The Spyro Trilogy Are Reignited
Updated on March 22, 2022 by Renri Seong: The beloved PlayStation 1 Spyro games eventually received a remake called Spyro: Reignited Trilogy back in 2018. Instead of being a remake of one of the Spyro games, the Reignited Trilogy was a remaster collection of Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. This collection has been fairly loyal to its source materials with gems in the same locations as in the original games, and even some voice actors returning to reprise their roles. One feature that made a comeback was Cheat Codes. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One have the same cheats, but their input codes are different. The following guide has been updated to include the Switch and PC input codes as well as new cheats that weren't in the original trilogy.
The Spyro Trilogy Are Reignited
While Spyro: Reignited Trilogy brings back cheats from the original trilogy, some are brand-new additions to the franchise. One example is the Retro Spyro, which changes Spyro's render to look like he stepped out of the PS1 games. Others are game-exclusives for Ripto's Rage and Year of the Dragon.
It's 9 o'clock on a Sunday evening, and after what feels like hours of grinding, I'm seconds from throwing down my controller in absolute disgust. It's all due to a toad: an irritating, wretched toad that won't stop rolling around in all its remastered splendour over the TV screen - and my poor purple dragon. This, of course, is a boss fight in the remastered version of Spyro: Year of the Dragon, and like the rest of the trilogy, the aging mechanics make you suffer. But god does it look and feel wonderful.
Hot on the heels of last year's Crash Bandicoot N Sane Trilogy, Spyro: Reignited Trilogy is the latest attempt to feed the near-insatiable demand for gaming nostalgia. If the title hadn't already given it away, Reignited takes the three games from the original trilogy - Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon - and gives them a fresh lick of paint. Aside from some aesthetic changes, Reignited dutifully follows the level and gameplay design of the originals practically to a T. It's effective at fanning the flames of nostalgia, yet with this sense of familiarity comes the weirdness mechanics long forgotten (with good reason). It's pleasant and engaging at first, but I wonder whether Reignited is able to provide sufficient motivation for players to replay it.
One of the few quibbles I have about the redesign is that the softer look does remove some of the menace of the original Spyro trilogy. It's now more kid-friendly, perhaps, but levels like Idol Springs don't evoke the same sensation of impending doom as the early PlayStation titles. Maybe that's just the necessary price of upgrading the graphics, as you lose the implied nature of the low-polygon art style, which often made monsters appear more terrifying. The introduction of curves also seems to have extended a little too far for playable character Sheila, whose design has already been criticised by much of the Spyro community for the use of an excessively tiny waist and addition of highly feminised features. It seems a bit unnecessary, and frankly a little out of place, in what is otherwise an excellent art style.
In some ways, it's rather fascinating to see the game design of the late 90s in a modern setting. The simplicity of rampaging around makes for wonderfully mindless gameplay, but things can get a little stale, even with the inclusion of power-up gates and flying levels. The main motivation for players in Spyro games is item collection and speed, which is great for completionists and speedrunners, but may not offer much for those seeking inventive gameplay or gripping stories. Collecting dozens of eggs gets incredibly repetitive, and with only the occasional world boss to really break the pattern, the trilogy's replayability is limited.
We had to literally re-design and build everything (over 100 levels and over 500 characters) from scratch, so while being faithful to the original spirit of the designs was our primary concern, we tried to add a rich new layer of visual storytelling wherever we could to bring even more personality and charm to the world. A great example of this approach can be seen in the 80+ Elder Dragons that Spyro rescues in the first game of the trilogy, many of which are showcased in the launch trailer for the trilogy (you can see above).
Now, with the launch just around the corner, a Reddit user who has acquired a copy of the game ahead of schedule has confirmed what exactly is going on with this upcoming release. The back of the box says the trilogy collection will require a download of at least 10 GB. To be more precise, the Switch's data management supposedly says the file download is 8.7 GB in size. To further clarify, this is an Asian copy of the game, featuring a European game card.
@RobotReptile I believe it's 15GB, but that is just over the amount a 16GB cart would have (which is 14.9GiB). And the cart would need space for the relevant FW update in case the user does not have internet access (which of course is required to download the rest of the trilogy).
I don't see why anyone's surprised considering that a download was required for the other versions. That won't stop me from playing a remake of some of my favorite platformers. I played the originals mostly on PSP, so the remake will feel right at home on Switch. The first game of the trilogy was always my favorite, so I'm glad that at least that one will be on the cartridge.
As for the longevity of the games I think that the franchise really speaks for itself. The first game was released 20 years ago and still has a huge following to this day. Many older generation gamers have been delighted to go on the adventure with Spyro all over again. Equally it is a great introduction to a younger audience that are approaching the game with a completely fresh outlook. I absolutely loved all 3 of the remastered games and with only very minor gripes to report, the developers have done an incredible job of breathing new life into a much-loved classic. There is also real value for money to be had with 3 full games included in the purchase price. The magic as I had hoped was most certainly not lost in the revival process and I thoroughly enjoyed the stunning and nostalgic experience that the Spyro Reignited trilogy had to offer.
Spyro Reignited is a 3-in-1 remake and repackaging of the original Spyro trilogy, a chance to relive those special times and revisit an old friend. But would I feel welcomed and embraced, the pain of nostalgia giving way to warmth and childhood joy, or would the rose-tinted goggles looking into the past be shattered as I picked apart every little difference and decreed, "This isn't my Spyro"?
In a sense, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a game (or games, depending on how you look at it) caught between eras. Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon all came out between the years of 1998 and 2000. Two decades later, there are certain things players expect from a 3D platformer that weren't yet enshrined into game design law when the Spyro trilogy first came to market. Things like: being able to directly control the camera.
The character of Spyro's world also feels changed, but definitely for the better. With the PlayStation 1's limited capabilities, many details in Spyro's world had to be simple. Gnorcs and Rhynocs, two of Spyro's most common enemies, were largely-featureless blobs of one or two colors in the original trilogy, but here they're rendered in exquisite detail, full of warts and bumps and tusks and bulging bellies. Spyro's dragon friends were likewise constructed from largely recycled models, while in Reignited I'm not sure I ever saw a duplicate. Each dragon also has distinctive features befitting their respective worlds: artisans carry hammers, paintbrushes, and other crafting tools, peacekeepers are decked out in armor and look tougher than any other variant, magic crafters are strange and exotic, like scaled fortune tellers, and so on. Other friendly races (seen in Spyro 2 and 3) have likewise been given overhauls.
Stewart Copeland's fantastic score also helps keep the mood chill. Catchy, relaxing synth melodies and simple drum beats gives everything a quasi-jazz, quasi-prog rock vibe, and the fact players can swap between original or "reignited" forms at any time is much appreciated. While the reignited versions are great and doesn't dishonor Spyro's legacy at all, there's something so charming about the simpler, old-school score.
Like most gaming nostalgia, those memories are forgiving and clouded in reminiscence. But the hands-off E3 demo I saw of the newly remastered Spyro trilogy (which includes Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro Year of the Dragon) not only brought me back to that same place, but also somehow managed to coat my fondness for the series in an even greater sense of wistfulness.
There probably won't be much here for people who aren't already fans of the original trilogy. But with the breathtaking HD graphics and improved controls and camerawork, it's sure to reignite the passion of nostalgic players.
While the Spyro in the Reignited trilogy doesn't look exactly like the Spyro from the original release, that's largely due to how much gaming technology has improved in the 20 years between both games. "We were talking to one of the producers of the original, and they had a 120 polygon limit for characters in the original game and, honestly, we probably have more than that in Spyro's toe," said Joshua Nadelberg, art director at Toys For Bob. "There's just so much more graphical power we can take advantage of on modern consoles."
It's also nice to see that the first game now more closely matches the other two in some ways. Sparx can now point out the nearest gem in all three titles, Tom Kenny voices Spyro across the board, and you can even earn Skill Points in the original game for the first time. The developer has gone even further, adding in an entirely new feature with an optional mini-map for every level. The art style is also the same across the trilogy, making it look and feel like a nice, cohesive package. 041b061a72