Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Review

If you’re wondering if we have been travelling back in time lately, we can’t blame you. It seems that everything that was popular back in the 1990s and early 2000s is back, or is being remastered or is getting a sequel out of the blue. Eminem is back to school the world of rap, so is Crash Bandicoot to show us what old platformers really could do and now Activision has pulled out Spyro from underneath its blanket of nostalgia and has remastered the first three games that originally came out on the first PlayStation console. We were eager to see if Activision did as great a job as they did with the Crash Bandicoot games, but first we were quite disappointed that two of the three remastered games were actually only available as a download, even though the disc could easily hold all three games.

Story

The three Spyro games follow a traditional format that was common for games that were released back in the late nineties. You’ll get introduced with a problem, in this case the dragon kingdom is in peril in two of the games, and in one of the games, another world summons Spyro to their world to help them. You’ll notice the evolution in the series, as the first game only has a bit of story value that is presented in-between levels, while the other games will gradually throw some information at you when you progress. It’s not that this rerelease will break any records for its overall story value, but the premise is often cute and interesting enough to motivate you to drive forward.

Graphics

Graphically the Reignited Trilogy looks amazing, seeing how the original games look. While the previous comment may piss off fans of the original, we have to face the truth that the original releases have aged horribly and that even our fond memories of them cannot justify anything else. The character models look extremely smooth and are somewhat akin to the remaster of the Crash Bandicoot games, where everything is extremely colorful and bright. Even though all three games have the same appearance, which is extremely cool when looking at the loading screens and even the storytelling segments, you can still see that the first game is somewhat inferior to the rest. The first title feels more empty and lacks certain features that drive the other two games forward. Nonetheless, if you have fond memories of the PlayStation 1 versions, you’ll be blown away by the graphical prowess of this rerelease. Well, if you don’t count a few graphical bugs on the way, like the floor disappearing, some characters getting stuck in the wall, etc.

Sound

The sound design of the game is also quite invigorating. The voice acting is superb, even though the cutscenes don’t allow for any subtitles to be turned on (or at least we couldn’t find it in the options menu). The music is somewhat typical for games in the platform genre, where it’s somewhat upbeat and captivating but for the most part Spyro doesn’t really have that many iconic sounds going for it, that will be stuck in your head for days.

Gameplay

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a collection of 3D platformers all revolving around the adventures of Spyro the dragon. From start to finish you’ll be roaming around a fairly big 3D environment, finding portals to levels, collecting gems, and completing the objectives the games lay out for you. In reality all the goals revolve around collecting something, be it finding dragon statues, their eggs or talismans to unlock new worlds or areas you can explore.

For the most part the mechanics of all three games are really basic, as you can run, jump, glide through the air and use your fire breath to burn your enemies to a crisp, and those in armor can be crushed by using your headbutt. As the game series progresses, more mechanics are introduced, allowing you to glide longer, or teaching Spyro how to swim etc. And to top it off, the further you get in the three games, the more new characters get introduced, allowing to change the pace of the gameplay.

All three games have a lot of optional content mainly for completionists who love collecting gems and so on. This creates a proper replay value, and allows those who want to prolong their experience to explore a bit in the many different levels. While collecting may be optional, scoring a few extra gems or helping a few critters out might make things a lot easier when you have to unlock new zones by using gems. That being said, you can play the games as you choose, and there aren’t any big differences, but it is advised to start playing from the first in the series, to the third, as more mechanics get introduced, and playing backwards might hamper your experience a bit.

Conclusion

If you’re fond of platforming games, even if you have already played the original Spyro trilogy when it came out back in the day, we can only say that you should give this remastered collection a go. While it is utter bullshit that two of the three games have to be downloaded when buying a physical copy of this trilogy, it’s no valid argument to skip this rerelease. We were quite impressed with the games’ new lick of paint, its quite good controls (safe for the camera controls at times), the sound design and of course the content that gradually gets better when you plow through the games in the proper order. If you’re a gamer from the generation of the PlayStation 1 and Nintendo 64 era, this might just be the ticket to feeling like a kid again.

Ibuki

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Aspiring ninja.

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