Spyro Reignited (Video game review)

Review: This game has been a long time coming for me. Growing up, the Sony Playstation family of games had their big platformer IPs. Crash Bandicoot, Jak and Daxter, Rachet and Clank, and Spyro were a few of those. The only ones I really grew up on were the Spyro trilogy. This composed of Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon. The concept of these games are simple. You play as a purple dragon named Spyro and you go to different levels and collect a variety of items like gems, dragon eggs, and you sometimes have to rescue full grown dragons. I loved these games dearly, so I was thrilled when they were getting redesigned.

As far as the gameplay goes, most of the controls are the same. There were a few times where the controls seemed different. I don't know how to explain it other than just feeling different. One thing I really enjoyed was having the ability to locate missing gems. In the original trilogy, this ability is introduced in Spyro 2. If you held all 4 shoulder buttons, the dragonfly accompanying you will point towards gems you missed in the level. This was a godsend growing up, and it saved me from doing a lot of extra hunting. Still, it wasn't in the first game which is probably why I played that one the least as a kid. They fixed this in the remake. Now, if you press the left joystick in, the dragonfly will point at gems. Even in the first game. This is just a handy feature to have, and I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The levels are the same as in the original games, but more vibrant. The characters look fresh and nice. I loved seeing how the different dragons got redesigned. For the most part, they all looked unique and had their own personalities. This helps the game not feel monotonous which is important when you're playing a platformer, and all of your objectives are the same. One downside I came across was gems getting lost in the grass a lot. It looks nice on screen but, when you're trying to get every collectible, it could be difficult finding gems in taller patches of grass.

There were a few glitches I found throughout my run of this game. Nothing game breaking or unplayable. Just funny glitches. The game looks beautiful and plays really well. Definitely going to grab this for most future playthroughs of the series.

4 howls