Playing the soon-to-be-released Spyro Reignited Trilogy at E3 was a rather nostalgic experience. This could be expected from anyone who was a child in the PS1-PS2 era of gaming, when mascots like Spyro and Crash Bandicoot were all the rage. My Spyro nostalgia isn’t quite as strong as my Crash nostalgia though, so I’m able to openly admit that the first Spyro doesn’t hold up very well. My time with Spyro Reignited showed me that the collection’s developer, Toys for Bob, definitely cares about Spyro, as they’ve actually made the first game far better than the original title that it’s remaking.
While the original Spyro has a lot going for it, the controls haven’t held up. While playing the title a few months ago, I found Spyro’s controls felt like they had a layer of molasses coating them. Every movement felt sluggish, and flying was a trial of patience. These issues have always made revisiting the classic somewhat difficult, especially since the following Spyro games fixed many of the issues I had with the first.
The stages I played from The Reignited Trilogy, “Toasty” and “Treetops”, gave me a great deal of confidence in the trilogy, as it goes beyond simply remastering the PS1 classic. The controls in The Reignited Trilogy are far sharper and more precise than in the original, which can be attributed to Toys for Bob’s methodology for approaching these remakes. Rather than remaking Spyro as a 1-1 remaster, the developers we met stated that they wanted to make Spyro play “as you remember it,” which is exactly what the remakes needed. As kids we don’t always notice these issues in games, which is why replaying classics can be disappointing. By making The Reignited Trilogy a collection of Spyro “as we remember it,” Toys for Bob is actually improving on the first three Spyro games.
A similar approach was taken when it came to the remake’s visuals, as the style of each stage is still present. It likely goes without saying that everything looks quantifiably better than in the original, but I was still surprised at how colorful The Reignited Trilogy’s stages are so far. Every corner of the world is full of new life, but not at the cost of the original game’s style.
We learned that Toys for Bob didn’t have any of the original tracks or instruments at their disposal when recreating the soundtrack, meaning they had to dissect each track and make it from the ground up. This shows, as the stages I played sounded like high-quality versions of the levels I fondly look back on. Tom Kenny has even returned to entirely rerecord Spyro’s lines from the first game, which is a fantastic touch that fans of the series will appreciate.
I’m definitely feeling good about the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, as it seems to understand that the classic Spyro titles need a bit of work to make them as fun as we remember them being. I had a blast playing the demo, and I sincerely hope this level of detail is present in the entirety of the full game.
