manage to be fun and thematically coherent while also totally distinct from one another -- and all within the constraints of the original PlayStation console. I have loved playing it for the past fifteen years of my life, and I'll love playing it in the future. I don't think I'll ever be able to put into words all I want to say about this series. From the bright fantasy world of Dream Weavers to the mucky swamps of Beast Makers to the icy mountains of Magic Crafters, from the volcanoes to the tundras to the cities to the palaces to the oceans to the deserts, from the basic tutorial levels to the most unbelievably tricky puzzles, so many parts of this trilogy offer so many different things.

Again, more than a ranking of "This is better than that is better than the other thing", this was really just a more organized way for me to pay homage to one of my favorite series of all time, and I hope people have enjoyed reading it and revisiting a game that has a hell of a lot of replay value for something so appropriate for all ages. ^_^ The levels are the reason why I enjoy this game at age nineteen as much as I did at age four, and I still love even those levels that ranked as low as in the 50s or 60s. That's just how high the quality of this trilogy is, and I'd like to thank Insomniac Games and Stewart Copeland for all of the incredible memories I have of this series, and all of the memories I'll have of it in the future. <3

36IStillLikeSpyro36 · Jun 24, 2014 6:29 AM

i did enjoy reading this. smile yeah, Spyro has definitely had an impact on all of us if most of this website is old enough to be in college and we're still talking about a video game series we started playing before finishing elementary school (before *starting* elementary school, in my case).

one thing in particular your series has done is remind me of how great the Spyro soundtracks are, talking about them so much in a lot of the posts. that's especially true in my case since i love when artists put variety in their music and Stewart sure did that enough.

Flapjacks · Jun 24, 2014 10:18 AM

I've never heard another soundtrack quite like that of the Spyro series. It's got such a unique style, and although it uses not too many music samples, particularly in the first game; the second and third had many more, it still manages to make every track different. There are very few tracks I really do not like. I mostly dislike any of the tracks that have vocals. They just don't fit, in my eyes. Or ears, given the context.

#151 Jun 15, 2014 5:21 PM

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

#152 Jun 16, 2014 8:09 AM

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#153 Jun 16, 2014 5:49 PM

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#154 Jun 16, 2014 11:40 PM

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#155 Jun 17, 2014 4:05 AM

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#156 Jun 21, 2014 11:30 PM

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#157 Jun 24, 2014 3:20 AM

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