You know, I was so danged excited to play this stuff again, because holy crap, it's Spyro! That was my childhood! And now it's in graphics that are prettier than the chunky old Playstation! This is gonna rule!
And, you know, it did! Like, yeah, sure, I didn't actually manage to beat Gnasty Gnorc because I never actually beat that when I was a kid when I had free time on my hands and I didn't feel the onset of carpal tunnel, but dang, the remake of the first game was good, y'all. All the unique dragons with designs that fit each world... it was such a labor of love! I will complain that Gnasty Gnorc should've had a checkpoint or at least some sort of easy mode option for a checkpoint because damn it's not fun or challenging to restart over and over from the very beginning of that fight, it's just kind of tedious. I also found the speedway levels to be kind of... more difficult to control than I remember them being, though I think I might just remember the easier versions from 2 and 3. Overall, despite my minor complaints, I think this one's the best of the lot in terms of the remake quality.
And then we get into 2, which was also pretty great, although it had some of the pitfalls of the original 2 in the vein of a bit of a reliance on sometimes irritating minigames. You hear "trouble with the trolley, eh" and you just wanna... you just wanna peace out. Regardless, I liked the new designs for the cast, and the new voice acting was... actually very good. But I do have to admit, I think I kind of miss Hunter talking to you like he's an adult and you're five. Robbie Daymond's performance is less hilariously condescending, which has the upshot of making Hunter slightly more likable but also slightly less funny.
I feel like 2 is a little more flawed than 1 in some ways. I do remember one minor complaint in terms of Gulp feeling a little overtuned, but I figured out a trick to make him a little more manageable so I beat him pretty quickly. I also had trouble with the speedways in this one even though I definitely 100%ed the game as a kid... hm. Speaking of having trouble with things, man, I hated the swimming controls considerably more than I remember hating the old ones, and I didn't really want to do much in the various water levels as a result. I don't think it helped that in some levels the more realistic lighting effects made things more difficult to make out, especially underwater.
And then 3... oh, man. 3. I do remember loving 3 as a kid and being really excited to get to skateboarding and the baby dragons, but this is kind of where things fell apart for me. It's significantly jankier than the other two, for one thing. I seem to remember more instances of enemies clipping into things and baby dragons standing like an inch above the ground in certain animations. Some of the models were also not great, although for the most part it did play pretty well. When... controlling Spyro, anyway.
The other characters were... well... Minigame Hell, unfortunately. Which is a shame, because I do like them all (well, except Agent 9, who was probably a lot more tolerable when I was a child with any tolerance for monkeycheese humor), but Minigame Hell is even more of a problem in this game than in the second. Granted, that's from the original game design rather than the remake staff, but combined with the jank it soured me on the experience a lot more than it probably should have. It feels like a combination of the original's flaws and the fact that Activision was probably breathing down the Spyro 3 team's necks to get it done on time dragged this part way down, which is a shame.
Also I didn't like the designs of the baby dragons. Except for the chubby ones, those were adorable. But the rest were too goofy looking and not cute enough, when I was looking forward to cute new renditions of those blocky baby polygons. Alas...
Anyway, I think the disappointments I experienced were more minor than major, stemming more from being a tired adult without the patience to deal with minigame BS than an indictment on the devs' work here. Overall, I think it was a dang good remake of a dang good set of games. I'd hope for a Spyro 4 in the vein of Crash 4 because I think Toys for Bob would do a great job on it, but I feel like Activision would stuff that thing full of microtransactions and I don't feel like giving its ludicrously overpaid CEO any more money.
And, you know, it did! Like, yeah, sure, I didn't actually manage to beat Gnasty Gnorc because I never actually beat that when I was a kid when I had free time on my hands and I didn't feel the onset of carpal tunnel, but dang, the remake of the first game was good, y'all. All the unique dragons with designs that fit each world... it was such a labor of love! I will complain that Gnasty Gnorc should've had a checkpoint or at least some sort of easy mode option for a checkpoint because damn it's not fun or challenging to restart over and over from the very beginning of that fight, it's just kind of tedious. I also found the speedway levels to be kind of... more difficult to control than I remember them being, though I think I might just remember the easier versions from 2 and 3. Overall, despite my minor complaints, I think this one's the best of the lot in terms of the remake quality.
And then we get into 2, which was also pretty great, although it had some of the pitfalls of the original 2 in the vein of a bit of a reliance on sometimes irritating minigames. You hear "trouble with the trolley, eh" and you just wanna... you just wanna peace out. Regardless, I liked the new designs for the cast, and the new voice acting was... actually very good. But I do have to admit, I think I kind of miss Hunter talking to you like he's an adult and you're five. Robbie Daymond's performance is less hilariously condescending, which has the upshot of making Hunter slightly more likable but also slightly less funny.
I feel like 2 is a little more flawed than 1 in some ways. I do remember one minor complaint in terms of Gulp feeling a little overtuned, but I figured out a trick to make him a little more manageable so I beat him pretty quickly. I also had trouble with the speedways in this one even though I definitely 100%ed the game as a kid... hm. Speaking of having trouble with things, man, I hated the swimming controls considerably more than I remember hating the old ones, and I didn't really want to do much in the various water levels as a result. I don't think it helped that in some levels the more realistic lighting effects made things more difficult to make out, especially underwater.
And then 3... oh, man. 3. I do remember loving 3 as a kid and being really excited to get to skateboarding and the baby dragons, but this is kind of where things fell apart for me. It's significantly jankier than the other two, for one thing. I seem to remember more instances of enemies clipping into things and baby dragons standing like an inch above the ground in certain animations. Some of the models were also not great, although for the most part it did play pretty well. When... controlling Spyro, anyway.
The other characters were... well... Minigame Hell, unfortunately. Which is a shame, because I do like them all (well, except Agent 9, who was probably a lot more tolerable when I was a child with any tolerance for monkeycheese humor), but Minigame Hell is even more of a problem in this game than in the second. Granted, that's from the original game design rather than the remake staff, but combined with the jank it soured me on the experience a lot more than it probably should have. It feels like a combination of the original's flaws and the fact that Activision was probably breathing down the Spyro 3 team's necks to get it done on time dragged this part way down, which is a shame.
Also I didn't like the designs of the baby dragons. Except for the chubby ones, those were adorable. But the rest were too goofy looking and not cute enough, when I was looking forward to cute new renditions of those blocky baby polygons. Alas...
Anyway, I think the disappointments I experienced were more minor than major, stemming more from being a tired adult without the patience to deal with minigame BS than an indictment on the devs' work here. Overall, I think it was a dang good remake of a dang good set of games. I'd hope for a Spyro 4 in the vein of Crash 4 because I think Toys for Bob would do a great job on it, but I feel like Activision would stuff that thing full of microtransactions and I don't feel like giving its ludicrously overpaid CEO any more money.