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Spyro Reignited Trilogy Review


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469051347_SpyroReignitedboxart.png.a449e0c82197a13eb6799fd102a13f22.pngDespite a twenty year legacy, I had somehow managed to go all these years without ever having played a Spryo game. Granted, the original trilogy was on the PlayStation and at the time I was strictly a Nintendo man, but it's still curious, looking back on it, that I never got around to trying any of Spyro's adventures that did land on Nintendo systems. Perhaps its fitting then that my first introduction to the purple dragon's platforming adventures is with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, a remastering of the three original Spyro games that appeared on the PlayStation between 1998 and 2000. This makes for a great opportunity to see where Spyro's adventures began, though this remastering would have benefited from a more thorough remake of some finicky old-school platforming issues.
 
The first three games in the franchise are available in this trilogy with no other bells or whistles attached—no extra features such as development art or a music jukebox are included—so let's jump right into the first game, Spyro the Dragon. What's immediately evident is that Spyro has a charming simplicity that still allows for a decent amount of gameplay content. Spyro really only has a few moves, and in the first game doesn't learn any extra abilities, so right out of the gate you have access to his entire repertoire and are able to play around with charging, gliding through the air, and breathing fire. It's not the most robust array of actions but overcoming obstacles with this basic set of skills has an easy-going appeal to it.
 
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Spyro's objective is to free his fellow dragons that have been turned to stone statues by the evil Gnasty Gnorc, and with that end goal in mind the game has a breezy pace thanks to its wide-open environments and somewhat non-linear progression. There are six hub worlds in the game and each hub contains a handful of levels (plus a boss fight) which simply task you with exploring 3D environments to find however many dragons each level contains. It is undeniably repetitive, though there is admittedly a kind of mindless charm to the gameplay—this is the kind of game where you can zone out and just enjoy the quest set before you.
 
That's not to say the experience is perfect, though. Unfortunately, like many remastered games, the developers were perhaps a little too wary of changing anything about the beloved original, and the result is that the controls and camera can feel terribly dated. Spyro's movements can be pretty stiff, particularly when charging. What was most likely a limitation of tech twenty years ago just feels like sloppy game design today. More problematic though is the camera. Simply put, the camera never feels comfortable. For one thing, it's just a little too close to Spyro, making it hard to see what is around him, directly to the side and behind. With the somewhat stiff controls, this can lead to some needlessly clumsy enemy encounters. Secondly, the camera controls are an awkward mix of auto-correcting and free movement, and somehow the game ends up getting the worst of both. The game tries to auto-correct the camera's placement at times and the result is downright disorienting—in an age where every controller comes with two control sticks, this kind of camera movement is just plain unnecessary. But even when you do try to adjust the camera with the right stick, the movement feels slow and imprecise, which is particularly frustrating when you're trying to hit a fast enemy. Even by the end of the game you never quite shake off the feeling of fighting the camera controls to work smoothly.
 
And finally, the frame rate chugs a bit at times, which is especially annoying given the long loading times for, well, just about everything in the game. Entering a level, exiting, even dying and respawning—everything seems to take twice as long to load as it should, which kind of eats away at the game's charm. Overall though, Spyro the Dragon has a simple appeal as a collect-a-thon 3D platformer from the heyday of the genre.
 
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The second game in the trilogy, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, ups the ante with a few tweaks to the gameplay formula, though fundamentally this is still very much the same gameplay experience. This time Spyro has been transported to the world of Avalar by a group desperate for his help in fighting Ripto, a diminutive warlock tyrant. In terms of gameplay, this plays out very similarly to the first game: within three hub worlds there are multiple levels where you'll need to collect orbs in order to progress. This time however they're not quite as easy to find, which makes the gameplay a little more involved and interesting. On the flip side, it can also make it more tedious, as some of the side quests or mini-games you need to play through are inventive but frustrating thanks to awkward control mechanics. The variety is nice, but a little more polish would have been even better. And unfortunately, the controls and camera issues from the first game are present here as well, which makes for a particularly horrendous boss fight mid-way through the game.
 
But overall, Spyro 2 adds some welcome personality to the franchise, thanks to a wide variety of side characters—as well as cutscenes to make the adventure feel more alive and not just a checklist of collectibles—as well as new abilities for Spyro which help shake up the gameplay a tiny bit. Even if it doesn't fix all of the original's problems, Spyro 2 is a solid sequel.
 
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The third game, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, is a bit less of a leap in gameplay design but still adds enough new touches to keep the action feeling engaging. Now Spyro is tasked with recovering the dragon eggs that were stolen by an evil Sorceress—yeah it's pretty much the exact same collect-a-thon set-up once again. Sadly this game doesn't fix the camera issues either, but the problems feel less egregious this time—or maybe by the third game I was just used to dealing with spotty camera controls. What Year of the Dragon does add are entirely new characters to play as, limited to specific levels or small sections of levels. Like Spyro 2's addition of mini-game challenges this is a welcome chance to shake up the gameplay a bit, though these side characters are somewhat underwhelming—not bad, but not particularly exciting to play as either. And of course this game features even more mini-games and side pursuits for collecting dragon eggs, including a hilariously 90s skateboarding challenge.

 
All three games sport updated graphics which, aside from the aforementioned occasional frame rate stutters, are lovely. The visuals are bright, colorful, and cartoonish, perfect for the late 90s mascot design of Spyro. The music isn't half bad either, though I'd recommend turning up the volume a bit to properly hear it.
 
Whether you're an old fan or a new player like me, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a charming return to late 90s platforming, despite some unfortunate wrinkles that haven't aged well. The developers have sadly fallen into the same trap that plagues many remastered games by retaining everything about the original game, both the good and the bad, which leads to some camera work that is spotty at best and downright frustrating at worst. Still, if you're able to cope with the camera and load times then Spyro Reignited Trilogy offers a solid selection of classic 3D collect-a-thon gameplay.
 
Rating: 7 out of 10 Dragon Eggs
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