Spyro's abilities as a dragon include fire breath, a head-on charging attack, and a mid-air glide which he can use to scale large distances, all of which must be used strategically to find items and defeat enemies.

Taking inspiration from the film Dragonheart, the game started out as a more mature title with a dark and realistic approach, but the direction was shifted to have a more whimsical and light-hearted tone to appeal to a wider market of consumers.

Spyro the Dragon was released by Sony Computer Entertainment as part of a general effort to reach out to a younger age demographic and compete with the more popular children's platform, the Nintendo 64.

Although sales were initially sluggish, it found larger success following the advent of the 1998 holiday season and went on to sell nearly five million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling PlayStation games.

[4] Each stage contains a number of crystallized dragons, whom Spyro must turn back to normal by locating and stepping on their statue bases.

[2] Spyro can also use his wings to glide in midair, letting him travel further distances in the air and access areas otherwise unreachable via a regular jump.

[7][8] The dragons' openly dismissive and derisive commentary concerning Gnasty enrages him, driving him to unleash a full-fledged attack on the kingdom.

Although Disruptor was a commercial failure, its positive critical reception was enough to impress Universal Interactive Studios and encourage the team to continue with their next endeavor.

[9] The idea of a game about a dragon was introduced by Insomniac artist Craig Stitt, who suggested the concept out of his own interest in the mythical creature.

The game's camera was particularly challenging; initially, it always followed directly behind Spyro, but the resulting high-speed movements were found to make several playtesters feel nauseous.

[13] Spyro was coded with efficiency in mind, as 3D rendering technology was new at the time and the game had to fit the limited specifications of the PlayStation.

[13] Spyro the Dragon made use of a 3D panoramic engine, developed by Alex Hastings, that could display far-away objects by utilizing varying levels of detail, a method of rendering which was new and unexplored at the time.

The developers believed that the engine would be fitting for the game, as it could allow for more expansive levels that could take advantage of the character's abilities, such as gliding.

[13][10] The game made extensive use of vertex shading to colour objects and provide light and shade- with the smooth skies entirely reliant on the technique to depict clouds and other distant details without the use of textures.

[20][21] According to Sony Computer Entertainment's American Marketing Vice President, Andrew House, at a press party in Las Vegas, the game, along with other upcoming 4th quarter PlayStation releases such as Crash Bandicoot: Warped, A Bug's Life, and Rugrats: Search for Reptar, was part of a general effort to appeal to a wider demographic of younger audiences and provide more games suited for younger players to compete with the Nintendo 64, which had a far larger library of children's titles at the time compared to the PlayStation's largely adult-centric demographic.

[23] On August 16, 1999, SCEA announced that the game would be included as a part of their "Greatest Hits" lineup of budgeted releases alongside other games such as Crash Bandicoot: Warped, Gran Turismo, Cool Boarders 3, and Twisted Metal III, and alongside the announcement of a price drop for the PlayStation console to compete with the highly anticipated launch of the Sega Dreamcast.

[25] A remake of the game, alongside its two sequels, was included as a part of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy compilation for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2018, followed by the Nintendo Switch and Microsoft Windows in September 2019.

[26] According to Spyro's developers, sales were initially slow at the game's launch but quickly began picking up following the holiday season.

[28] Spyro the Dragon received a "Gold" award from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD) by the end of August 1999,[29] for sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

"[39] Fielder praised the game's dynamic lighting system and character designs, and noted "a near-complete lack of pop-up" during gameplay.

[37] AllGame editor Scott Alan Marriott applauded the graphics, scenery, characters and control as some of the best on the PlayStation, if not the best at the time of the games release.

"[1][37] The camera system received varying reactions, with Boyer praising it as one of the best in any 3D platformer and Fielder declaring that it fixed the common issues present in most other 3D platform games,[1][37] while Harris criticized its lack of precision when following the player, stating that it "tends to float around on a loose tether", and highlighted the camera system as one of the game's only flaws.

[39] Fielder wrote that an overabundance of extra lives caused the game to feel "like it was aimed at a younger or broader audience," holding the final boss and the bonus level as the only exceptions.

[1] Despite praising Spyro, Sushi-X noted the game's "lack of diversity" in obstacles and objects leading to "repetitive play."

Boyer lamented that the common trope of collecting items, while still very fun in Spyro, was starting to become less interesting, while also criticizing the game's boss fights, calling them "small, easy and decidedly unBoss-like.

"[37] During the 2nd Annual Interactive Achievement Awards, Spyro the Dragon was named as a finalist by the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences for "Outstanding Achievement in Art/Graphics", "Console Action Game of the Year", and "Console Game of the Year"; the first two awards went to Banjo-Kazooie, while the latter was won by The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.