Spyro Reignited Trilogy under test
At the time of its release, the Spyro the Dragon series was one of the few truly great 3D platform games for the first PlayStation. In the years 1998-2000 the games had to compete against cult hits like Banjo-Kazooie/Tooie and Mario 64. Twenty years later, players will once again be able to experience the adventures of the little dragon – with pimped-up graphics, a newly instrumentalized soundtrack and a few extras. But is the gargoyle still hot or is Spyro Reignited Trilogy a lukewarm infusion?
?Back to the Nineties
Hach, the 1990s. Actually not so long ago and yet half an eternity is over. In 1998, when Spyro the Dragon first saw the light of its virtual world, Russia had just declared bankruptcy, Hermann Maier recovered from his heavy fall at the Winter Olympics in Nagano, and Dieter Bohlen’s 80s singing duo “Modern Talking” attempted a comeback that fortunately only lasted a short time. I myself was the strongest Nintendo fanboy at the time, so I could only play the Spyro Games with friends occasionally. Back then, I would have rather bitten my tongue than admit that I liked the games. In this respect, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy game collection offers me the welcome opportunity to rediscover three classics in a practically completely new way. For all of you who, like me, are newcomers to the world of dragons, we would like to introduce the games individually.
Curtain up for Spyro
Because the evil Gnasty Gnorc on TV feels insulted by a dragon, he quickly petrifies all the dragons in the realm – well, FAST all. It is now up to Spyro, the youngest of them all, to free his conspecifics from petrifaction.
An introduction to the controls and gameplay mechanics is not given, which is not tragic. In part one, you have a rather limited move repertoire at your disposal, consisting of a knockout attack and the ability to spit fire and glide. You can also view the key assignments in the entire Reignited Trilogy at any time via the Pause menu. The rest is learning by doing. The dragonfly Sparx, which follows you every step of the way, turns out to be a health meter.
In each of the 6 upper worlds there are portals where you can enter the different levels – three “regular” levels, one boss level and one flight level where you have to fly through rings or roast enemies and items within a time limit. A peculiarity of the Spyro series is the fact that once you’ve defeated enemies, they won’t reappear until you reenter an area or lose a life before your progress has been saved. This results in a level being completely free of offenders at a certain point and can be explored practically without danger.
Spyro the Dragon is quite clear in its scope and can be played completely with platinum trophy in 8-12 hours even for series beginners due to the low degree of difficulty. In addition to the 80 dragons you have to free, you can also bring 12 dragon eggs to safety and collect lots of “Gems”. Once you’ve found all 12,000 hidden gems in the levels of these hidden gems, you’ll be able to play the bonus level “Gnasty’s Loot”, where you’ll have to find another 2000 more puzzles. Unfortunately there is no further incentive for the gems and dragon eggs, apart from the bonus level and trophies. All in all, the first part of the series is an entertaining introduction to a series that only got better from then on until the third part. In addition, the debut album not only laid the foundation for the subsequent parts of the series, but also set new technical standards at the time, on which practically all genre representatives still build today.
Ripto, after whose evil temperament the second part of the trilogy is named
The second act
For the second part, Ripto’s Rage, the developers of Insomniac Games had just under a year to spare – and decided to pad instead of spilling. Numerous new characters and more expansive areas join with a funny story to a very successful sequel of the series. This time the little dragon is accidentally sucked into a foreign world via a portal and has to find orbs to return home. Of course, he also does not let it go without helping the inhabitants of this world with their problems and is much more versatile than in the first part. Spyro can enter the water for the first time without being damaged and even learns to dive and climb. The glide is enhanced by a hover-rescue move and collecting the Gemstones is now necessary to make places accessible and learn other moves such as the head nut. Therefore the Bär Moneybags is introduced, which is not very popular among series connoisseurs. This will accompany us, as well as other characters of the cast, like the cheetah Hunter, also in part three. The additional abilities make backtracking necessary for the first time (i.e. re-visiting already played levels) in order to complete the areas with 100%. The opponents you defeat in part 2 are counted. There are archways in the worlds, where a number indicates how many enemies you have to defeat to unlock the power-up of the world. If these are fed with a minimum number of “souls”, the gate reveals a special ability that Spyro can use for a limited time. These skills include flying, a sprint or super fireballs that you can even fire underwater.
The basic structure of the worlds is basically circular, similar to its predecessor. The upper worlds are this time clearly bigger and more organically connected with each other. The boss fights have been spiced up and now differ more from the “normal” worlds. The flight levels are as usual, additional mini-games and challenges provide more variety than in the first part. Altogether a completely successful second part of the trilogy, which takes over the elements from part one and expands and refines them.
Additional playable characters bingen new gameplay elements in part three
The grand finale
It was not even a year between the release date of Ripto’s Rage and the third part, Spyro: Year of the Dragon. Also this time it is not to be noticed to the final product. Year of the Dragon introduces a large cast of playable side characters that will continue to complement Spyro’s original manageable moveset and allow developers to create types of levels that would not have been possible before. For example, we have Sheila, the kangaroo, with whose high jumps you can reach remote niches and ledges. Or the penguin Sergeant Byrd, who can float and shoot rockets. But Sparx, your faithful dragonfly companion, can also be played directly for the first time, and Bentley, the Yeti and Agent 9, a monkey, join in. This time the dragon eggs come to the fore. They are kidnapped by a sorceress and her henchmen and who else but Spyro could bring them back safely?
The story is amusing, the side characters sympathetic and also Moneybags, which is the negative exception in terms of sympathy factor, gets its fat away. Additional end bosses and for the third time in a row an increase in level and opponent design make part three a worthy conclusion to the “classic trilogy”.
The first boss in the third part
The ravages of time
At the time of its appearance, the first Spyro part represented a technological revolution. Hardly any other game allowed this amount of freedom and the rapid crossing of an entire level – and that without the then usual “fog”. Spyro, on the other hand, succeeded in cleverly circumventing the limitations of the hardware at that time. Of course, it must be noted that the individual worlds are not exactly huge. Due to their successful, in principle circular construction they don’t look too small and offer the additional possibility to do several “rounds” without tedious running back and forth, so that you can also find the last hidden jewels. Even today, the levels are still entertaining, even if they are a little outdated. The technical limitations of the old PS1 can still be felt. Under certain circumstances, this may also be due to the control system. In some points Spyro is unfortunately quite imprecise to control. And last but not least, this 3D platform, like so many others in this genre, suffers from a camera that is not always ideal. However, all these points are criticism at a high level, which does not detract from the overall experience.
Playable cartoon
The whole trilogy is optically raised to a common standard Every single character – from the dragon that needs to be liberated, to all enemies and NPCs, has been beautifully redesigned and convinces everyone with its own personality and respect for the original material. The character model of Spyro should be identical in all three parts. Here Toys for Bob decided on a variant that is very close to the original instead of adapting the games to the Skylanders series. In my eyes, that’s an absolute plus. In general, all characters look as if they could come from a cartoon series. The models of the originals were embellished with a lot of love for detail and a large portion of fantasy and create together with the colorful, detailed worlds an atmospheric overall concept.
Released without age restriction – and yet fun for every age group! D
sounding
On the musical side it was meticulously taken care not to alienate the great works of Stewart Copeland (the drummer of Sting’s former band The Police) too much. In order to guarantee this, the great master was simply engaged again, who also immediately contributed a new main theme. Otherwise he decided to re-record the pieces and to extend them discreetly with some new instruments. Optionally you can switch back to the original soundtrack of the respective game via the pause menu at any time. Virtually all characters have a successful voice acting, the voices have been unified, so that in the English version Spyro now lends the voice to Tom Kenny in all three parts.
FAZIT
Original developer Insomniac Games had more or less abandoned Spyro in the year 2000 in order to open up new horizons with Ratchet & Clank. Although this series also has its charm, I immediately took the little dragon to my heart. All three games are still a lot of fun today and don’t have to hide behind the Nintendo classics I grew up with. It is very gratifying that the Toys for Bob development team, who are responsible for the remastering, have created a lovingly revamped game in which even connoisseurs of the original will surely find the charm of these games. It would be nice if some other developers would cut themselves a slice of it when it comes to reissues. All in all, I can give the Spyro Reignited Trilogy an unqualified buy recommendation, especially for fans of cultivated platformer entertainment.
What is Spyro Reignited Trilogy? Collection of the first three parts of the Platformer classic series Spyro the Dragon
Platforms: PS4, Xbox ONE
Tested: PS4 Slim
Developer / Publisher: Toys for Bob (Reignited), Insomniac Games (Original) / Activision
Release: 13 November 2018
Links: Official Website, Facebook, Twitter,
