Evening Lake and Sunrise Spring

I well remember the very first time that I played Sunrise Spring, the first home world in Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, for Play Station. Because I live in New Zealand where the PAL version of the game was released, the third home world Evening Lake uses the same music that Sunrise Spring uses.

Since I had discovered Evening Lake before I had discovered Sunrise Spring, when I discovered Sunrise Spring, I thought that I was playing in Evening Lake. This was in 2002 or 2003 when I was only 6 or 7, so I wasn't as good at noticing all the differences in scenery. So, because they both shared the same music and featured lush, vast, flat areas of soft golden green grass, I mistook Sunrise Spring for Evening Lake.

One of the things that defines Evening Lake is the fact that there is a lake taking up a lot of the area. When I discovered Sunrise Spring, I was too focussed on the similarities to notice that this was a different level and home world altogether. When I tried to go under the shallow blue water, only to find that I couldn't, I complained, because I couldn't understand why I suddenly couldn't go underwater like I was so used to doing.

It was a while before I fully appreciated Sunrise Spring, and even today, Evening Lake remains to be my favourite home world of the game, though Sunrise Spring and Midday Gardens are a close second and third respectively. Some differences between the two levels is that the green grass is a different colour. Evening Lake takes place at dusk, while Sunrise Spring takes place at dawn.

Evening Lake has a medieval castle, while Sunrise Spring has tall sheltering trees, a tall Victorian style castle, and mini mountains. There isn't much else in Evening Lake since a lot of the space is taken up by the lake, the lake is where most of the scenery takes place. In contrast to Sunrise Spring, where there is more scenery on land, and less scenery underwater. I think it was a while before I actually acknowledged the lack of trees in Evening Lake.

And let's not forget that there's a whale in the lake of Evening Lake, even though lakes consist of fresh water, instead of salt water where real life whales are found. In Sunrise Spring, I don't recall there being any inhabitants underwater.