Ever since he was introduced to the gaming world in 1998, Spyro the small purple dragon captured fans’ hearts. His headstrong attitude, sarcastic wit, and loyal sidekick in the form of the dragonfly Sparx made for a nearly successful stream of games. Some games did let fans down but when the games were Spyro and spanned across a variety of platforms they were still inevitably bought by many.
Over the last 20 years, Spyro has made numerous new allies and faced a variety of new foes. He has even gone on to inspire other games such as Balan Wonderworld. The games themselves always have a comedic and lighthearted feel to them, therefore in 20 years fans of the game have made a number of rib-tickling memes.
10 Skylanders Spyro, The Horror…
Skylanders is a spin-off game series of the Spyro franchise and a lot of excitement surrounded it. However, many fans were horrified when the re-design of Spyro was released prior to the game launch and it’s not hard to understand why. Classic Spyro had a lot of charm and charisma surrounding him. Fans feel like that was lost in the re-design. The concept was fair, the developers tried to take a classic look and update it. However, it is debatable whether it was successful or not.
If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it came to mind for many players. The interesting gameplay style of Skylanders and the novelty of using figurines to switch characters out in-game were not enough to make up for the design for some fans.
9 One Spicy Boi
To the joy of fans, the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy was released in 2018 and had re-mastered the original three games. Thankfully, the charms of the original games were sustained through the remastering process and that includes the appeal of the villains too. Ripto; Crush and Gulp were three of Spryo’s memorable villains. Ripto, though tiny in stature, had grand plans for domination however Spryo put a stop to him.
It’s no secret that Spyro is one of the smallest and youngest dragons in their world (as seen in the first Spyro game). This meant that when two massive dinosaurs in the form of the dim-witted Crush and Gulp came onto the scene, players let out an audible gulp. With the size odds against him, Spyro still comes out on top and thwarts them repeatedly.
8 An Egg-cellent Chase
The Blue Thief has been the source of irritation for many players in the past 2 decades. The iconic chase lends itself to this meme by shadowmoonuk. Appearing in the first game, the egg thief consistently zooms about levels in hopes of evading the pointy horns of Spyro. If they were easy to catch then they would not have the reputation of being a really frustrating part of the game. To make matters worse, the thief taunts the player with a high-pitched “Na na na na na naa” which would test even the most patient of people.
Although players find it satisfying when they finally catch up to the blue menace, the countless charges over cliffs to their death or into walls are never forgotten. Players definitely a love-hate relationship with the character.
7 Spyro Ruins Ripto’s Life
Ripto is an enemy of Spyro’s that consistently pops up throughout the many games and each time he does he has put a lot of thought into his devious plots. It’s hard to not feel bad for him sometimes when Spyro glides in and causes his plans to go up in flames, quite literally.
As players of the games already know, and the creator of this meme nervous_spyro, the small purple dragon has a cocky and sassy attitude about him. Whenever he is confronted with enemies, especially Ripto, he seems to enjoy using his sassy remarks to wind him up even further. It is easy to tell that Spyro finds a lot of joy out of taunting his enemies because he knows he has the ability to ruin any plans they have.
6 It’s Profitable Being Helpful
Moneybags is a character that appears throughout the franchises, often helping Spyro. Of course, he does not help the dragon out of the good-will of his heart but he does it for profit. In some of the games, the player collects gems in each world they visit and eventually they stack up. The gems are very valuable when needing to get information or help from Moneybags.
Even though the bear lives and operates in the world that Spyro helps to save, he seems indifferent to helping the hero until it benefits him. With a name like Moneybags, it is hard to believe that he is lacking funds (as he so often claims) and needs the fee he charges.
5 Never Satisfied
It’s not hard to tell with its popularity spanning over 20 years that fans can never get enough Spyro content. The classic premises of the platform games scratch an itch for many players and they cannot get enough. Shortly after the release of the 2018 Reignited Trilogy, rumors went around that there may be downloadable content available for it and it sent gamers into a frenzy.
Unfortunately, it seems like that content was only a rumor as nothing has come of it. However, many fans of the franchise are still holding out hope for it to be released at some point. Some fans even believe that a new Spyro game is long overdue and, with level design that still stands out as revolutionary, who is to say they’re wrong?
4 Loyalty To The Original
As seen in the meme made by spyro_and_cynder_fan_forever the feud between fans of the original design and those who see no problem with the re-design seems to be neverending. A game character as iconic as Spyro is arguably one that should not be meddled with and updating it can seem like sacrilege.
Then again, the re-design did work as Skylanders is a spin-off and had different ideas surrounding it therefore using the original Spyro may not have worked. There are definitely arguments for both sides but for some fans, the Skylanders design of their favorite purple dragon will always be unforgivable.
3 Spyro Forgot How To Dragon
The Legend Of Spyro: A New Beginning was the first in a set of new games that surrounded the purple dragon in 2006. The games created a new world and new storylines for Spyro which had a more mature feel to them. Even though they were clearly separate from the other games, fans were still a bit irritated that Spyro seemingly did not know how to be a dragon, as seen in the meme by spyro_and_cynder_fan_forever.
In the game, Spyro gets taught how to fly and use his flame breath by an elder dragon called Ignitus. It was a clever touch as having Spyro seemingly not know who he was or how to use his given abilities as a dragon really separated the game from previous ones.
2 Spyro Returns
After having the original release date pushed back, the Reignited Trilogy finally became available to gamers in 2018. Finally settling down the fans that were upset with the Skylanders game, the Trilogy was and still is a huge success. When it is the original trio of games that spark nostalgia for many fans, it made sense when it became a massive success.
Since it was announced that a remake was in the works, fans across the board all shared a nervous excitement. The main concern was that the remastering would cause the games to lose their charm and nostalgia value. Fortunately, this was one series that was done right, with the developers eventually correcting things like subtitle issues.
1 Run Thief Run
Blue egg thieves and any thieves in the Spyro universe are rage-inducing. It takes a very brave soul to taunt a dragon as much as they do. Nevertheless, the thieves always taunt Spyro and the player with their trademark “na na na na na”.
The entertainment comes from the stunned reaction that some thieves give, as pointed out by Redditor YTZerrri, when the player finally catches up to them and rams them with Spyro’s charge ability. Flaming them is also an option but that typically takes a very skilled and patient gamer. A thief that can run fast vs a dragon that has horns and can breathe fire has an inevitable outcome.
NEXT: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time Artbook Hints At Spyro 4
