I guess while I'm on the subject of Spyro 3: I regret saying this game was boring so often but I absolutely see why I felt that way. I still think the later parts of the game are boring.
Honestly, like Spyro 2 it peaks in its second homeworld. 3 kinda loses steam in the second half with more cheap minigames and less thoughtful platforming.
However I like it better than Spyro 2. The first half is kinda great (honestly, I think it's better than Spyro 2 in its entireity), a decent portion of the latter half is still good, there's more real platforming and flow in how everything is placed, gating the animal buddies isn't as dumb as how 2 gated headbash/swim/climb* and apart from the crappy cheap ones the minigames are more active and better than 2's- the whole thing is less inconsistent in quality than 2 as well. Also, you
know before you even enter his gates that Agent 9's gameplay will suck. :'D
tbh I don't get why 2 is the fan favorite anymore, 3 is pretty similar but a lot more complete, much longer and has way better level structure and even enemies, I'd say the only things I think 2 really does much better are the narrative (which is still good in 3, flawed as it is and even though it's much messier than its predecessors) and 100% reward. Aesthetically and musically they seem about equal. If you look at the levels and minigames 2 is way safer and kinda undercooked. It's a lot more casual/chill-out and way more focused on exploration than platforming, with minigames that stay simpler and easier and never build up much in even the final world. Maybe people prefer it partly for that very reason, but honestly, I feel 3 is far more balanced and better at what it's doing (narrative aside).
Also, Spyro 3 has a BEE level and that BEE level has this hilarious typo. Oops.
Then again, I think 1 is the best by far, so I guess nobody agrees with me lol. Kinda funny that 1 > 3 > 2 is my ranking of the Spyro games when I'd give Crash the exact opposite order.
*in 2 that just lead to lame arbitrary backtracking. consider how no minigames gated by climbing, at least in summer forest, actually use the ability- headbash however makes more sense, but isn't something that needed to be or benefits from getting gated off. i'm okay with swimming in theory because it's used to give you two simple level choices first before throwing more at you, but it sucks for me as I hate both levels you can pick and does hurt replayability, especially when Idol Springs has swimming bits and that encourages you to just pick Colossus. in 3 it makes a bit more sense to gradually introduce spyro's friends when their gameplay is entirely different, plus as they get introduced one by one and have their own personalities and parts in each homeworld's boss fight and get to fight back against their captor it's also more justified from a story POV.
I think they may have gated abilities in 2 so you weren't overwhelmed by too many new moves at once, but 3 was my first video game ever and the moveset never confused me as a kid. I know 3d platformers were kinda new at the time but I can't imagine it was that overwhelming. I just think the descision lead to more bad than good and hasn't aged well. It's especially bad because of how you have to repeat objectives in 2 so you buy climb and then you go back to summer forest and then you have to finish everything in turtle beach all over again, it doesn't take that long but is really annoying. It's not like how in Spyro 3 the levels add shortcuts to the end once you beat them (and conviniently enough the extra characters' segments tend to be placed there).
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