Hints and tip for Spyro: Year of the Dragon

1) Keep a sharp eye out for the two free life butterflies in Sunrise Spring. The second is on a ledge above where the flight tunnel lets out. Ignore the gems the first time through (you don't need to fly to get them anyway), then fly up and left as you exit. If you time it right, you should drop onto the ledge with the butterfly when your flight powerup runs out.

2) Yes, the camera has a lot of problems during Shiela's quest to climb the high tower to Rapunzel in Sunrise Spring. Set your camera to "active," go sloooowly and hit the triangle button a lot to look through her eyes -- and even that doesn't always work. It's frustrating, but doable. And while you're in the area, always remember to look up a lot: There are several hidden areas she can jump to that you might not notice at first.

3) And while we're on the subject of Shiela, yeah, she attacks more slowly than Spyro does. But with the exception of rhynocs who attack unseen due to camera issues, she can usually wait and let them come to her and her kicks.

4) Missing gems in Cloud Spires? Check between the ramps in the area where you chase the sun seeds into the pot, around the rim of the bell tower area and on the steps below the three bellows -- there's one more step there than you probably think.

5) Missing gems in Shiela's Alp? Work your way back to the beginning of the level, looking up. There are two or three spots where chests, gems and stompable boulders are tucked away.

6) Want to break open that sealed chest near the egg thief speedway in Molten Crater? Don't bother supercharging around the track to find the right spot to leap off it: You can supercharge perpindicular across the track and blast the chest almost immediately. (Thanks to Connie for the scoop.)

7) Can't figure out where the remaining eggs or gems are in Molten Crater? See that sealed-up portal next to the return home portal? The one that has Sgt. Byrd's face on a sign nearby? Come back when you've freed him in the Midday Gardens homeworld. (And a general tip here: In Spyro 3, it always pays to clear all of the homeworld first before going through any portals, and be prepared to come back to certain levels later on.)

8) To destroy the turrets in Seashell Shore, don't bother jumping up on the wall of the castle: Sheila can jump on the barrels of the guns and smash them down that way.

9) The "Secret Cave" egg in Seashell Shore is in Shiela's portion of the game. Look up near the beginning.

10) On beating Buzz, the level's boss: "keep headbutting him into the lava," says Connie. Sheila will help out, sort of, but lining him up to knock him back into the lava, repeatedly, is the key. (It's also a skill you'll use with other unique enemies in the game.) Shawn points out that all the bosses have an attack pattern and a defense pattern that you can learn and exploit. And my wife, who knows better than anyone that I'm not the Spyro guru some people seem to think, has this final word on the subject: "Run up to him to headbutt him and then stand still. He will jump to one side or the other. There's no need to be running around like crazy while he's doing this. Just let him jump to the side and then turn to face him - headbutt him again. That way you can control how close you are to him and reduce the time it takes to chase him down to headbutt him. Don't run around while he's jumping side to side cause it just wastes time and effort. Let him finish his jump and then hit your left/right button to face him head on and then charge from there. When he hits the lava and the kangaroo is doing her job, just run along the edge of the circle to elude his rolling ball. Repeat from the top. Good luck."

11) If you never played old school videogames like Scramble and Defender, you might be finding Sparx's levels a little difficult. The biggest trick is to hold onto the side scrolling buttons at all times, once you're pointed at the mass of the enemies. Only being able to shoot in the direction you're going will get you killed every time, but keeping his gun (OK, mouth) pointed at the crawdads (and later enemies) should do the trick nicely for you.

12) Mike was frustrated with the Sparx level: "I'm missing around 10 gems, and I think I know how to get them. There are two enemy generators with shields around them that I can't seem to blow up. How do I destroy those generators?" Mary's answer: "In the rooms where you find the key to open the next door, you will also see red circles on the floor. Fly over these so they turn green. This removes the force feild from around the 'generator.'"

13) Just for fun: Torching helpless little bunny rabbits in Midday Gardens is strictly for amateurs. If you want to have some real fun, headbutt them, as you can get some real distance with them and, even more entertaining, they ricochet, and you can do bank shots with them. Of course, the best of all is using the superflame power-up, and putting those rabbits on the moon ...

14) Lots of people are having problems in Sgt. Byrd's Base getting to all the trapped hummingbirds, specifically the one behind the glass. Blow up the locked chest near the beginning of the level. (In fact, whenever stuck on a puzzle in these games, try and finish the rest of the level and plan to come back to the hard puzzles. Very often the answer to the puzzle is wrapped up in completing the rest of the area.) (Thanks to all those who wrote in about this puzzle, including Carinae, Lennielove, VaporeonErin, RenayeAlton, Tracy, Mike, Sharon Hawkins, Jason D. Cox, Samantha, Bekki Williams, John Caputo, tigergal_127, Jorge Fernandez, Lacy, Giles Armstrong and BRCCORP31)

15) When blasting the gophers in Sgt. Byrd's Base (see the Secrets page as to why you might want to do that), you can't be on the same horizontal plane as them. (You can't be at ground level, flying or standing.) You can either stand on a ledge and aim at the little buggers with the triangle button or, as Hapopo did, drop bombs on them.

16) If you're having trouble beating Hunter's points in the Enchanted Towers skateboard park, it's always possible to "win ugly" by skating into the halfpipe and just going back and forth, doing spins each time -- and four spins one way can get you a Ripto, while the other will get you a Crush.

17) You can't complete the main level of Enchanted Towers until you play as Sgt. Byrd. In fact, playing as him as quickly as possible makes the level much easier.

18) You can't smash the mountain in Bamboo Terrace until you free Bentley the Yeti.

19) When in Bamboo Terrace, remember Glenn's tip: "Underwater in the Bamboo Terrace level there is a rock face with cracks. Smash through that wall for several butterflies in a jar."

20) Missing gems on the Icy Peaks level? "Check the supercharge area again," Stefanie says. "There are two places where gems hide. One is a ledge that you can see as you chase the egg thief and the other is on the trail behind an ice wall that you need to super charge through." Shawn Witzki reminds everyone to shoot down the big birds as well.

21) Want to get at those gems under the ice in Icy Peaks? Find the crack in the ice. There's a ledge nearby. Once you can get up to it, walk off the ledge, fly over the crack and do a headsmash and then swim around under the ice. Several visitors have reported that hovering over the crack makes it much easier to headsmash the right spot. Vmaandrous has an alternate approach: "It's easier to break the ice from the ground than risk missing and circling as I did a thousand times. Go between the two ice rinks (or whatever they are), jump and glide long until you are near the crack in the ice. Press the triangle button twice and you'll headbash right over the crack. Much easier!"

22) Yoink has figured out a sneaky way to avoid racing around after the egg thieves of Icy Peaks: "Jumping across the gap causes them to start a complete lap. Just stop a little bit up the ramp after they take off. They'll return to where they started and taunt you. Slowly move towards them and eventually they'll start their lap again, but they're heading right for you! A well timed jump and flame will get you the eggs. Works for both thieves."

23) Of course, you can also take out the Icy Peaks red thief without even that much work. Pam Wheaton reports: "If you go to the ledge that allows you to go up [the whirlwind], and land on the top of the tower, you can spiral down and get the red thief off of his platform even before you have to chase him!" (Thanks also to DurangoChick35 and Majji.)

24) No idea why this trick works, but it does: In Spooky Swamp, as Shiela, destroy all the rocks before escorting either of the twins on their mission to free the eggs. The mushrooms won't pop up and get in your way. (I discovered this, but thought it was a fluke, but Connie reports the same thing. It doesn't always work, though.)

25) Wondering how Shiela can get the gems behind the iron bars in Spooky Swamp? She's able to kick through the walls in many parts of the level. Check the aqua blue wall (not cracked, incidentally!) near the egg caves. (Thanks to Connie, Darla, Cindy, Ronni Pihlaja, Mary, Jeff Sampson, Kerry, Satin, Carinae, Tracy, Ralf, Mary, John Bode, Mike, Ed, Sharon Hawkins, and Chris and Sheri Crymes.)

26) All flaming wolf puppies does is annoy your wife. (Wait until she leaves the room.)

27) About that whale: Go give him a kiss.

28) Connie notes that the home world "seems to have a lot of hidden walls to smash."

29) Can't get two gems at a tower in Fireworks Factory? Don't despair! There is, at last, a solution, and it's straight from Brian Hastings at Insomniac:

"Exit Fireworks Factory (if you are in it). Press Pause. Press: Circle, Square, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle, X. (You'll hear sounds as you press the last two keys - this means that it worked!) Enter Fireworks Factory. Go defeat the two ninjas on the platform with the cannon (right below the tower with the gems)."

So, what was it that was happening? Brian explains (and sheds some interesting light on how Spyro 3 works):

"It is actually completely unrelated to the Speedway issue, and it only happens to people who are in the 'easiest' difficulty level (the game automatically tunes the difficulty levels for you as you play, depending on how you are doing). You are never prevented (permanently at least) from getting those gems - you just have to go into the level when your difficulty setting is not at the lowest. Some people (a very small number I think) who are almost always playing at the lowest difficulty setting, will almost always be at the lowest difficulty setting."

As for that cheat code Brian gave out: "It just adjusts your 'player score' to match the middle difficulty level. Your score will continue to change depending on how you play. Incidentally, if you want to set your player score to the highest difficulty level, press the Square button instead of 'X' as the last key of the cheat."

30) Yes, sometimes some people end up with 301/300 gems in Fireworks Factory. No, it doesn't mean anything, other than the game hiccuped at the wrong moment.

31 For the seed puzzle in Charmed Ridge, the final sequence is mushroom, mushroom, mushroom, along with a lot of careful hovering and jumping. (Those of you who find the hovering and jumping stuff easy, SHHH! You just upset us when you write in and say so!)

32) Evil genius Andrew has managed to figure out a way around the aforementioned Charmed Ridge seed puzzle, or at least the end of it, which is a real stumper for most people: "For the final challenge (to get to the goose), I ignored the first two seed plots. Went straight to the one by the goose's ledge. You stand by the plot, and spit out the seed aiming just short of the center of the plot. The seed will hit the ground, bounce to the center of the plot and start growing. The bounce is the critical bit - it gives Spyro a short delay to jump on top of the growing mushroom! It took me a few goes to time it right, but the mushroom can grow under Spyro. Don't be too hasty to jump off again, wait until the mushroom bounces you up, then glide to the goose."

33) Can't get to where you want to on Frozen Altars? Try smashing the pile of coals the rhynoc at the base of the pyramid has but NOT killing him. Freeze him, hop up onto his head, and go from there to the step pyramid.

34) Need some boxing tips for Frozen Altars? For starters, forget about the roundhouse punch and blocking. The roundhouse is so slow, Bentley will be smacked around repeatedly before he can use it. And there's no point in having a good defense when boxing yetis, so forget about blocking. Instead, jab like crazy while pushing the other yeti against the ropes. That way, when he's knocked back by a punch, he'll still be in range for more punches, and you can make more productive use of the moments that he's stunned. Why, I bet you could even beat him in only two rounds this way ...

35) Brian again, on boxing in Frozen Altars: "After you beat the yeti in boxing, if you plug in two controllers and attempt to replay the challenge, it will go into two player boxing mode! One player controls Bentley, the other gets the yeti. It actually makes a pretty fun two-player game (we wasted a fair bit of time with it during development.)"

36) Almost everyone ends up missing a few gems at the end of Lost Fleet. They're typically very close to the end: From the portal to return back to Evening Lakes, turn around and walk over to the hole in the side of the ship you entered through. Look down into the acid. There should be some gems there. Also, to the right, there's a beached rowboat. A sandbar is hidden out of sight behind it, with more gems there.

37) Shawn Witzki has some advice by those frustrated by the slides in Haunted Tombs: "Slides suck. I lost about 15 lives last night trying to get all of the gems off the slides. The main problem for me is that the camera can't keep up. This causes me to overcorrect on turns, and once that happens it's goodbye Spyro (unless I get lucky and hit a wall). I think the key is to pay attention to where Spyro's nose is pointing, not where the camera is pointing. Much like controlling a car in a skid, he'll head in the direction his nose is pointing." My wife's advice is to use the d-pad instead of the joystick and to gently tap it to change directions. (She watches me use the joystick and oversteer all the time.)

38) Kerry Madden has the answer for those (including my wife) wondering about the leap of faith in Dino Mines: "Go to the first building on your left in the beginning of the level. There should be a cactus to the left of the building. Jump off the ledge to your right around the building (if memory serves me)."

39) Frustrated by the final force field in Agent 9's Lab? The force field will block all your laser beams, but you can lob a bomb over the top ...

40) Can't beat the monsters throwing the snowballs at you in Haunted Tombs? Try using their own weapons on them.

41) If you get frustrated chasing the egg thief around the Midnight Mountain home world, Russell has stumbled on a trick: "Just beat the Sorceress and when you come back to where the thief should be he will be gone and all you have to do is walk over to the egg. The reason I think this happens is because they don't want the egg thief and Moneybags to be there at the same time." Why would this matter? See the Super Bonus page for the answer.

42) Some visitors have been reporting that they haven't won an egg after beating one of the races. This is an error in the first build of Spyro 3. The good news is that the Sony's Greatest Hits version of Spyro 3 (it'll be labelled that way on the cover of the CD case) fixes this error (and includes a film that wasn't in the original version of the game). Rent this version, run the game and you should be credited with the egg. Let me know if this works!

43) Mushroom Speedway - Connie's tips: "If you hit the stars they give you a burst of speed." And make you go a bit out of control ... "Hunter is behind a very large mushroom stem" on the far side of the island, facing away from the shore. Playing as Hunter, you dogfight with a bunch of sheep in UFOs for another egg.

44) Country Speedway - John's tips: "The path I use most efficiently is as follows:

45) Go through the pink rings, 2) Right after getting through the last ring take a sharp right and land (opposite direction of the tractors' direction) then supercharge following the brick path so you crash into the tractors head on. 3) After the last tractor, head back in the air towards the planes. (They should be in front of you.) Fly head on into them to flame them. (After a few attempts you learn their flying patterns.) 4) After the planes are disposed of head for the cows. (Left turn I think.) Utilize a blue star for a speed burst."

46) Moneybags appears in Midnight Mountain, and he's got all those gems he's extorted from Spyro, along with one more egg. Get them back from him, and don't take no for an answer. 47) The gateway to the Super Bonus World, if you haven't already found it, is near the Harbor Speedway gate. Go to the gateway, hop over to the ledge across the lava, and look down and left.

48) Having trouble with the rocket-powered snowboard course? The key, according to a host of players (including Bahamut, Steve Auld, Hapoppo, Mark, Jeff Sampson, Foxglove, Merralee, Linda Gentry, Baxil, Jason Porter, Christi Lewallen, Knoll and my wife) is to A) memorize the course, B) fill the turbo bar early with stunts, C) stay low when possible, as Spyro goes faster on the ground than in the air, D) use the blue stars whenever possible to get a speed boost, E) use the red stars when jumping to take out the yeti ahead of you and flame them if you get close, F) DON'T FALL OFF THE COURSE and G) remember that even the best players seem to find this a fairly difficult race to win at first. (It also doesn't hurt to be a whiz at the skateboard tricks listed on the Secrets page.)

49) Trace has another trick that works on the rocket-powered snowboard course: "Basically you skip the second loop of the 'figure 8' track. From the start, gain turbo power on the first big hill and try to hit as many blue and red stars as possible. When you reach the point where you pass over the track beneath you, veer to the left and land on that first big slope,but going in the opposite direction. Land as straight into the slope as possible. (If you hit it at an angle,you tend to wipe out which is no good at all because when Spyro recovers he's going in the 'wrong' direction.) You'll immediately pass Hunter on your left and you'll want to crash into the second surface (the back of the short ramp), then when Spyro recovers you will be headed back in the 'correct' direction and will proceed to lap two as you pass Hunter again. (If you crash into the first wall past Hunter you will not go to lap two.) Repeat two more times!" This is what we call "winning ugly."

50) Want to win REALLY ugly? Walk the course first, blasting the crabs along the way. Spyro starts off with a full turbo bar in that case.

51) Nothing happens when you beat the course record on the snowboard course. Sorry.

52) The game really does end at 117 percent. Yes, Spyro 1 ended at 120 percent and Spyro 2 ended at 100 percent. That's just the way it worked out this time. There is no secret additional areas, guys. Yes, there's that enticing island floating off in the near distance on Midnight Mountain. No, it's not an additional level, OK?

53) John, Cheryl, Deidre, Mike, Kelly, Katy and the California Yeti sent in how to do some of the named skateboard tricks in the skate parks, which are all worth bigger points. (If you're new to Spyro, these tricks are all named after bosses from the first two Spyro games):

Gulps and Crushes: Four spins each, one left and one right

Big Gulps and Orange Crushes: Five spins each

Gnasty Gnorc: Two front flips and one side roll

Gnarly Gnorc: Two front flips and two side rolls

Twisted Lime: A side roll and a front flip

Twisted Lemon: A side roll and a back flip

Thrash Master: A flip followed by a side roll. Super Thrash Master: Multiple Thrash Masters (two? Three?)

Dr. Shemp: Four left rolls

Toasty Twist: Four right rolls

Raging Ripto: Two front or back flips with three side rolls

Triple Tower: Jump all three towers at the Enchanted Towers skate park

See the cheat codes at the bottom of this page to change Spyro's skateboard into a squid. No, really.

54) When playing as Shiela the Kangaroo, double jump any time it's safe to do so: On her levels, there are LOTS of things hidden above ground level. You unlock each of Spyro's new friends by finding them in a home world, paying Moneybags off and then playing their first level all the way through.

55) Wish that Sparx could point to the nearest gem by holding down the shoulder buttons? He'll remember how to do that after the second of the Sparx solo levels. (He gains a new ability after each of them, making them well worth it, even if you find the levels frustrating.) You can play the Sparx world on each level after beating that world's level boss. (There's also a cheat code below for this, if you can't wait.) If you can't find the gems after doing this, move and turn, to make sure that Sparx isn't actually just pointing straight ahead. If he still doesn't point to the gems, they're almost certainly in a subworld off the main world. Try this trick there. 56) As with the past two Spyro games, there's a Crash Bandicoot demo included on Spyro 3, the first nine challenges for "Crash Bash." And, once again, this is apparently a secret in the overseas version. To play the demo, go to the title screen, hold down R2 + L1 and press Square.

57) There is a two-player mode in Spyro 3, or at least in part of it. Here's what Brian Hastings, lead Insomniac programmer on Spyro 3, has to say about it: "After you beat the yeti in boxing, if you plug in two controllers and attempt to replay the challenge, it will go into two player boxing mode! One player controls Bentley, the other gets the yeti. It actually makes a pretty fun two-player game (we wasted a fair bit of time with it during development.)"

58) After beating the Sorceress, the game is NOT over. See the Super Bonus page for more. But, yes, you can only get 117 percent, not 120 percent, as in Spyro 1. (Spyro 2 ended at just 100 percent, as many readers have pointed out.) It just worked out that way. There are no additional secret levels and, no, you can't unlock the permanent super fireball power again. 59) "HEY! My mod-chipped Playstation won't play Spyro 3!" No, it won't. Sony cracked down on this with the last few games released for the original Playstation console. There doesn't seem to be anything you can do about it. (There's also other protection in the game to prevent "back up" games from running properly.)

60) Spyro fans who played "Ripto's Rage"/"Gateway to Glimmer" probably remember the Skill Points that could be collected after beating Ripto. The same thing goes for this game, too: Accomplishing difficult, insanely difficult or sometimes just silly tasks gets you a free life and one step closer to seeing the complete epilogue, including a special message from the game programmers. There are 20 skill points in the game (note that you only see the list of the ones you've completed after you beat the Sorceress, at which point it appears in your atlas). You also get a bonus life every time you accomplish a skill point, even if you've gotten it before.

Sunny Villa: Flame all trees (1)

Skateboard courses: Beat the course records at Sunny Villa, Enchanted Towers and Lost Fleet (2, 3, 4)

Molten Crater: Put the heads together (5)

Molten Crater: Supercharge wall (thief area) (6)

Seashell Shore: Catch the funky chicken (7)

Icy Peak: Glide to pedestal (thief area) (8)

Spooky Swamp: Destroy all piranha signs (9)

Sgt. Byrd's Base: Destroy the gophers (10)

Frozen Altars: Beat yeti in two boxing rounds (11)

Fireworks Factory: Agent 9's power up (look up) (12)

Charmed Ridge: Land on Impossible Tower (13)

Charmed Ridge: Shoot out all the cat witch windows (14)

Bentley's Outpost: Push the crate off the cliff (15)

Desert Ruins: Destroy all seaweed (16)

Haunted Tomb: Swim into the dark hole (17)

Dino Mines: Hit all the sea horses (18)

Dino Mines: Hit the secret dino (19)

Agent 9's Lab: Blow up all palm trees (20)

The above list was compiled by Happopo, Holly V., Glenn, John, Rod, Connie, Steve, Jake, Ericka, me and my wife.

61) Don't expect a lot of help with the skill points here -- they ARE supposed to be for advanced players -- but the impossible tower is so hard, here's some hints on how to beat it:

Lauren thinks the skill point is a "piece of cake": "From the area where Moe's egg is, jump to the edge of the tower (so you are walking on the rim). Two or three jumps up like stairs, and glide from there." Jes8Ocon uses the same technique, with further details: "Don't forget to hover. Go slow, it's easy to fall off." The technique is also endorsed by other players, including Tony and Jeff Sampson. Kashimira has an alternate solution: "First, of course, you'll want to kill all of the Catwitches in the general area. In the tunnel, climb up the wall near the Super-Flame power-up. From there, you'll want to hop up onto the ledge and look to the right. Jump and glide to the platform where the Catwitch that was levitating the tower was standing ... That should be a pretty easy one. This next one is a bit more difficult to make ... Remember to use the triangle button at the end of the jump/glide. Facing the 'impossible tower' you'll see an odd structure on the left near the edge ... Position yourself as close to that as possible. Now jump and glide to the lower part of the odd structure. Hop up onto the top grassy part. Again, position yourself as close to your target (this time the 'impossible tower') as you can. Jump and glide to it! This is another difficult jump, so remember the triangle button at the end." Another way to try this, according to my wife: "I just got on the highest point of the tower that had Moe's egg. I charged what little distance there was at the top, jumping/gliding as I leapt off and hovered when I got to the impossible tower. I find that when you charge/jump, your jumps are higher which gives you the extra gliding time you need to get there. It took me nearly a week to get to that tower so it's not going to be easy."

62) OK, here's one more skill points hint: To get Agent 9's powerup in Fireworks Factory, play his Doom game and when you're leaving the second room and heading to the third, turn around and look up at the ceiling. You'll know what you're looking for when you see it.

63) This is the last skill point tip, I swear -- these are meant to be for advanced players, so put on your thinking caps before e-mailing in out of frustration -- no one said anything about the bodies in the skill point for Molten Crater. Think about it.

64) Some apparent bugs in the game:

Rod reports: "In Agent 9's Lab, when I shot all the boats and got the egg, it said 'You already have this egg'. Huh? That was the first time I ever did it."

Also see the Speed Rounds page for a potentially serious bug in the game. Dayna reports: "In Crystal Islands, where the giant floating gems are out in the open, you can swim in the air and go nearly anywhere, just avoid the whirlwinds and enemies you have to flame, and you'll be OK. Oh, and stay out of the water, 'cause it will undo the bug. ... Jump into the water and swim to the edge where you can see the Bently's porthole. Dive forward into the edge of the shore until you are on the ground. (Make sure you are mostly pressing the D-pad up.) You'll have to play with the D-pad a little though, but a few tries should do it. You can now go anywhere you please. I use this bug often now, it really makes things easier."

Radagar found a skateboarding bug: "In the second skate challenge, when you come off the super jump ramp, turn a hard right and up you will fly outside the skate park for a short time, then die but the view is pretty neat. If you are lucky you can also fly back into the skate park."

65) Brian Hastings, lead Insomniac programmer on Spyro 3 on some of the cooler non-essential bits of in the game: "These are three of my favorite things to do in Spyro 3:

"Choose not to pay Moneybags, even though you have the money. The funniest lines in the game come when you do this. "Smash Bartholomew on the head in Bentley's Outpost. "In Frozen Altars, charge through the rock piles next to the rock throwing guys (without hitting the rhynoc.) The rhynoc now has lost his source of ammo and will moon you - he can even be frozen in that position."

"Oh, by the way, the Greatest Hits version of the game has fixes for the raceway bug and the Fireworks Factory gem bug (for both U.S. And Europe.) It also plays the 'Spike is Born' movie at the proper time, and it has a little extra polish and special effects work that didn't make it into the final release."

66) And now, the moment seemingly everyone has been waiting for ... The cheat codes. All of them, direct from Brian Hastings. Pause your game, and then do the following:

99 Lives: R2, L2, R2, L2, Up, Up, Up, Up, Circle

Sparx Treasure-finding (without doing Sparx worlds): Right, Right, Left, Left, Right, Right, Left, Left, Circle, Circle, Circle

Extra Hit Point (without doing Sparx worlds): Circle, R1, Circle, L1, Circle, R2, Circle, L2, Circle

Change Spyro's Color: Up, Left, Down, Right, Up, Square, R1, R2, L1, L2, Up, Right, Down, Left, Up

["The next button you press determines the color, I can't remember the ordering, but the valid buttons are: Triangle, Square, X, Circle, Up or Down"]

To the rescue come SpyroHints.com readers Happopo, Brian Urtz, Gwen and hollso:

(Green) Triangle: Green Spyro

(Blue) X: Blue Spyro ("Be careful," Happopo warned, "This will cause you to exit the level, or quit the game if you're not in a level.")

(Red) Circle: Red Spyro

(Purple) Square: Dark Purple Spyro

Up: Yellow Spyro

Down: Black Spyro

Flat (Parappa Spyro): Left, Right, Left, Right, L1, R1, L1, R1, Square, Circle

Big Head Spyro: Up, R1, Up, R1, Up, R1, Circle, Circle, Circle, Circle

Play Credits: Left, Right, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle, Square, Circle, Square, Circle

ACT (Automated Challenge Tuning) -- in other words, change the game's difficulty, which normally adapts to how good of a player you are (all of you who keep writing in to say how easy the Impossible Tower is, think about this before sending in extremely cocky e-mails ...): Circle, Square, Right, Left, Right, Square, Circle, X (To set to the harder difficulty mode, instead of the easiest, press the Square instead of the X)

Skate on a squid instead of a skateboard: Up, Up, Left, Left, Right, Right, Down, Down, Square, Circle, Square. Brian explains this one: "It turns your skateboard into a squid (like in the epilogue.) It's actually a little inside joke at Insomniac. The skateboard idea grew out of a minigame in Lost Fleet where you were intended to ride on the back of a squid. Riding the squid became so much fun that we decided to use it in multiple worlds - but a squid didn't fit very well outside of Lost Fleet, so we turned it into a skateboard. We kept the squid in as a cheat for sentimental reasons."

67) One more cheat code, discovered well after the game shipped. Insomniac thought they had removed the level warp code, but nope, it's still in there. According to Brian Hastings, you begin by pausing, then punching in up, down, up, down, left, right, left, right, square and two more buttons, based on what you want to do:

Sunrise Spring Home: X, Circle

Sunny Villa: X, X

Cloud Spires: X, Square

Molten Crater: X, Triangle

Seashell Shore: X, Right

Mushroom Speedway: X, Down

Sheila's Alp: X, Left

Buzz's Dungeon: X, Up

Crawdad Farm: X, R1

Midday Garden Home: Square, Circle

Icy Peak: Square, X

Enchanted Towers: Square, Square

Spooky Swamp: Square, Triangle

Bamboo Terrace: Square, Right

Country Speedway: Square, Down

Sgt. Byrd's Base: Square, Left

Spike's Arena: Square, Up

Spider Town: Square, R1

Evening Lake Home: Triangle, Circle

Frozen Altars: Triangle, X

Lost Fleet: Triangle, Square

Fireworks Factory: Triangle, Triangle

Charmed Ridge: Triangle, Right

Honey Speedway: Triangle, Down

Bentley's Outpost: Triangle, Left

Scorch's Pit: Triangle, Up

Starfish Reef: Triangle, R1

Midnight Mountain Home: Right, Circle

Crystal Islands: Right, X

Desert Ruins: Right, Square

Haunted Tomb: Right, Triangle

Dino Mines: Right, Right

Harbor Speedway: Right, Down

Agent 9's Lab: Right, Left

Sorceress's Lair: Right, Up

Bugbot Factory: Right, R1

And ... The long awaited super-secret code ...

SUPER BONUS WORLD: Down, Circle

And ... The movies (in roughly the order you would see them playing the game)

Startup Movie: Left, Circle

"An Evil Plot Unfolds...": Left, X

"A Powerful Villain Emerges...": Up, Down

"A Desperate Rescue Begins...": Up, Left

"No Hard Feelings": Up, Up

"The Second Warning": Left, Square

"Bianca Strikes Back": Left, Triangle

"Byrd: James Byrd": Up, R1

"Hunter's Tussle": Left, Right

"Spike Is Born": Left, Down

"A Duplicitous: Larcenous Ursine": Up, L1

"An Apology: And Lunch": Left, Left

"A Monster To End All Monsters": Left, Up

"The Dancing Bear": R1, Triangle

"The Escape!": Left, R1

"Deja Vu?": Left, L1

"A Familiar Face": Up, Circle

"Billy In The Wall": Up, X

"One Less Noble Warrior": Up, Triangle

"THE END": Up, Right

"I think that's it. 'Spike Is Born' is the 'hidden' movie that was intended to play at the introduction of the 2nd boss, but never made it into the game. The only way to see it is to use the cheat."

I WUOLD LIKE THANK MY FRIENDS FOR THE HELP

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