What references to other games are there in the Spyro games? The title I've given to this line of thought doesn't, in fact, refer to the Professor's dialogue to Spyro about the Ball Gadget. I'm talking about Gnasty Gnorc. To me, he seems to a subtle-yet-obvious reference to Mario. Specifically, a reference to some early villains.

  Gnasty's facial shape, his underbite, his ears (which the Gnorc army have had since Spyro 1, with Gnasty also gaining these ears in AHT) and eyes resemble that of Tatanga, 'the Mysterious Spaceman', who was the main villain in 'Super Mario Land' and who was revealed to be working for Wario in 'Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins'.

  On the other hand, his status as the first true villain, the army of the same species as him, his somewhat limited levels of magic, his overall build, the somewhat-spiky armour accents, his attitude and possibly even the fact Gnasty went from a threat to a laugh mirrors the traits of some turtle dude that may be less well known than Tatanga (some weird name like Bowser Koopa. Someone confirm that for me).

  Basically, if you stripped Gnasty of his specific Spyro traits, many other characters from other series can be seen in him. Any other references that seem like that? Any more obvious references (i.e. the Ball Gadget dialogue)?