One of the biggest stars of the original Playstation era made a return to the limelight this week with the announcement of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy. After a period of prolonged rumour suggesting such a remaster was forthcoming, not to mention the success of Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, the news may not be too surprising. The game promises to be a full remaster that remains faithful to the original games. Activision’s own website has a few more details, and some first-class puns about ‘scaling up’. The game is going to be a cross-platform release, releasing on the Playstation 4 and Xbox One on September 21. While there has been suggestions that a Switch port was leaked it remains unconfirmed. A PC version also seems curiously absent, especially considering the Crash trilogy is set to arrive on both formats later this year.
Spyro’s return has been met with much anticipation by fans. Like his shorts-wearing rival Crash the PS1 era mascot has had an interesting history since his first three console outings. Spyro had some respectable outings on the PS2 and Gamecube era such as Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly and Spyro: A Hero’s Tail. Even with such powerful puns in their titles, as well as updates to gameplay and graphics, the era of the 3D mascot platformer was in decline. The games that followed next were a full reboot of the series. The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning featured not only a greater focus on action, but also some serious Hollywood talent. Spyro himself was voiced by Elijah Wood (of Lord of the Rings fame) but the game also featured Oscar-winner Gary Oldman. The reboot trilogy, known as ‘The Legend of Spyro’ trilogy went on to have two more titles during the Wii era: Eternal Night and Dawn of the Dragon. Despite the A-list voice acting and a clear amount of effort into adding compelling new features, such as Dawn of the Dragon’s two-player co-operative gameplay, the both titles only received mixed reviews. Another reboot followed, one that it’s easy to forget that the famous purple dragon was even part of: Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure. Among the many versions of Skylanders that followed and the waves upon waves of different figures any focus on the original dragonic hero was lost. If nothing else the Skylanders’ character design certainly seems controversial with the original fans. That seems to be one of the great things about Spyro, though: each new iteration of the character has belonged to a whole new generation. With Toys for Bob, the developers of Skylanders, also being responsible for this remaster it seems as though the series has come full-circle.
With the success of the Crash remake, the Tomb Raider movie reboot still in theatres it seems nostalgia for the original Playstation has hit something of a high at the moment – are there any other PS1 retro outings just over the horizon? Are people craving the return of Croc, or Gex? The main question on everyone’s mind should be: Will all of that 90s attitude remain intact?
