SPYRO REIGNITED TRILOGY
A fiery breath of life for the series
Wagon Wheels are smaller. The gap between Toblerone pyramids is bigger. The games that once wowed us simply make kids today shrug. As time goes on, some things just don’t get better. This remaster of the original Spyro is the antithesis of that – not only have the games been freshened up so they excel in the modern age of gaming, but it underlines just how full of life those original designs were. This is a remake of Insomniac’s original Spyro trilogy, which released on PlayStation between 1998 and 2000: Spyro The Dragon; Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage (originally Gateway To Glimmer over here); and Spyro: Year Of The Dragon. They were three of the best 3D platformer-collectathon games around. In the Reignited Trilogy they’re even better, able to stand up next to more recent games, and a must-play for anyone who fondly remembers the purple dragon’s origins, or anyone who wants to feel the burn for the first time.
EGGS YOU LIKE IT
Even when gaming was oversaturated with the genre (these days platformer-collectathons are few and far between) the Spyro games stood out, thanks to being both accessible and moreish. A small dragon, Spyro can’t wreak havoc like his older brethren, but he can glide, charge, and breathe flames to master platforming challenges and toast enemies. He’s a nimble, nippy thing, a joy to control. It’s a moveset that always makes you feel free. Some of the best secrets revolve around you spotting a hard-to-reach area and then working out how to glide over.
Extra animations for this version of the classic Spyro design make tearing through each world, rinsing it clean of gems and collectibles, a joy. There’s a rush to figuring out the design of each area, and clearing everything out. Sparx (your dragonfly friend who picks up treasure and acts as your HUD-free health indicator) can now point to uncollected gems in all three games from the very start, easing your frustration at finding one little green gem you missed along the way. Thanks to there being so much to collect, getting enough to beat the final boss never feels like a chore or too difficult, yet there’s plenty of challenge in going above and beyond to collect everything possible.
Thanks to the stunning recreation these games rarely
“EXTRA ANIMATIONS MAKE TEARING THROUGH EACH WORLD A JOY.”
show their age. The designs pop and fizz with colour. Spyro was always quirky, fun, and not too serious, so it really benefits from leaning into that cartoon aesthetic even more. The unique dragon designs and more lush, distinct worlds add a lot, and the extra fidelity makes exploring to unearth the games’ many secrets feel more rewarding than ever. Because these are games where you’re constantly nosing around levels, they really benefit from this extra TLC more than the fixedpath platforming of, say, Crash in the recent N.Sane Trilogy. These are worlds you inhabit as Spyro on a much closer level, and seeing how gorgeous some of the environments in the Reignited Trilogy are, you won’t want to look away.
DRAGON AGE
There are a handful of times when the old school level design does show a few wrinkles. Some of the side- missions where you play as Spyro’s friends in the later games don’t feel as tight and fluid as the revised Spyro’s movements; some minigames feel clunky now (a whack-amole mission in the third game is still rage inducing); and the handful of boss battles feel basic these days. Enhancements across the board level the playing field across the series, though the debate is sure to (Ripto’s) rage on as to which of the three games is king. Surprisingly, each retains its individual personality. None of the games are to be missed, and feel completely fresh even for those who know the originals back to front.
VERDICT
This package contains a huge amount – and it’s almost entirely some of the finest 3D platformer design plus enhancements that are simply gorgeous. Go on, puff the magic dragon. Oscar Taylor-Kent