It's finally here: my first video after a long hiatus. I wanted to do something different, but familiar with this one-- the subject of Copeland's Spyro soundtracks is very rarely touched upon other than being given praise, so I wanted to examine it in a different light. Ever since I was a kid, the differences in the soundtracks always intrigued me, and with the exception of a few videos, it's usually never discussed. I think I'm happy with this one overall, but would like to add an addendum: the reason for the hidden tracks in the first game is almost definitely due to Copeland's idea from the start to have a dynamic soundtrack-- much like what was implemented in the Reignited Trilogy years later. Still, this was pretty fun to make and I'm glad to be back. I've got a ton of ideas that I'm just waiting to get around to working on, so expect more videos in the coming months. Thanks, and take care.
I grew up with the Greatest Hits version, but when I got Spyro on my PSP I got the Black labels, on all 3, which I was disappointed but I played them anyway, 1 files sits on each with 100%, might replay so but my ADHD brain is weird, once I done something it procrastinates to not do it again because it's complete, anyway I digress. The first honeworld music on 3 for being the boss, I noticed that the sorceress is kinda synced to the music, try it, when she twirls her wand, both the original and the homeworld are kinda have the same beat so it matches her twirling her wand honestly.
Hey there Spyro fans. It was a long time ago, and I don't really remember all the details. As far as unused tracks, I suspect it mostly comes down to working right up to the wire. Changes and iterations were coming in for the music and the gameplay in general. The differences in which tracks appeared in different territories probably just came down to the different timing of the releases. The later the release, the more polished the music choices would be. Spyro 3 was indeed a little buggy on initial release. Sorry ya'll. It was rushed, but that's no excuse. We just didn't test it hard enough. We crammed so much game into Spyro 3, it was truly incredible. We fit it all in, and we were so pleased with ourselves, I think we just didn't realize that QA would need extra time to test it all thoroughly enough. There is one aspect of the PAL vs NTCS release that you didn't touch on. The Spyro games included a lot of recorded voice, and the European build (PAL) had 5 different languages on the disk IIRC. That's 5x as much disk space required to store it all. There just wasn't enough space on the CD to hold it all along with all of Copeland's incredible music. That left us with very few options. For 2 and 3, we were aware of this and planned for it. That's one reason why the amount of unique music may have been less for the later games. I don't remember this, but it COULD explain the differences in music between PAL and NTSC. At this point, you probably know better than me. If there are tracks in NTSC that don't appear on the PAL disk, that'd be why. If it's the other way around, it probably just comes down to time.
Great job with this, very well presented and it was great to hear everything outlined. Of course the weird thing about 1 is just how many bonus tracks Copeland made for when you stay in a level for a long time. Some of the best tracks are actually hidden there.
Great topic, you've earned a sub fellow Spyro fan. I grew up with the black label release of Spyro 3, and I too think Molten Crater's and Seashell Shore's tracks fit well with Dino Mines and Crystal Islands (though I vastly prefer the GH Crystal Islands music). I remember my friend (who grew up with the GH version) was really confused when my copy had Sunrise Spring music in Evening Lake, since that was a track she was very fond of. I'm glad Reignited has all the music as it's supposed to be. As for High Caves, I'm in the minority who prefer the NTSC track. I love the PAL one too, but when I think High Caves I think dark, dreary caves with scary bugs and looking out over the abyss below, so that sinister vibe that the slowed-down Tree Tops music gives off is a perfect fit.
Even though back then the first copy of Spyro 3 that I played was a rent from the Movie Gallery, jumping from Spyro the Dragon to the 3rd installment kind of made me respect it slightly more just for all the new gameplay styles they were going for. I guess a lot of “game threes” added on vehicle mechanics though, whether they actually had their start in the sequel or not.
I wasn't fully sure how much there'd be to say but you found plenty of interesting things. I really enjoyed this video, Cal. And it looks like you did too. Great stuff!
13:42 Actually, none of the later PAL releases of Year of the Dragon have had the music changed. You still have Harbour Speedway for all speedways, Molten Crater for Dino Mines, Spike's Arena for The Sorceress' Lair etc. It wasn't until Reignited Trilogy that we got those tracks over here. Also I think the Platinum version still has the adaptive difficulty, because I've definitely noticed it over the years. Mainly in Sunny Villa and Cloud Spires, at the game will add enemies in certain places when the difficulty gets higher.
As an Australian, this is first and foremost part of my early childhood experiences with Spyro. Case in point, High Caves, easily one of my favourite tracks... and it's only existing memory in Reignited is sharing a similar percussion and bassline to Hurricos. Yeah... I'm trying experiment with a medley of the two in my spare time atm.
7:50. The pal release did have the hidden tracks. I distinctly recall hearing 1 of them when I forgot to pause when going to do something when I was a kid. On cliff town
Yeah, the original PAL release has the hidden tracks, but neither NTSC nor PAL versions of Reignited have hidden tracks or the PAL version of the High Caves theme.
@@CalcomYT ahhhh lol. Ye whats odd in reignited is they use that spot that was "hard for people in the US" but was in pal but dont use the pal music lol
Oh boy, I actually found this channel out recently and binged a good chunk of your stuff, so I'm glad this popped up the other day. You're doing some great work, keep it up.
Good video! One of the developers recently mentioned some Spyro releases originally had the sound tables set up incorrectly, thus the wrong music would play and it got fixed in later versions.
An entirely new song for the Lost Fleet level was found in a beta version of Spyro Year of the Dragon that was released in 2024. There's STILL new songs from the trilogy surfacing decades later.
Loving this new approach for the Channel! I like it when creators deeply analyse things that are often just praised and moved aside. It's fun and also educational.
Sometimes you stumble accross a channel, and realise that they're criminally underrated... You even got Goofy to do a voice-over at 13:03 I subbed, hope it helps out! :)
I completely agree that Molten Crater and Seashell Shore's tracks do somehow work really well with Dino Mines and Crystal Islands, Haunted Tomb doesn't bother me too much other than the thunder rumble effects in the track clearly meant for cloud spires, but the official version definitely fits the theme of the level way better.
i know this vid is old now, but i really enjoyed it! i remember always being terrified in spyro 1 whenever the extra music kicked in because it sounded creepy to me. great to hear you talk about the music!
You're knowledge of this franchise made me realise I'm a retro noob and I thought I was a retro geek. Haha. Respect to you and your dedication to keeping these classics alive. :)
13:00 I think I remember reading that it was unintentional to have sunrise springs play during sorceress, some sort of glitch or improperly coded thing. Please take it with a grain of salt though bc I could be misremembering it, but it probably definitely is the direct result of rushed game development time. EDIT: Oops I commented before you explained it, I knew it was a glitch but I never knew it was possibly connected to its anti piracy BUT in that case that actually makes a ton of sense I had the updated version of the game as a kid with the proper soundtrack at least. Side note, Spyro 3 was always my favourite and I am kind of shocked to learn it had such a small development cycle but suddenly things make sense for a few things now. Still a very solid game though and a very good trilogy
Oh, that's super sick!! I didn't know any of this! I had the green label for Spyro 3 as a kid and that definitely explains why streaming it on an emulator a few years ago(presumably a ROM of the first build), some of the music felt off.
I think it's a super interesting topic, and I honestly didn't know they removed the difficulty adjustment mechanic in the later releases of Spyro 3. I've always had the PAL platinum copy of the game and just assumed the mechanic was in there, after first hearing about it. The difficulty does get rather frustrating at times, and then suddenly it throws you a bone, it feels. But I recently purchased a black label edition of 3, because I wanted a copy with artwork on the disc (stupid reason, but it's a common collector thing here in Europe), and so now I wonder if I can actually tell the difference, when I eventually play through them both for comparison.
I've always been curious as to why in Spyro 1, alternate music plays if you stay in a level for too long. I remember as a kid playing through Peace Keepers and after a while, this uncanny music started playing and it scared the crap out of me for some reason. It just came out of nowhere and no one ever explained why this happens. It had to be due to a glitch that caused the game to load music files that were already in the code.
I'm 3 years late to this video but fun fact: Sunrise Spring plays during the Sorceress fight in the PS3 download version of NTSC Spyro 3 too, because they uploaded the 1.0 version to the PlayStation store. When I first noticed, I was like "Wait... WTF? Why is this so happy?" 😂
Interestingly enough, Spyro 2 has for unknown reasons a difference in the musical choice for the intro in Fracture Hills. In some versions, instead of playing the Idol Springs music it plays the Shady Oasis music.
I was 100% obvlious to the music differences until very recently! Playing Reignited (I'm in the same boat as you, always holding the originals in high regard!) I remember saying to my cousin hey...the music track on this level is wrong! But as you say, the soundtracks were different across regions!
when i got the games when i was much younger i was fortunate enough to get the greatest hits version. thank god, cuz to this day i love nearly all the tracks so much! XD
Yoooooo... I fucking love those soundtracks 2!!! Their the best , and thank yew for your vid!!! Shed some light on things I previously didn't know!!! Good job!!! 👌
I dunno about NTSC/U as I've heard reports, but there's not fully confirmation if it's the case there as well, but I personally own both PAL revisions of Spyro 3 as a "Black Label" copy (PAL region only: disc having "#" is an indicator of stuff). And many other games with revisions, I have all as "Black Labels" so this talk about Black Label and Platinum is a bit misleading. Might as well just say v1.0 and v1.1 instead. One thing is usually true though, Platinums are usually v.1.1 if one exists, but still... One interesting thing I've noted that while Spyro 1 has muzak in Stereo, Spyro 2 & 3 have muzak as Mono.
What ps1 games have your favorite soundtracks? For me, in no particular order: Spyro 1 & 2 Crash Bandicoot 1-3 Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2 Spider-Man 2000 Syphon Filter 1 & 2 Metal Gear Solid Tenchu 1 & 2
I got the entire trilogy on my ps3 from the psn store and there they have the 1.0 version of spyro 3 instead of the 1.1 one for some reason. like i just could not take that final boss portion seriously. maybe they thought having the wrong music was the quintessential way to experience spyro 3. lol
Has anyone tried actually asking Stewart Copeland about this? He might remember, even after it's been so long considering he worked on the reignited scores.
@@CalcomYT good point. I do have some connections in the music industry though, I can see if I someone I know could put me in touch with someone else to get in contact with him. It’s a long shot but I could try.
My guess, as it always is with this sort of thing, is copyright. I would guess the song used a sample that insomniac had rights to in one region but was owned by another company in another region.
Awesome video! Liked and subbed! We decided that there just simply isn't enough Spyro music in the world, so a little over a year ago, we decided to pursue a dream of creating authentic and original Spryo music! Would love to hear your musical mind's thoughts on some of our work!
It's finally here: my first video after a long hiatus. I wanted to do something different, but familiar with this one-- the subject of Copeland's Spyro soundtracks is very rarely touched upon other than being given praise, so I wanted to examine it in a different light. Ever since I was a kid, the differences in the soundtracks always intrigued me, and with the exception of a few videos, it's usually never discussed. I think I'm happy with this one overall, but would like to add an addendum: the reason for the hidden tracks in the first game is almost definitely due to Copeland's idea from the start to have a dynamic soundtrack-- much like what was implemented in the Reignited Trilogy years later. Still, this was pretty fun to make and I'm glad to be back. I've got a ton of ideas that I'm just waiting to get around to working on, so expect more videos in the coming months. Thanks, and take care.
hey you forgot to let your subscribers hear to the secret songs
And what a video of course. Love it.
I grew up with the Greatest Hits version, but when I got Spyro on my PSP I got the Black labels, on all 3, which I was disappointed but I played them anyway, 1 files sits on each with 100%, might replay so but my ADHD brain is weird, once I done something it procrastinates to not do it again because it's complete, anyway I digress.
The first honeworld music on 3 for being the boss, I noticed that the sorceress is kinda synced to the music, try it, when she twirls her wand, both the original and the homeworld are kinda have the same beat so it matches her twirling her wand honestly.
Hey there Spyro fans. It was a long time ago, and I don't really remember all the details. As far as unused tracks, I suspect it mostly comes down to working right up to the wire. Changes and iterations were coming in for the music and the gameplay in general. The differences in which tracks appeared in different territories probably just came down to the different timing of the releases. The later the release, the more polished the music choices would be.
Spyro 3 was indeed a little buggy on initial release. Sorry ya'll. It was rushed, but that's no excuse. We just didn't test it hard enough. We crammed so much game into Spyro 3, it was truly incredible. We fit it all in, and we were so pleased with ourselves, I think we just didn't realize that QA would need extra time to test it all thoroughly enough.
There is one aspect of the PAL vs NTCS release that you didn't touch on. The Spyro games included a lot of recorded voice, and the European build (PAL) had 5 different languages on the disk IIRC. That's 5x as much disk space required to store it all. There just wasn't enough space on the CD to hold it all along with all of Copeland's incredible music. That left us with very few options. For 2 and 3, we were aware of this and planned for it. That's one reason why the amount of unique music may have been less for the later games. I don't remember this, but it COULD explain the differences in music between PAL and NTSC. At this point, you probably know better than me. If there are tracks in NTSC that don't appear on the PAL disk, that'd be why. If it's the other way around, it probably just comes down to time.
Great job with this, very well presented and it was great to hear everything outlined. Of course the weird thing about 1 is just how many bonus tracks Copeland made for when you stay in a level for a long time. Some of the best tracks are actually hidden there.
Great topic, you've earned a sub fellow Spyro fan.
I grew up with the black label release of Spyro 3, and I too think Molten Crater's and Seashell Shore's tracks fit well with Dino Mines and Crystal Islands (though I vastly prefer the GH Crystal Islands music). I remember my friend (who grew up with the GH version) was really confused when my copy had Sunrise Spring music in Evening Lake, since that was a track she was very fond of. I'm glad Reignited has all the music as it's supposed to be.
As for High Caves, I'm in the minority who prefer the NTSC track. I love the PAL one too, but when I think High Caves I think dark, dreary caves with scary bugs and looking out over the abyss below, so that sinister vibe that the slowed-down Tree Tops music gives off is a perfect fit.
I agree, Tree Tops go great with b7gs scurring around. Heck, it's probably one of the top 5 of my favorite themes from Spyro 1.
Even though back then the first copy of Spyro 3 that I played was a rent from the Movie Gallery, jumping from Spyro the Dragon to the 3rd installment kind of made me respect it slightly more just for all the new gameplay styles they were going for.
I guess a lot of “game threes” added on vehicle mechanics though, whether they actually had their start in the sequel or not.
I didn't know there was this much to say about Spyro music. I'm impressed.
I wasn't fully sure how much there'd be to say but you found plenty of interesting things.
I really enjoyed this video, Cal. And it looks like you did too. Great stuff!
13:42 Actually, none of the later PAL releases of Year of the Dragon have had the music changed. You still have Harbour Speedway for all speedways, Molten Crater for Dino Mines, Spike's Arena for The Sorceress' Lair etc.
It wasn't until Reignited Trilogy that we got those tracks over here.
Also I think the Platinum version still has the adaptive difficulty, because I've definitely noticed it over the years. Mainly in Sunny Villa and Cloud Spires, at the game will add enemies in certain places when the difficulty gets higher.
As an Australian, this is first and foremost part of my early childhood experiences with Spyro. Case in point, High Caves, easily one of my favourite tracks... and it's only existing memory in Reignited is sharing a similar percussion and bassline to Hurricos. Yeah... I'm trying experiment with a medley of the two in my spare time atm.
7:50. The pal release did have the hidden tracks. I distinctly recall hearing 1 of them when I forgot to pause when going to do something when I was a kid. On cliff town
Yeah, the original PAL release has the hidden tracks, but neither NTSC nor PAL versions of Reignited have hidden tracks or the PAL version of the High Caves theme.
@@CalcomYT ahhhh lol. Ye whats odd in reignited is they use that spot that was "hard for people in the US" but was in pal but dont use the pal music lol
I loved this bro. It’s very hard to find new info about these 3 games for me and you actually taught me something!!!
I was so confused when I first got to the final boss on my black label copy of Spyro 3.
Oh boy, I actually found this channel out recently and binged a good chunk of your stuff, so I'm glad this popped up the other day. You're doing some great work, keep it up.
Not sure why your channel and a 5 year old video is being recommended to me now... but I'm glad it is!
Good video! One of the developers recently mentioned some Spyro releases originally had the sound tables set up incorrectly, thus the wrong music would play and it got fixed in later versions.
great video bro, been binging your spyro content lmao
An entirely new song for the Lost Fleet level was found in a beta version of Spyro Year of the Dragon that was released in 2024. There's STILL new songs from the trilogy surfacing decades later.
Loving this new approach for the Channel! I like it when creators deeply analyse things that are often just praised and moved aside. It's fun and also educational.
Sometimes you stumble accross a channel, and realise that they're criminally underrated... You even got Goofy to do a voice-over at 13:03
I subbed, hope it helps out! :)
I completely agree that Molten Crater and Seashell Shore's tracks do somehow work really well with Dino Mines and Crystal Islands, Haunted Tomb doesn't bother me too much other than the thunder rumble effects in the track clearly meant for cloud spires, but the official version definitely fits the theme of the level way better.
From curious music differences to exclusive ost in other regions.
Great video!
Just meet this channel and I'm liking it a lot!
I love the effort you put into your videos. you deserve more views!
i know this vid is old now, but i really enjoyed it! i remember always being terrified in spyro 1 whenever the extra music kicked in because it sounded creepy to me. great to hear you talk about the music!
Thanks.
You're knowledge of this franchise made me realise I'm a retro noob and I thought I was a retro geek. Haha. Respect to you and your dedication to keeping these classics alive. :)
Sidenote I am lucky to be British and have the EU version of Spyro 1 to have the actual High Caves soundtrack.
It's good to see you back, man.
Also 10:01 reminded me of Mega Man X6 since it was developed in under a year and oooh boy is it terrible.
13:00 I think I remember reading that it was unintentional to have sunrise springs play during sorceress, some sort of glitch or improperly coded thing. Please take it with a grain of salt though bc I could be misremembering it, but it probably definitely is the direct result of rushed game development time.
EDIT: Oops I commented before you explained it, I knew it was a glitch but I never knew it was possibly connected to its anti piracy BUT in that case that actually makes a ton of sense
I had the updated version of the game as a kid with the proper soundtrack at least. Side note, Spyro 3 was always my favourite and I am kind of shocked to learn it had such a small development cycle but suddenly things make sense for a few things now. Still a very solid game though and a very good trilogy
I absolutely love your content! keep killing it man you inspired me to want to put out more content I enjoy and remind me what it is to being a gamer
Now I'm wondering what versions of Spyro 2 and 3 I played as a child and it's driving me insane.
Oh, that's super sick!! I didn't know any of this! I had the green label for Spyro 3 as a kid and that definitely explains why streaming it on an emulator a few years ago(presumably a ROM of the first build), some of the music felt off.
I think it's a super interesting topic, and I honestly didn't know they removed the difficulty adjustment mechanic in the later releases of Spyro 3.
I've always had the PAL platinum copy of the game and just assumed the mechanic was in there, after first hearing about it. The difficulty does get rather frustrating at times, and then suddenly it throws you a bone, it feels. But I recently purchased a black label edition of 3, because I wanted a copy with artwork on the disc (stupid reason, but it's a common collector thing here in Europe), and so now I wonder if I can actually tell the difference, when I eventually play through them both for comparison.
I've always been curious as to why in Spyro 1, alternate music plays if you stay in a level for too long.
I remember as a kid playing through Peace Keepers and after a while, this uncanny music started playing and it scared the crap out of me for some reason. It just came out of nowhere and no one ever explained why this happens. It had to be due to a glitch that caused the game to load music files that were already in the code.
I'm 3 years late to this video but fun fact: Sunrise Spring plays during the Sorceress fight in the PS3 download version of NTSC Spyro 3 too, because they uploaded the 1.0 version to the PlayStation store. When I first noticed, I was like "Wait... WTF? Why is this so happy?" 😂
In the thumbnail how is spyro listening to music if his headphones aren’t on his ears and I don’t even know where spyros ears are
Interestingly enough, Spyro 2 has for unknown reasons a difference in the musical choice for the intro in Fracture Hills. In some versions, instead of playing the Idol Springs music it plays the Shady Oasis music.
Glad your back friend.
Coincidence this video was uploaded on the day the Reignited trilogy launched on the Switch and the PC?
Probably.
Happy to see you safe 👍
I thought Drake Bell was narrating at first
Seeing what we lost in lost fleet's original beta soundtrack, it makes me hate the recycled Sheila's alp music more
the additional tracks added in the greatest hits version of spyro 3 are the best songs of the entire trilogy imo
I was 100% obvlious to the music differences until very recently! Playing Reignited (I'm in the same boat as you, always holding the originals in high regard!) I remember saying to my cousin hey...the music track on this level is wrong! But as you say, the soundtracks were different across regions!
when i got the games when i was much younger i was fortunate enough to get the greatest hits version. thank god, cuz to this day i love nearly all the tracks so much! XD
These 3 games are my first video games too and i absolutely love them over any other spyro games as well i have such a strong bond with them too !!
Yoooooo... I fucking love those soundtracks 2!!! Their the best , and thank yew for your vid!!! Shed some light on things I previously didn't know!!! Good job!!! 👌
I dunno about NTSC/U as I've heard reports, but there's not fully confirmation if it's the case there as well, but I personally own both PAL revisions of Spyro 3 as a "Black Label" copy (PAL region only: disc having "#" is an indicator of stuff). And many other games with revisions, I have all as "Black Labels" so this talk about Black Label and Platinum is a bit misleading. Might as well just say v1.0 and v1.1 instead. One thing is usually true though, Platinums are usually v.1.1 if one exists, but still...
One interesting thing I've noted that while Spyro 1 has muzak in Stereo, Spyro 2 & 3 have muzak as Mono.
I hold the original Spyro trilogy close to my Heart ❤
thank god you aren't holding the cursed year of the dragon black label that you can never freaking finish. honeybee speedway. doomed egg.
Reignited Trilogy ost pisses me off. Half the Music is botched and cut down. They shoulda got Stewart again for the music.
Should've just made the spyro music format sequenced. GG insomniac.
So interesting!
What ps1 games have your favorite soundtracks? For me, in no particular order:
Spyro 1 & 2
Crash Bandicoot 1-3
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 & 2
Spider-Man 2000
Syphon Filter 1 & 2
Metal Gear Solid
Tenchu 1 & 2
Quality content right here
I got the entire trilogy on my ps3 from the psn store and there they have the 1.0 version of spyro 3 instead of the 1.1 one for some reason. like i just could not take that final boss portion seriously. maybe they thought having the wrong music was the quintessential way to experience spyro 3. lol
Has anyone tried actually asking Stewart Copeland about this? He might remember, even after it's been so long considering he worked on the reignited scores.
That's a great idea in theory, but I doubt many people have Stewart Copeland on speed dial.
@@CalcomYT good point. I do have some connections in the music industry though, I can see if I someone I know could put me in touch with someone else to get in contact with him. It’s a long shot but I could try.
@@jakobboers5067 how did it go?
My guess, as it always is with this sort of thing, is copyright. I would guess the song used a sample that insomniac had rights to in one region but was owned by another company in another region.
Awesome new logo.
3:23 probably the best part haha :D
I played the PAL version - didn't bug me. :D
Best video game soundtrack of all time is spyro 1 2 or 3
Awesome video! Liked and subbed! We decided that there just simply isn't enough Spyro music in the world, so a little over a year ago, we decided to pursue a dream of creating authentic and original Spryo music! Would love to hear your musical mind's thoughts on some of our work!
CAL
C ool
A mazing
L egendary
420th like, courtesy of yours truly lol