Spyro the Dragon

Spyro the Dragon is the main protagonist and titular character of the twice rebooted Spyro the Dragon series. He has also appeared in a few Crash Bandicoot games.

Background
As told in an interview with Sparx by the DNN (Dragon News Network), some details of Spyro's past are known. Sparx used to crawl around Spyro's egg when he was a larvae. There was peace in the Dragon Realms at this time.

However, unknown to the dragons, three thieves were running off with two eggs. One was a dragon egg while the other was a dragonfly egg. Suddenly, the dragons discovered the thieves who ran off and they dropped the eggs. The red dragon egg became hot, as if something was on fire inside. Spyro then hatched from the red egg and Sparx hatched from the yellow egg.

Relationship to Crash Games
The Spyro the Dragon series is considered the sister series to Crash Bandicoot and this relationship goes back many years. When the games first started being created, their developers (Naughty Dog and Insomniac) worked in close proximity to each other and employees often went to parties together and became close friends. This had an impact on their games. A demo for the first game in the Spyro series can be played in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped by inputting a special code. A demo for the second game in the Spyro series can be accessed in Crash Team Racing using the same method. Also, in late versions of Crash Bandicoot, a demo of Spyro: Year of the Dragon is playable by holding R1+R2 until the opening sequence shows and then pressing start.

Spyro has made a few in-game appearances in the Crash series as well. He was an unlockable character in the Gameboy Advance version of Crash Nitro Kart where he was unlocked after beating Velo for the first time. He also starred in the set of crossover games, Crash Bandicoot Purple: Ripto's Rampage and Spyro Orange: The Cortex Conspiracy, where he battles with Crash and his enemies. Most recently, he made a small cameo in a Crash Twinsanity cutscene, defending his gems from N. Tropy, N. Brio, and N. Gin. On top of this, Crash himself has made various cameos in Spyro games, including The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning & The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night, as well as being referenced in Spyro: Year of the Dragon.

Both series also have similar histories. They began in the latter half of the 90's and were considered Playstation's two unofficial mascots until they were abandoned by their original developers after three major games (although Naughty Dog also made a spin-off kart racer.) These companies then began making successful duo based PS2 games (Jak & Daxter and Ratchet & Clank) and eventually focusing on more realistic and adult games for the PS3 (Uncharted and Resistance). After switching developers, Crash and Spyro both became 3rd party characters and appeared on multiple consoles. Their first few games with new developers did reasonably well although the quality gradually dropped over the years. Their original three games are considered by most to be their best.

Trivia

 * Crash Bandicoot is the Naughty Dog counterpart of Insomniac Games' Spyro the Dragon.
 * Like Crash himself, Spyro also had a different character design in Japan.
 * Spyro was voiced Jess Harnell at one point. Ironically, Crash was voiced by the same voice actor at around the same time.
 * Spyro's name in Japanese is what inspired Ripto's name, as the characters look like they spell "Ripto".