Spyro 2: Gateway To Glimmer - or, you know, Ripto's Rage - was the very first game I ever owned, for the very first console I ever owned. Hell, I was so oblivious to gaming hardware at the time that I didn't even know you needed a memory card to save your progress. My parents only allowed me to play half an hour a day, so, for like a month, I kept playing the same levels again and again. And I loved it. Hell, when our TV broke and we had to borrow an old black & white TV from my grandparents, I just kept playing, colors be damned.
I remember buying the first game as soon as I had the money - and when Year of the Dragon came out, that was a day one purchase.
I even bought Enter The Dragonfly on the day of its release, I didn't even own a PS2 yet! If you could point to the exact point in time when I lost my innocence and became a cynical teenager, that would be it.
The melancholia truly is big with this one... An interesting article.