Spyro 1 is the best Spyro. Some people don't like that it is relatively simple and straightforward and preferred the sequels because of that, but I'll take Spyro 1's simple approach over the others any day. Read more and watch gameplay here.
Spyro 1 is one of those games where they just give you the objective and then let you get to it. The sequels introduced a bunch of pointless NPCs and other characters and stupid bullshit that didn't add anything important to the games. They only added fluff and extra collectible crap to stretch out an experience that was fine the way it was.
I played the Spyro Reignited Trilogy as my first ever experience with the Spyro games. I didn't play them back in the day because they looked simple and stupid and kind of ugly and I wasn't a PlayStation fan back then. The Reignited Trilogy looks so freaking nice, though, that I had to give it a try when it went on sale.
I played through Spyro 1 and beat it 100% and kind of loved every minute of it. I really liked that it was an oldschool video game-ass video game that just drops you into the world and lets you get on with it. Go rescue the dragons and find all of the gems in every level. Simple. Straightforward. Easy. Then I tried to play the sequels and freaking hated them. The sequels bombard you with cutscenes and new characters and new crap to collect and it all feels like unnecessary filler on top of an experience that was basically perfect to begin with. So they took perfection and piled shit on it and now it's all shit and I don't want to play them.
I will say I liked 3 better than 2, but still gave up pretty early on.
I will also say that I greatly prefer these Spyro games over the Crash Bandicoot games, which genuinely kind of surprises me.
