This whole collection has me questioning how much of a fan I really was of the original PS1 trilogy. The OG version of the first game is a classic, I will always stand by that. But it's been a long time since I played the PS1 versions of 2 and 3, so I'd be interested in returning to those at some point and seeing how I fare with them. Anyway, on the whole, my experience with Spyro Reignited Trilogy wasn't as joyous as I had hoped. The Crash Bandicoot N'Sane Trilogy left me with a newfound appreciation of that franchise as a whole. This trilogy on the other hand... not so much.
Spyro the Dragon
The original Spyro the Dragon is an all timer in my book. I simply adore it. So by rights, this remake, with its glamorous visual makeover and QoL enhancements (you don't have to stand still and press a button to look around anymore!) should be objectively better, right? RIGHT?!
Well, I know how all the puritans who were chagrined over the minute changes made in the Demon's Souls remake must feel now, I guess. Toys for Bob's recreation of a PS1 classic is perfectly serviceable. It plays well, it looks good, and it sounds about the same, especially if you turn on Stewart Copelands' original legendary score, but OG Spyro just had that certain magic that this is missing. I can't even put my finger on what it is. Maybe it's purely down to nostalgia, I don't know, but this remake didn't bewitch me the same way PS1 Spyro the Dragon always does.
7 outta 10
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
One thing that's becoming abundantly clear as I play through this trilogy is that the Spyro formula hasn't aged quite as well as the Crash Bandicoot formula. I played through the entirety of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy last year - a faithful collection of remakes just like Spyro Reignited Trilogy - and found that the HD recreations of Crash's PS1 jaunts were either on a par with the originals or even surpassed them. With Spyro, it's a different story. The original Ripto's Rage! (or Gateway to Glimmer as it was known in the UK) was a worthy sequel that I found much to my liking back when it came out, but this HD makeover really shines a light on how mundane the minigames are, and how detrimental they are to the experience as a whole. Ripto's Rage! is essentially the first game, but with an extended move list, a (very) half-hearted metroidvania structure, and lots and lots of crappy but mandatory minigames. You want those orbs in order to progress through the story? Best start playing them minigames! The vast majority of which are braindead, repetitive and just plain not fun.
And again, like with the remake of Spyro 1, something's missing. The Insomniac magic just isn't here. Everything feels watered down, generic and lacking the distinct art style of the original. It's a vague criticism I know, but those PS1 titles were an absolute joy on visual and aural front, and that just hasn't been translated well to this HD trilogy.
6 outta 10
The downward spiral continues.
If the overabundance of minigames resulted in Ripto's Rage being a lesser experience compared to the first game, then the introduction of shitty friends all but guarantees that Year of the Dragon will be worse than Ripto's Rage. And it is.
Ah yes, shitty friends. That classic platforming trope, when an established franchise decides it's a good idea to divide up playtime with some secondary characters who control way worse than the main character and have some kind of gimmick that isn't particularly fun to use. This is YotD's way of 'evolving' the Spyro the Dragon franchise I guess, but playing as the slow-as-molasses penguin or the gun-wielding monkey with basic ass shooting mechanics doesn't contribute anything beyond a middling diversion in gameplay mechanics.
There's less of the dreaded minigames that plagued the second game here, but the ones that do appear tend to be more tortuous. Insta-death wouldn't be such a bad thing if these minigames were short and snappy, but a lot of them drag for a long time. And the one where you have to take down two flying dragons that happen to have regenerative powers? That one in particular can get fucked.
5 outta 10
Spyro the Dragon
The original Spyro the Dragon is an all timer in my book. I simply adore it. So by rights, this remake, with its glamorous visual makeover and QoL enhancements (you don't have to stand still and press a button to look around anymore!) should be objectively better, right? RIGHT?!
Well, I know how all the puritans who were chagrined over the minute changes made in the Demon's Souls remake must feel now, I guess. Toys for Bob's recreation of a PS1 classic is perfectly serviceable. It plays well, it looks good, and it sounds about the same, especially if you turn on Stewart Copelands' original legendary score, but OG Spyro just had that certain magic that this is missing. I can't even put my finger on what it is. Maybe it's purely down to nostalgia, I don't know, but this remake didn't bewitch me the same way PS1 Spyro the Dragon always does.
7 outta 10
Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!
One thing that's becoming abundantly clear as I play through this trilogy is that the Spyro formula hasn't aged quite as well as the Crash Bandicoot formula. I played through the entirety of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy last year - a faithful collection of remakes just like Spyro Reignited Trilogy - and found that the HD recreations of Crash's PS1 jaunts were either on a par with the originals or even surpassed them. With Spyro, it's a different story. The original Ripto's Rage! (or Gateway to Glimmer as it was known in the UK) was a worthy sequel that I found much to my liking back when it came out, but this HD makeover really shines a light on how mundane the minigames are, and how detrimental they are to the experience as a whole. Ripto's Rage! is essentially the first game, but with an extended move list, a (very) half-hearted metroidvania structure, and lots and lots of crappy but mandatory minigames. You want those orbs in order to progress through the story? Best start playing them minigames! The vast majority of which are braindead, repetitive and just plain not fun.
And again, like with the remake of Spyro 1, something's missing. The Insomniac magic just isn't here. Everything feels watered down, generic and lacking the distinct art style of the original. It's a vague criticism I know, but those PS1 titles were an absolute joy on visual and aural front, and that just hasn't been translated well to this HD trilogy.
6 outta 10
The downward spiral continues.
If the overabundance of minigames resulted in Ripto's Rage being a lesser experience compared to the first game, then the introduction of shitty friends all but guarantees that Year of the Dragon will be worse than Ripto's Rage. And it is.
Ah yes, shitty friends. That classic platforming trope, when an established franchise decides it's a good idea to divide up playtime with some secondary characters who control way worse than the main character and have some kind of gimmick that isn't particularly fun to use. This is YotD's way of 'evolving' the Spyro the Dragon franchise I guess, but playing as the slow-as-molasses penguin or the gun-wielding monkey with basic ass shooting mechanics doesn't contribute anything beyond a middling diversion in gameplay mechanics.
There's less of the dreaded minigames that plagued the second game here, but the ones that do appear tend to be more tortuous. Insta-death wouldn't be such a bad thing if these minigames were short and snappy, but a lot of them drag for a long time. And the one where you have to take down two flying dragons that happen to have regenerative powers? That one in particular can get fucked.
5 outta 10
so much of the charm of the originals has been lost. the simplistic art style has been covered in unreal engine grass that hides all the gems. the animated title screens and cool menus have been butchered. the character designs ripped in half. the skyboxes thrown into a meat grinder.
the biggest crime? actually making me play 2 & 3 as intended, not allowing me to skip most of the backtracking with my badass speedrunner skill.
at the end of the day, it's fine. there's just no reason for it to exist
the biggest crime? actually making me play 2 & 3 as intended, not allowing me to skip most of the backtracking with my badass speedrunner skill.
at the end of the day, it's fine. there's just no reason for it to exist
It’s as fun as the originals but all the style and rough edges have been sanded off making this version have much less bite to it if that makes any sense. It’s still the Spyro trilogy so it’s good but it’s not capturing the original’s style, just copying the gameplay
The gameplay in this trilogy was decent, though the mechanics can become boring and repetitive at times. While some of the mini-games can be frustrating, others are refreshing and fun. The story didn't capture my interest, but overall, it's not a bad game.
The OG Spyro trilogy were childhood defining games for me, and it was great to revisit them. It's funny the remakes were how the originals looked in my head, and going back and seeing videos of the old ones was kind of shocking given how rudimentary the graphics look now.
Overall, I'd say the third one is the best. The first one had some very goofy design for a lot of the dragons, but was a fun collectathon. The second one had a few of the absolute best levels and the best villain, but was super inconsistent and felt like a growing pain games. Having to do a LOT of mostly mid minigames to get to the final boss sucked. The third one was far and away the best. The minigames were much improved and you didn't have to beat a lot you weren't into to finish the game. Best story, too.
Overall, I'd say the third one is the best. The first one had some very goofy design for a lot of the dragons, but was a fun collectathon. The second one had a few of the absolute best levels and the best villain, but was super inconsistent and felt like a growing pain games. Having to do a LOT of mostly mid minigames to get to the final boss sucked. The third one was far and away the best. The minigames were much improved and you didn't have to beat a lot you weren't into to finish the game. Best story, too.
Sometimes dreams do come true.
I'm a huge Spyro nostalgic and while being that apparently made the game for some hard to enjoy, I love the remake so much, I was willing to abandon my personal rule of not buying the same game on different platforms.
I will focus on the fact that this is a remake trying to stay true to the original, so problems with the originals themselves that got carried over probably won't be mentioned here.
Pros:
- you get three great adventures in one (which is okay for the amount of time and considering the originals were sold at old PS1 full price at some point and you can beat Spyro 1 in just a few hours)
- still a fun 3D collectathon
- you can play a dragon (duh)
- timeless art style, which beautifully recreates the old style (though of course it loses its old charm and tries to appeal more to a modern audience)
- nice animations, especially Spyro's walking loop seems so smooth
- great recreation of the old controls
- just as fun as the originals
- great music, both old and new, and if you don't like the remake's music, you have an option to play the original music instead
- every dragon in the first game has a unique, distinct design, which also weaves in elements depending on the world you are in, creating more of a theme that separates the dragons of each world from each other
- skill points have been added to the first game to align with the other two, additionally achievements give a nice incentive for more experienced players
Neutral:
- the voice acting seems okay in English, tipping to not that well in German (which I did this replay in) to no surprise, especially as a nostalgic who vividly remembers most of the old voices, which were horrible, yes, but had a certain charm and while the original seemed consistent in having the characters speaking in an exaggerated manner in German, the remake seemed less consistent; however I really liked Bianca's and the Sorceresses German voice actors
- character designs, most are great and you can tell the passion that went into them, but some are rather uncanny, which the original can only partly be blamed for
Cons:
- Steam version only: the game has been out for YEARS on Steam and if you put all settings on max, you'll encounter a bug in which Spyro will move as if on ice and as if he's constantly walking against invisible walls, a quick Google search helped, but it's still annoying
- the hand book was reduced to an uninspired interface, similar to the first game, which is hard to understand considering how the book was and still is such an integral part of Spyro 2
- the censoring is somewhat all over the place
- German version only: some levels have been renamed for no reason, while I understand translating the level names for the first game, since those were English in the German original, I don't get why for example "Glut" (Ember, but probably from "Gluthitze" meaning scorching heat, alluding to Scorch) had to be renamed to "Wüstenpalast" (Desert Palace), when the names stayed the same in English, but that's just nostalgic nitpicking
- some minor bugs that still aren't fixed, for example after completing certain levels an NPC explanation from the original seems to be missing, some NPCs can't be talked to again, etc.
- you can tell the third game had to be rushed, after seeing so much love going into the dragons from the first part, seeing the same models being reused over and over for the dragon babies in the third part leaves a bad impression
Overall, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a great game, for both old and new players. It feels the same, but with better graphics.
The games may be a bit hard for younger players at some points, but the they give more than enough opportunities to just skip the frustrating bits. Each game also has a nice difficulty curve towards the last levels.
Even after playing through the originals countless of times and finishing the remake at least once a few years ago, I still had a lot of fun ~27 hours not only fully completing the game, but also going for all of the achievements.
I'm a huge Spyro nostalgic and while being that apparently made the game for some hard to enjoy, I love the remake so much, I was willing to abandon my personal rule of not buying the same game on different platforms.
I will focus on the fact that this is a remake trying to stay true to the original, so problems with the originals themselves that got carried over probably won't be mentioned here.
Pros:
- you get three great adventures in one (which is okay for the amount of time and considering the originals were sold at old PS1 full price at some point and you can beat Spyro 1 in just a few hours)
- still a fun 3D collectathon
- you can play a dragon (duh)
- timeless art style, which beautifully recreates the old style (though of course it loses its old charm and tries to appeal more to a modern audience)
- nice animations, especially Spyro's walking loop seems so smooth
- great recreation of the old controls
- just as fun as the originals
- great music, both old and new, and if you don't like the remake's music, you have an option to play the original music instead
- every dragon in the first game has a unique, distinct design, which also weaves in elements depending on the world you are in, creating more of a theme that separates the dragons of each world from each other
- skill points have been added to the first game to align with the other two, additionally achievements give a nice incentive for more experienced players
Neutral:
- the voice acting seems okay in English, tipping to not that well in German (which I did this replay in) to no surprise, especially as a nostalgic who vividly remembers most of the old voices, which were horrible, yes, but had a certain charm and while the original seemed consistent in having the characters speaking in an exaggerated manner in German, the remake seemed less consistent; however I really liked Bianca's and the Sorceresses German voice actors
- character designs, most are great and you can tell the passion that went into them, but some are rather uncanny, which the original can only partly be blamed for
Cons:
- Steam version only: the game has been out for YEARS on Steam and if you put all settings on max, you'll encounter a bug in which Spyro will move as if on ice and as if he's constantly walking against invisible walls, a quick Google search helped, but it's still annoying
- the hand book was reduced to an uninspired interface, similar to the first game, which is hard to understand considering how the book was and still is such an integral part of Spyro 2
- the censoring is somewhat all over the place
- German version only: some levels have been renamed for no reason, while I understand translating the level names for the first game, since those were English in the German original, I don't get why for example "Glut" (Ember, but probably from "Gluthitze" meaning scorching heat, alluding to Scorch) had to be renamed to "Wüstenpalast" (Desert Palace), when the names stayed the same in English, but that's just nostalgic nitpicking
- some minor bugs that still aren't fixed, for example after completing certain levels an NPC explanation from the original seems to be missing, some NPCs can't be talked to again, etc.
- you can tell the third game had to be rushed, after seeing so much love going into the dragons from the first part, seeing the same models being reused over and over for the dragon babies in the third part leaves a bad impression
Overall, Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a great game, for both old and new players. It feels the same, but with better graphics.
The games may be a bit hard for younger players at some points, but the they give more than enough opportunities to just skip the frustrating bits. Each game also has a nice difficulty curve towards the last levels.
Even after playing through the originals countless of times and finishing the remake at least once a few years ago, I still had a lot of fun ~27 hours not only fully completing the game, but also going for all of the achievements.
this was my first time actually sitting down to play spyro as little kid me wasn't really good at the original one GLSKDJG overall it's a really fun collectathon and i like spyro the little purple guy
the first game is the one i played when i was a kid so it felt nostalgic. so glad they made the dragons hot. did not enjoy the final boss. fun game overall! we bothered to do 100% on this one and it was a worthy challenge. weirdly racist enemies though
the second game... i do not care about it much? weird story, even more weird enemies that i do not care about, this one is entirely just "what if for every level spyro joined some random war he did not know about on some random side" which felt odd. i don't care about these characters!!!
the third one is a lot more fun bc it actually makes sense for spyro to do things. the levels are a lot more interesting and the characters are interesting again. less weirdly racist enemies but they're still there. idk why they still kept some of those
the first game is the one i played when i was a kid so it felt nostalgic. so glad they made the dragons hot. did not enjoy the final boss. fun game overall! we bothered to do 100% on this one and it was a worthy challenge. weirdly racist enemies though
the second game... i do not care about it much? weird story, even more weird enemies that i do not care about, this one is entirely just "what if for every level spyro joined some random war he did not know about on some random side" which felt odd. i don't care about these characters!!!
the third one is a lot more fun bc it actually makes sense for spyro to do things. the levels are a lot more interesting and the characters are interesting again. less weirdly racist enemies but they're still there. idk why they still kept some of those
I'm mixed on this collection because I really enjoyed Spyro 1, but I didn't really like Ripto's Rage, and I didn't feel too strongly about Year of the Dragon. Not a bad collection of games at all, but the sequel games just weren't for me.
Spyro 1:
Light and breezy fun tbh! Pretty satisfying at points too!
Light and breezy fun tbh! Pretty satisfying at points too!
A great remake of three great platformers. None of the original trilogy are all timer 3D Platformers, but each is a solid entry into the canon. Worth playing if you're a fan of the genre, especially in this package.
Played on Xbox One for achievements.
This game is so fun as always. Spyro 3 in the trilogy is really rough and it makes me sad. Next time I will have to play the PS1 version instead.
This game is so fun as always. Spyro 3 in the trilogy is really rough and it makes me sad. Next time I will have to play the PS1 version instead.
YEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH
The best way to play the Spyro trilogy. The blur in console makes me want to puke tho.
The dragons are hot.
The dragons are hot.
Beat Spyro the Dragon on 6/22/24.
Such a fun little trilogy of games. These games are just something that you can turn on and relax. The colourful nature of this game and the remastered graphics make it a joy to play. This is definitely a game thats fun for all ages. Running around and collecting everything may seem like busy work, and it is, but the gameplay is satisfying and makes it seem like less of a chore than it is. Just put on a podcast or some chill music and get lost in a colourful fantasy world for a while. A must play for anybody who likes platformers.
review for spyro one: just had to put this one down for a while. I feel like this is a game that's kinda good, but just not fun. like, the graphics and presentation and level design are all good but I just hate playing it, and I think that's owed to spyro's moveset. it just doesn't work with well in a 3d space. the moves don't lead into each other well enough, leaving them feeling really really stiff. his fire breath doesn't reach far enough in a lot of cases, his rolls are really wonky and make dodging a chore, his gliding really makes you say a prayer when you see it hoping that you'll land on a platform, and his awful dash is too fast and makes maneuvering the camera so weird. too many times did I accidentally fall to some enemy hitting me in some weird way. it just doesn't feel right with the physics of this game. I think the level designs are fine enough, but there's just so little keeping me coming back to this one. it just feels so generic and boring. it's just really hard for me to continue and make and effort to beat this when there's nothing keeping me coming back. i'll stick with mario and banjo :/
some of the character redesigns are god fucking awful but overall this is a very well done remaster
it's fun but gets boring after a while plus the camera got me dizzy