The original PlayStation was brimming with quality games from every genre, but perhaps the one genre that shone the most on the system over all others was platformers. Crash Bandicoot was brought into the modern age with style and panache last year thanks to Vicarious Visions’ excellent efforts, and now Spyro, our favourite dragon, is receiving the same treatment, this time being handled by developers Toys for Bob. Spyro Reignited Trilogy is puts the original three PS1 Spyro games made by Insomniac on one disc, shinier, smoother, and better looking than ever before. Here’s fifteen things you should know about the remakes.
REMADE FROM THE GROUND UP
Though Activision took to calling N.Sane Trilogy a remaster, it was much more than that- no, it was a ground up remake of the Crash Bandicoot trilogy, and that’s what Spyro is going to be as well. Rather than just taking Insomniac’s classics, touching them up, and re-releasing them on contemporary consoles, Toys for Bob are remaking all three games from the ground up, giving them the attention and love they deserve.
UNREAL ENGINE 4
Remaking all three of these classics is, of course, not an easy task by any means, but Toys for Bob have the best tools at their disposal to help them do that job. With Spyro Reignited Trilogy, they’re using Epic’s engine, Unreal Engine 4, to remake Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon.
UPDATED VISUALS
Of course, one of the biggest advantages that the new engine brings to these remakes is updated visuals. Spyro Reignited Trilogy looks absolute beautiful, bringing over the 20 year old games to modern consoles with amazing execution. Based on what we’ve seen of the game so far, all the evironments are looking pretty much the same as we all remember them, but much sharper and better. It’s both familiar and new, all at the same time.
LEVEL CHANGES
Even though Reignited Trilogy is remaking the first three games, fans of the classics who might be worried that it might change things a bit too much- don’t be. Actually, it’s not changing anything at all. The level design remains the same across the board, in all three games, and things such as gems, enemies, destructible things in the environment that you might remember from the PS1 games are still going to be where they were 20 years ago. That said, Toys for Bob have added a lot more visual detail to the game, such as patches of tall grass that react properly when you move inside of them (which you can also burn, of course), or things such as canons and banners and vines on walls of structures, and the like. Essentially, in the developers’ own words, there’s just going to be “more to look at.”
NO NEW LEVELS
Toys for Bob’s main aim while remaking the original Spyro trilogy has been to remain as faithful to the original games as possible. We’ve already mentioned how the level design is going to remain exactly the same as earlier in all three games. As an extension of that, Spyro Reignited also won’t be adding any new levels of its own to any of the games. It’s going to have the exact same amount of content that the original games did. It may look and feel better, but it’s going to be the same game at its core- which is just aces in our book, by the way.
NEW CONTROLS
Of course, Toys for Bob are making some changes to help make the games feel and play better on current gen consoles, and I’d say these are necessary changes. The controls, for instance, are going to be revamped entirely- which makes sense, because the PS1 didn’t even make use of the analog sticks in most cases. A new control scheme for all three games should help make the platforming and action feel that much better, hopefully.
NO INPUT FROM SPYRO CREATOR
When we say “creator”, we don’t mean Insomniac. No, we’re referring to the person responsible for the actual visual look of Spyro, the character. Apparently, Charles Zembillas, who made the character art for the titular dragon, was not consulted or contacted by Activision or Toys for Bob for the upcoming remakes. Though he’s upset about that, judging by what he’s had to say, he still is excited to see the games in glorious HD.
REMASTERED OST
Music is an important aspect of any video game, and as anyone who’s played the original three Spyro titles will tell you, they had great soundtracks. Thankfully, their soundtracks will be receiving the same loving treatment as their visuals are. Reginited Trilogy will include fully remastered soundtracks for all three of Insomniac’s original PlayStation classics. Additionally, players will also be given the option of switching between the original OST and the remastered one while playing the games.
NEW MAIN THEME
Stewert Copeland, the composer of the OST of the first three games, is definitely very involved in the upcoming remakes. His music is, of course, going to be used in the games, as we’ve already discussed, while he’s also helping with remastering his original works. What’s even more interesting, though, is that he’s also composing a brand new main theme just for Reignited Trilogy.
RETURNING VOICE ACTORS
The voice actors for some of the most major characters from the original trilogy will also be reprising their roles, and will be coming back to re-record their lines for Reignited Trilogy. The voice of Spyro from Ripto’s Rage and Year of the Dragon, Tom Kenny, is back as the titular dragon, and will also be re-recording the character’s lines from the first game, for which Carlos Alazraqui was the original voice actor. Additionally, Gregg Berger will also be returning to reprise his roles as Ripto and Hunter the Cheetah.
ONLY FIRST GAME ON THE DISC
While Reignited Trilogy is a collection of all three games in one single package, apparently, the physical disc of the game itself is only going to include the first game. That doesn’t mean the other two games are not going to be included, don’t worry- it just means the other two games are going to have to be downloaded separately through codes provided with the purchase. Of course, if you just buy the trilogy digitally, this won’t be an issue.
PRICE
But here’s the best part about the package. While $60 is the standard price we see for most video game releases, Spyro Reignited Trilogy will be sold for $40, just like Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy. Three amazing platformers, fully remade, for just $40 is a very, very good deal, no matter how you cut it.
PS4 PRO AND XBOX ONE X ENHANCED
Spyro is already going to look amazing no matter what system you play it on, but it’s been confirmed that Reignited Trilogy will be enhanced on both the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, so you can expect those two versions of the game to be even more visually impressive. Other than HDR support, nothing has really been confirmed yet in terms of its frame rate and resolution targets, so here’s hoping we get more info on that front soon.
PRE-ORDER DETAILS
If you own a PlayStation 4 and decide to pre-order Reignited Trilogy (which you very well might, given that the special place this series has in the hearts of so many PlayStation fans), you’ll be getting a few small but cool bonuses. These will be an avatar, which will be a close up shot of Spyro’s face, and a dynamic PS4 theme.
POSSIBLE SWITCH AND PC VERSIONS
Though Spyro Reignited Trilogy has only officially been announced for PS4 and Xbox One so far, rumours have been circulating that it might make its way to PC and Nintendo Switch as well, fuelled even further by the fact that the official Spyro website itself mistakenly listed those platforms for a while as well. Given how Crash launched exclusively for the PS4 last year but then made its way over to PC, Xbox One, and Switch a year later, I wouldn’t bet against Spyro doing the same as well.