darkSpyro

For reference, they can be found listed here.

From favorite to least favorite, here are mine:

Original era
My favorite is by far the original, if only for the first trilogy of games on PS1. I have a lot of memories with these games and I still play them often to this day. I didn't like the GBA games as much, but I did enjoy Enter The Dragonfly, despite all of it's flaws. Not nearly as much as the first 3 games, though.

Legend era
This is the era that got my interested in Spyro again. None of the games after YOTD really made me go "wow!" like the first 3 did, until this reboot. This trilogy was amazing, got me reinterested in Spyro, and it ultimately the reason why I joined this site.

Skylanders era
I'm not gonna lie, part of me resents this series and sees it as just a cash grab, using Spyro's name to gain momentum and then dropping him once they got a fanbase. And that's probably exactly what it is, too. Despite that, it's a very fun game series that my brother and I enjoy playing. I'm almost twice his age, and he grew up playing FPSs and sports games, whereas I spent my childhood playing platformers and RPGs. For some reason, though, he's really taken a liking to Skylanders, so it's good that we have something in common. Although, while his collection keeps growing, I almost always only play as Spyro or Cynder.

Hero era
Oh man. I really didn't like this era. At all. Fusion was the most repetitive game I've ever played, A Hero's Tail felt very unrewarding, and lacked incentive to complete each level, and Shadow Legacy was Shadow Legacy. If you like these games, that's great, and I'm happy for you. But for me, I just cannot go back and play these games. I tried replaying AHT again this morning, and I got about 2 hours in and realized I wasn't having fun, and was only forcing myself through each level. I haven't played Fusion in a while but I might pick it up again just to remind myself why I haven't played it in so long, and Shadow Legacy... I'm never touching that again.

What do you guys think of each era of Spyro?

I should be biased towards Hero because it's what I got introduced to, but really, it's the collectathon gameplay and gameplay only. Classics I arrived too late for(and I respect and enjoy watching,but I don't get it... Am I making any sense?), Legends I only like two thirds of and they're all too short and not worth going back to... Skylanders is my "most favorite", I guess, though I don't really have that much against the rest except for AHT and DOTD. There's only one game on it I throughly despise(while the writing of Hero's Tail pisses me the hell off), so four out of five.

I'll be the unpopular opinion and say 'Hero era'. (though I haven't heard of that split from the originals till now...) It was my childhood, and I have happy memories of conquering Red for the first time

I haven't played the Originals enough to vote on that one. From what I've played of the original (Up to dream weavers on Spyro the Dragon) I've liked , but some parts do feel a little disjointed.

*Trying not to offend anybody* But Skylanders is obviously the worst. Saying that, it's such a different thing to Spyro that I think it's kinda unfair to compare them.

And Legend... Well, it's definitely the dark horse here but it's actually okay! I love Cynder in ANB, although Spyro's designs make me cringe a little hehe

On a side note, I now realise why nobody abbreviates the first game . . .

'Hero era' came up more recently since I guess you really notice the difference once you get older. From the surface,classics and AHT are no different,but the little things become really big when you actually know a bit of game creation and design.

That's true. I'm not as knowledgeable on things that came before AHT, though, since that's where I started

Same for me(it was actually ETD but I didn't actually pick up the game until a neighbor introduced me to AHT), but I look back at gameplay from YOTD or the first one and you really see a difference. There's just less charm(locations are more generic, there's zero lore until Shadow Legacy, the magicalness is limited to very few places like Sunken Ruins) and more cynism in AHT, and the design is less open than it looks.

Quote: Sesshomaru75

I haven't played enough of Shadow Legacy to give an honest opinion, but it sorta feels like the ETD of the handheld Spyro games.

Yup, it had tonnes of potential, in terms of lore, but unfortunately the game was just too short and had loads of glitches.

I enjoyed SL until I discovered the ~amazing~ glitch that locks you out of Forgotten Worlds. Then I was okay with it. Then I tried circumventing the glitch and it happened anyway. Then I never touched it again. It is very much proto-LOS and Skylanders in terms of writing though, you can see how Mike started out and the lore definately fit.

You know, it used to be really cut-and-dry for me, but recently they've really blended together on my favorites list. I'll try, though:

Original Era
The only constant is that nothing can top the Insomniac trio for me. Spyro the Dragon was the first game I've ever played, although not nearly the first I completed. Being the first, this series set the standard of what to look for in video games: vast, colorful worlds with reasons to explore them.

I even enjoyed the GBA games in this era, although Season of Ice was a bit frustrating. Attack of the Rhynocs was the first Spyro game I ever completed, so it holds a special place in my favorites list.

I also really like EtD, because of the glitches! Since the coding is so unstable, it'll randomly glitch in new ways each playthrough.

Skylanders (Vicarious Visions)
Although I suppose Skylanders should be one era, as the two developers switch off every year, there is a huge difference between them as far as my enjoyment goes. While VV's not that great in character design and streamlining loading (seriously I just came back from transferring progress from TT (a TfB game) to SC (a VV game) and TT's loading was so much faster than SC's), they more than make up for it in game design. They're great at making a game with a lot of variety in gameplay, which is something that I absolutely love from the Classic series. And not in the shoehorned-in quick minigame way either, the minigames are pretty fun (although not too in-depth).

I'll get to Toys for Bob later.

Legend Era
When these first came out, I jumped on the hate bandwagon so hard. Not sure why, since I enjoyed the first one, but it wasn't Spyro. This was also the first time I'd ever played an Action game, so ANB was fun enough (being easy) but TEN made me despise the series as a whole since it required strategy other than "mash O". But then DotD added platforming so all was forgiven.

In the past few years I tried out TEN again, and to my surprise I had a lot of fun! After getting more used to Action games, I learned to appreciate the combat system as well as the story I already liked.

DotD holds a special place as my stress relief game. I have the Wii version, and I've memorized the infinite health and mana cheats, so when I feel like beating things up I pop it in, activate the cheats, and wail on some enemies. The motion controls help for taking out aggression, and the pretty scenery and calming music help to calm me down. It's not often I need it, but when I do, it works wonderfully!

Hero Era
I guess this goes here then. They aren't my favorites, but I don't hate them either. Except Orange. That was a disaster. Kinda ironic given that it's made by Vicarious Visions, who have made my favorite Skylanders games!

No but AHT and SL are pretty okay. Not amazing, but pretty fun on their own merits. Well, AHT is, SL is just interesting given it's style and subject matter, being TLoS in the Classic universe.

Skylanders (Toys for Bob)
...Yeah. The first game was good, but the rest they made aren't doing it for me. Wonderful character design, creative worlds, but solidly meh gameplay. Granted, it might be a large part that I don't like Dungeon Crawlers, and that's exactly what Skylanders is. VV does something with it that makes it more than just a Dungeon Crawler, but TfB likes to stay safely within the bounds of the genre, since it's what they know how to do and it's what works.

Original
Good ****;
Okay, I'm kinda nostalgia blind, I admit that, but I love these games. YotD will always have a special place in my heart. I watched my dad play it when I was a wee tot and made lots of good memories. I still need to finish the original first game, as my copy was broken and I couldn't play past the last level before Gnasty Gnorc. I love RR to death, The game boy games are really meh to me, I could never finish them.

"Hero era"
Good ****.
A Hero's Tail s one of my favorite all time games. Hands down. It looks good, plays good, good story, quirky characters, and on top of all this, It was a little dark, but it was also silly.

SL was okay, nothing special.

Orange was a disaster. e___e

Legend Era
Okay ****.

ANB was pretty good, I remember it, and the story was kinda okay. Other than that, I don't have much to say about it other than "I liked it."

TEN was meh.

DotD is a guilty pleasure. Like, it's bad, but I love it.

Skylanders Era
not bad but not good ****.

I only ever played the first game, actually, it's a really solid entry. It's just not my thing. The gameplay felt really slow and repetitive, the story was predictable, but the graphics were nice.

I guess I'd have to say "It's not bad, but it's not good."

So I am the only one here that actually didn't like AHT at all?

Quote: spyro fan 8

So I am the only one here that actually didn't like AHT at all?

I can't hate its gameplay because it's what introduced me to collectathons so I have a soft spot for it, though I bet if I still had the PS2 and the copy I'd have the nostalgia goggles removed real quick.

Quote: Drawdler

Huh? I didn't say that about SL, it was about SoF and Adventure. I liked a lot of the locations in those games and some of the characters were fun. Now that I think about it, SL did have some stuff that was neat to see and I agree it had some decent ideas, although the plot felt pretty weak... Probably because the game was so weak and made it hard to care.

My bad. I edited my post.

I prefer the originals but give the others a chance.

Original Era
This will always be my favourite era and the best games. The original trilogy particularly are honestly the best and I can replay them constantly. I first played YoTD on my 3rd birthday (over 14 years ago now) and haven't stopped loving all the originals.
The first game I think I have to have the longest break between playing for the simple reason that it gets a bit too easy if you play it too often? That doesn't make it necessarily a worse game than the other two in the trilogy, there's just no debate that it is by far the easiest game. It's not boringly easy though, there's still things I find challenging and frustrating (in a good way) even now and I think the levels and the music particularly (I love the kind of strong guitar themes going on in this game, one thing this soundtrack has over the other two is that all the tracks are unique yet you can tell they all 'belong' in this one game and there's hints such as the repetition in most tracks of the riff from the opening theme, that instantly scream SPYRO THE DRAGON which I love, but all the tracks are definitely unique and I love them all. I would probably actually say this is my favourite of the Spyro soundtracks) and the designs of all the worlds and the characters and the enemies and yeah it is more 'cute' than the other games but I like that. I get that maybe the graphics look worse than the other two games now but I can forgive that because I actually love the style and it doesn't detract from my enjoyment of the game.
The second game I would say used to be my least favourite of the three but now I'm not too sure. What I really love about this game in particular are the homeworld designs, especially Autumn Plains. Sad as it sounds there genuinely aren't enough words to describe my love for that homeworld, it's beautiful. And I love the atmospheric music it fits them all perfectly (forget the fact they're just loops from a sample pack I still love them). The soundtrack as a whole I feel fits the levels the best compared to the other games, you can't imagine them being used anywhere else. I think this is helped by the fact that with the exception of Idol Springs/Fracture Hills (which I think fit Idol Springs much better), no tracks are reused whereas with YoTD, except for the Greatest Hits version there's a lot of reused tracks and also in STD with High caves in the NTSC version, the music is just a slowed down Tree Tops. But GtG I feel is the most diverse in terms of level design and characters and I also really love the storyline and the introduction to Hunter. Some of the challenges I do still find annoying but there's no levels I dislike in the game and I also like the difficulty rating on the challenges.
YoTD was my first game, hence why I'm probably biased. Although I often class it as my favourite it does still have the most amount of things I dislike in the game, such as Agent 9 (not him as a character but gameplay, particularly the challenges in Fireworks Factory), Lost Fleet in general, the boxing challenge and the snowboarding challenge in the Super Bonus Round. I find myself dreading more levels in this game but there's also so much I look forward to in this game and the most levels I absolutely love (e.g Sunny Villa, Dino Mines, Enchanted Towers, Icy Peak and all the speedways), I love the dialogue with Moneybags and the majority of the challenges and also the soundtrack.
EtD well there's not much to say really. I quite enjoy it personally, I love most of the levels and some of the glitches, but other levels I find impossible and I also encountered a glitch which creeped me out and I still can't visit Monkey Monastery without being terrified any more. Had this game not been as rushed I think it could have turned out a lot better. Although the story may be an almost direct continuation of YoTD I don't really class it as an 'original?' That title is just for the Insomniac games in my opinion. I'll talk about the GBA games anyway.
Adventure I genuinely loved and was addicted to. I found it sometimes infuriatingly difficult and repetitive but for the most part I loved it and the level ideas and designs. It was great. SoI and SoF I don't remember too well, not enough to say loads about them but although I liked them less than Adventure I did still quite enjoy them. I just found them a fun way to pass the time and as an 8-9 year old I just loved finding new, good Spyro games that were vaguely similar to the originals

Hero Era
Well to be perfectly honest I thought the only game in this era was, well, AHT, but obviously not I'm one of those who loved AHT. I found it quite the change obviously from the originals but not in a bad way? I loved the graphics and the music and yeah there were things I missed from the originals but overall it's a really good game and I love most of the levels and the challenges (Hunter, Sparx, Sgt Byrd and Spyro challenges, hell yeah. Blink, definitely not) and the rewards you get for collecting the eggs. I do understand why it's controversial though.
Fusion, ugh I hate that game. Let's not talk about it much apart from to say I am most definitely not a fan.
Shadow Legacy I lost after a few weeks so I can't talk in great detail but I did rather enjoy what I did play.

Skylanders
Yeah see say what you will but I am one of those original fans who thinks Skylanders ruined Spyro. Not just because of his awful design but more for the fact that this much loved character who was the main focus of every single game (even the legend series, which is even worse than this), became bait really to lure people into buying SA when really, regardless of whether he has a few minutes of fame or not, he's sidelined and not a main character. Hence why I don't class them at all as Spyro games. Yeah there is a character called Spyro who is a purple dragon but not the Spyro from the originals, more their interpretation of it. I found Trap Team rather enjoyable to play with some cool ideas, not that I'm desperate to play it again, and Imaginators does look pretty cool and innovative, I'm just the type of person who disagrees with making people spend even more on a game for various figures and the like, which are a rip off. The way I see it once you've spent money on the actual game you shouldn't have to pay to do anything else. It's just greed.

Legend
7 year old me had such high hopes. I guess the story is quite interesting? I think a movie would have worked SO much better than games, as once you moved away from the story and the graphics and the characters and the voice acting (all of which was spectacular in every game, except Spyro does look a bit bizarre in AN, the gameplay itself was tedious. I haven't played for years so I can't go into too much detail, but I did really want to love this. And I will try it again, and maybe I will love it. But there was so much I got stuck on in these games, in every. Single. Version. Seriously. I had ANB on the PS2 and DS and TEN on PS2 and Wii. And I couldn't beat any of them however much I tried. Like I said I absolutely loved the story and I wish the gameplay had been easier and more similar to the originals and this would be brilliant. I am talking from the opinion of my 7-10 year old self though so maybe now at 17 I'd have better luck and I will try it again. Loved the ideas, less than impressed with the eventual outcome.

EDIT: Upon further reflection, I would swap Skylanders and Legend, and by a significant margin at that. I loved (apart from Spyro and Sparx"s designs, but even they are better than Skyro) the design and graphics especially of the levels, they were stunning. I also was quite a fan of the music, though definitely not as much as classic and hero music. The story as well was pretty spectacular, whereas I see nothing good in the storyline for any Skylanders game. Yeah the gameplay wasn't my favourite but looking back it's not quite as bad as I remembered. I definitely prefer the classic style of gameplay, but legend is definitely in my opinion miles better than Skylanders and I don't know why I put it last on my list.

Original Era
No Spyro game can ever beat the PS1 trilogy and I enjoy the GBA games too (Season of Flame was the first non-PS1 Spyro game I ever played). I even enjoy Enter the Dragonfly despite it being a glitchy train wreck. The gameplay is fun as the levels had minigames (except for Spyro the Dragon) and collectathon platformers are my all time favourite genre of games.

Hero Era
This era is tied with the Original as my top favourite because A Hero's Tail is my favourite PS2 Spyro game and Shadow Legacy is my favourite handheld Spyro game and I like those two as much as the PS1 trilogy. Spyro was one of my favourite game franchises growing up and both the Original and Hero era games will always have a special place in my heart.

Skylanders Era
Despite this series being a huge money grabber, I prefer Spyro in games that have a light tone rather than dark and edgy like LoS. I enjoy the gameplay because they brought back a few collectathon elements that were absent from the LoS trilogy, but I prefer open world levels like in the original series. While I don't like the Skylanders lore as much as the original Spyro series, I do like how it expands more and more with every new game.

Legend Era
When first found out that Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning was gonna be a reboot and I first saw gameplay of it, I wasn't as hyped for the game as I was for A Hero's Tail. The levels in the first two games were too linear and all you did most of the time was beat up enemies which made finishing the games just to see how they end feel like a chore. The collectathon element and minigames were what made the original series Spyro games enjoyable and I was disappointed when I found out they weren't in the LoS games. As I said above, the tone felt too dark for a Spyro game and it felt more like Lord of the Rings. I also don't like how Spyro, Sparx and Hunter were characterised; Spyro was too whiny sometimes, Sparx was annoying and I wasn't keen on his design and Hunter was too serious. The only thing I like out of this series is Cynder. However, despite all the flaws, I sometimes miss playing those games. I never even finished Dawn of the Dragon because the terrible Wii controls made me rage quit. If I ever rebuy the games (which I wouldn't mind doing someday), I'll get the PS2 version.

Gasp! No love for the SEASON Era? For shame!

Kidding. :P

I love me some Original and Season Eras. If I included any other family members, my sister adores the Hero Era, probably do to the nicer graphics and lighthearted kiddy feel. That would be my third, with the Legend in fourth, and last but not least, the Skylanders Era. Not that I hate it or anything like that, far from it, but I haven't played a Skylanders game yet. (Just haven't thought of purchasing a PS4/Xbox-One/Wii U... the Nintendo Switch, however...)

original > hero > skylanders/legend

have not really played skylanders but like the design idea and have some figures. legend was terrible. so those two are tied.