Or at least you could from R/S/E onwards (although none of my Gen 4 games have had that problem yet).
Currently been re-playing through Heart Gold (remake of Gold) whilst I was waiting for my laptop, currently just got into the Kanto Region with my team of Feraligatr, Onix, Kadabra, Arcanine, Fearow and Dragonair.

Well, if we're just talking the very first ones, then I didn't really play that much of the original Crash, but I'm pretty sure I finished the original Spyro. That was a very fun game, and I'm going to have go find out if it's one of the playstation classics that are available for download.

Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (as I've now discovered is the 'correct' spelling for that title) was a 2D platformer with a fair bit of puzzle-solving involved in completing the levels. You took on the role of Abe, a humanoid alien creature, that was trying to escape from the factory he worked at after overhearing that his species was going to be next delicacy for the alien overlords that ran the place. On your way out you had to try and rescue as many of your fellows as you could, and you could interact with them in a basic way to solve the puzzles to help you escape (simple stuff like following you, waiting at a certain spot, pulling a level - or as a last resort distraction to prevent the guards from spotting you). It was good fun, but very challenging.

A mate of mine was very interested in all three of those games, so when you mentioned the first two, I was immediately reminded of Oddworld. I think Spyro was my favourite.

I think the only one I've got is Wrath of Cortex. It should be around here somewhere, but I can't find it. Maybe it is with my Gamecube games...?

-Phobos

Changing the graphics and the way the game plays, I mean. The backstory too, I think.

Ripto's Rage is definitely better than Year of the Dragon, which I am hard-pressed to even remember. I think there was skateboarding in it, and that crossed my threshold for tolerating stupid mini-games. I wasn't playing Spyro because I was into skateboarding, I was playing Spyro because I wanted to run around as a cocky little purple dragon, fly, set stuff on fire, and trash things with my horns. Skateboards do not enter into this equation. Also, way too heavy on side-characters I didn't care about. See above note about wanting to play as a dragon, not a monkey or a bird or whatever else was in there.

Most of the mini-games in Ripto's Rage are pretty good, though. The flying ones are always great, and I was okay with most of the rest. The endgame always disappointed me, though. I thought the fight with Ripto was uninteresting, challenging only because it was a long grind and I sucked at dodging with the weird camera angle they used there, not because anything creative was happening, and I never felt a good sense of closure by defeating him. It always surprised me that it was really over, just like that. Plus, again, I never cared much about the side-characters. I wanted a lot more dragons from my dragon games, or at least more fantastical creatures like fauns, less random anthropomorphized animals like cheetahs with running shoes.

As for the rest of the series, I never played anything beyond Year of the Dragon because I couldn't afford new systems. Therefore, I don't know very much about the newer games. I guess there's a girl dragon, and she's named Cynder, or something like that? *shrug*

As for Legacy of Time, it's kind of similar to the Myst series in that it's a puzzle game where you run around picking up clues and items to work your way through each stage. In this case, you're a time-traveler who's trying to collect the pieces of an alien artifact that ended up stashed in various places and times on Earth, specifically Atlantis, El Dorado, and Shangri La before they were lost. You explore the areas, pick up various items that you'll need to use to solve the puzzles, and eventually you get the artifact piece from each area. You're assisted by Arthur, the AI in your chameleon suit (which lets you look like a native, wherever you are). Arthur is hilariously snarky, and one of the major reasons I liked the game so much. Also because it looks good and sounds good, and the puzzles are challenging without being impossible. The tunnels under Shangri La were definitely the toughest for me. I spent many, many hours running around mapping that place.

Oddly, I never played any of the other games in the series. I don't know why. Definitely check out that one at least, though. It's a little confusing, not having all the backstory, but once you're into the game it doesn't interfere too much.

~Neshomeh