Which came first: The dragon or the egg? Well, technically it’s the latter, although in this instance, they’ve both arrived at around the same time.
Mere days after receiving a scaly purple delivery from the enigmatic Falcon McBob—a collector’s item that I responsibly decided not to crack open with reckless gamer abandon—Activision has followed through on its cryptic marketing and officially announced the Spyro Reignited Trilogy. As I speculated earlier this week, the HD remake is being developed by the talented team over at Toys For Bob (Skylanders, Pandemonium!, The Unholy War) and will include updated versions of all three original PlayStation titles: Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The collection will retail for $39.99 with pre-orders going live as of this writing. Launch day is September 21, which has the disc hitting shelves only a week or so after the series’ North American 20th anniversary. Man, time sure flies.
Interestingly, and unlike Activision’s own Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy’s timed PS4 exclusivity (which is ending this July, by the way), the Reignited Trilogy will be releasing on both the PS4 and the Xbox One family of consoles simultaneously this Fall. Honestly, the nostalgic retro gaming nerd inside me cringes a little at the thought of beloved PlayStation mascots traipsing over to the competition’s hardware all willy-nilly. But it’s a different era now, and depriving any gamer of these reimagined classics seems like an infinitely worse proposition than any kind of goofy platform betrayal. While a version of the aforementioned N. Sane Trilogy is slated to hit Nintendo’s handheld hybrid this July, it should be noted that a Switch port of the Reignited Trilogy has yet to be announced.
So what should we expect from Spyro’s much-anticipated return? Rather predictably (because why fix what isn’t broken) the feature sheet is quite similar to Crash’s 2017 resurrection. The biggest improvement, of course, will be in the visual department, with all the original characters and environments benefiting from a complete aesthetic overhaul. Activision is making sure to emphasize that everything is being faithfully renovated without too much deviation; these will still be the PS1 games you fondly remember, only prettier and better-playing. The polish includes stuff like new lighting, retooled animations and revamped cinematics, narrative vignettes that will see one of Spyro’s original voice actors Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants, Rocko’s Modern Life) reprising his classic role for the second and third games. I’m a little bummed they didn’t get Carlos Alazraqui (Reno 911!, Rocko’s Modern Life) to reprise his role for the very first title, but maybe Activision will surprise us with a cameo.
Also undergoing some much-needed repair will be to the basic controls, which if we’re being honest, haven’t aged all that well. Like many other early 3D games in the late ‘90s, the Spyro titles required the use of shoulder buttons for manual camera rotation. Not ideal by today’s standards, so the Reignited Trilogy will allow players to utilize the second analog stick for camera control. Rounding out the tweaks will be a reimagining of Steward Copeland’s inimitable soundtrack, which I’m assuming means he won’t have much to do with this project, an omission I had been fearing. That said, I’m hoping the sound guys at Toys For Bob stay true to Copeland’s solid groundwork and amplify it in cool and unique ways.
Starting today, and in a cool retro twist I rather fortuitously wrote about ages ago, you can enter the original instruction manual Spyro the Dragon demo code over the N. Sane Trilogy Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped title screen to watch the Reignited Trilogy reveal trailer. No actual demo to play at this time, unfortunately, but still a neat throwback, nonetheless. If you don’t have a copy of N. Sane Trilogy handy, here’s the full reveal trailer, available in its entirety for your platforming viewing pleasure:
September 21 can’t come soon enough, and it’s crazy that almost 20 years have passed since I first rented a brand new copy of Spyro the Dragon from my local Videotron. It was launch day, and I had been eagerly awaiting this 3D PlayStation renaissance for months, repeatedly playing that hidden Warped demo, reading countless PSM/EGM previews and watching juicy behind-the-scenes footage on at least one treasured PlayStation Underground disc. When I finally booted the game up, I was blown away by the entire package. The pastel visuals, the smooth DualShock controls, the draw distances that went on for what seemed like forever. And come September, I’ll get to relive those cherished memories in full, only with modern graphics and convenience. Swoon.
Now that the dust is beginning to settle on my crazy week and the Spyro hype machine is starting to charge off in new directions, I still have this promotional purple dragon egg, and I’m really glad I didn’t smash it to pieces. What else am I going to stare at for the next five months while I wait for this collection?
Update: Thought I'd include the following excerpt from the official press release--
Remade from the ground up by lead developer Toys for Bob, the Spyro Reignited Trilogy features the fun and nostalgic gameplay that fans remember with more than 100 levels, enhanced reward sequences, Spyro’s gang of zany dragons and other goofballs (including Sparx the Dragonfly, Hunter, Sheila, Agent 9 and Sgt. Byrd) and more. The trilogy also includes improved environments, updated controls, brand-new lighting and recreated cinematics for added flavor in this one-of-a-kind adventure.
"We're deeply passionate about staying true to the legacy of the original three Spyro games with the Spyro Reignited Trilogy,” said Paul Yan, Chief Creative Officer at Toys For Bob. “We've poured a lot of love into making the personalities and worlds feel just like fans remember them, while also keeping the game collection surprisingly fresh with lush, high definition detail. We're bringing back the Spyro we all fell in love with 20 years ago."
The 'enhanced reward sequences' sound intriguing. I'm sure this includes trophy/achievement support, but I'm wondering if this also alludes to more refined/expanded collectibles. Hopefully this will become more clear as details continue to trickle out.
