Spyro Reignited Trilogy

» System: PS4 (tested), Xbox One » Buy it from: Online, retail » Buy it for: £34.99

Following the success of last year’s Crash Bandicoot remasters, fellow Playstation platform star Spyro is next up for a facelift – although the years have been pretty kind to begin with.

The original games were technically impressive and pushed the boundaries of what was possible on the Playstation, and the 3D environments in this trilogy are larger than you might expect for games of that era. There’s plenty of variety in terms of your objectives, the controls are tight and Spyro’s range of moves remains satisfying, whether you’re ramming an enemy at high speed or charring them with the hero’s fiery breath. The graphical upgrade is obviously enormous, and puts the games easily on par with the best cartoon-style games of the current generation. There have been many claims of ‘real cartoon graphics’ over the years, but the cutscenes don’t look all that far off today’s CGI cartoons on TV. Likewise, the new sound design is excellent, with some great updates of the music and high quality voice acting.

One oddity is that the camera doesn’t follow Spyro’s movement and is exclusively adjusted with the right analogue stick. It’ll never be pointing anywhere except the place you’ve told it to, but you do constantly have to tell it where to look. As with the Crash remaster, there’s no option to use the original style, but unlike Crash there have been some creative reinterpretations that take characters and environments a bit further from their original look. They’re perfectly attractive and wouldn’t look at all out of place in a new game, but might well be jarring to long-term fans. One more bugbear is that load times feel a bit lengthy by modern standards.

Still, those are relatively minor points that shouldn’t detract from what is a very good package – especially given the price point. The three games will last you a good while, and the strong remake work ensures that they can still be enjoyed by old fans and today’s younger players alike.

Score 82%

[PS4] This should strike a chord with those that grew up with Spyro in the Nineties.[PS4] Some parts of the game have been reinterpreted, rather than remade.