Spyro Reignited Trilogy – Review

Last year Sony exclusive Crash Bandicoot was brought back to life in the form of the N.sane Trilogy and was a big success with the title recently getting a release on rival console Xbox; this year Developers Toys for Bob have brought back to life everyone’s favorite purple dragon, Spyro.

The Spyro Reignited Trilogy brings you Spyro the Dragon, Spyro: Ripto’s Rage and Spyro: Year of the dragon. The concept is similar, three previous Spyro games have been lovingly recreated with all new visuals built from the ground up to make the most of this generations consoles.
For those of you that are old enough to know who Spyro is prior to the spinoff of Skylanders, as soon as you pick up your controller you will be taken back to your younger self, the game has been faithfully recreated and you will instantly feel at home with the simple controls and mechanics Spyro is known for, you will be hopping, gliding, roasting sheep and collecting gems as though you’ve never left the cute cartoon platformer. Spyro has his original move set, he can jump, glide, breath fire headbutt and roll to dodge; all the while accompanied by his dragonfly sidekick which acts as a sort of health meter, the dragonfly has 3 stages which he can go through before Spyro eventually loses a life.

Don’t expect a deep storyline here with an initial cutscene introducing the characters and the theme of each game. The beauty of this game, typical of platformers of the ’90s, is its simple controls and gameplay. You play Spyro, tasked with releasing your dragonkin from enchanted prisons through different realms all with unique themes, all the while collecting gems from monsters and chests and rescuing dragon eggs from pesky thieves. Just because the gameplay is simple, that does not mean it is not fun; this is a testament to just how good the original 32-bit game was. Finding all of the dragons and collecting all the gems on a level is rewarding and the game is a joy to play.

The game is gorgeous, with all new graphics and animations, detailed terrains and locations from castles to ice caves really bring to life the cartoon world. Each dragon you rescue is brought to life with their own personality and micro dialogue. Each level has different enemies which require different actions to take them out and get them to cough up their precious gems, for example, big ogres which require you to dodge blows which turn you into a pancake or soldiers with flameproof metal shields which require you to put your head down and charge them with your horns.
There are some simple platform puzzles which require you to find the correct platforms from which to glide to hidden ledges as well as several challenges on each mission. The good thing about the simplicity of the game is that the move set you start with is the same as that you end with, you can’t upgrade your skills in the first Spyro and so you can reach 100% completion on each level on the first time of playing.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time playing this game and it is a benchmark for how remasters should be done; this is not one of those games which rely on the nostalgia of a select group to get by, it offers a lot of content with a simple concept and looks amazing and is accessible and fun for old and new gamers alike. After a long time out of the game, it looks like Spyro will endear itself to a whole new generation who I am sure in the future will look back on it with the same fondness as I do the original now.