The Case

It’s been 21 years. I was 7 back then and my favorite food was probably still spaghetti. And now he’s back. The little purple dude who’s kinda on fire. Platforming back into the current generation of video games. Since it’s published by Activision, I’m sure most of us had to think twice about giving this remake of Spyro – Reignited Trilogy a chance. But maybe the Call of Duty giant is more than just a … Call of Duty giant and this is actually a good and fun experience from start to finish.

The Trial

Nostalgia. Should be a genre these days, that one. Because it’s a good genre for most people and Spyro feels right at home in it. Most people who are interested in this game probably grew up with it on PS1 in the late 1990’s. So now they wanna play it again because why not. It was a fun game back then. It was for me at least. Not sure I even played most of the first game because I was just 7 years old and just playing a game was fun enough. Even if it was only the first level over and over again. Perhaps I didn’t even own it and it was just a demo? Been too long to remember. And a lot has happened since then but I still remember having a ton of fun everytime Spyro was flickering on the old CRT back then. So I hoped this remake can recapture that excitement and joy I had as a little lad. Can’t be too hard to reignite my incredibly weird and crazy expectations after 20 years, right?

And surprisingly… the game did exactly that. Recapturing the animations, graphics and artstyle into the high polygon age of games. In fact, they actually took the original animations, and keyframed the new animations after those original ones with perfect timing. Of course, they still had to add loads of new assets as well. And that means Toys for Bob had to understand the design language of the original PS1 Spyro games. And translate it all over to today. No small feat.. given the developers previous attempts at designing Spyro for Skylanders. It was quite a small shock to hear Toys for Bob will be handling this remake. But they did it. They pulled it off. Of course some people aren’t fully satisfied with the design we have now, seeing as there are already mods for the PC version. Bringing Spyro even closer to the original. Luckily it’s not too important for me if Spyro is purple or a little less purple to enjoy the game. But it’s there. It exists. Grab it if you must. It’s a PC game which can be modded. And that’s fantastic. If you want to grab it, you can find it here. No wait.. that’s the right one.

So, the devs more or less nailed the graphics, animations and “reignited” the levels. What about the music or gameplay then? Could just all be smoke and mirrors, right? Well, it’s ok.. And that’s the review. Good bye.

Of course there’s more to that then “It’s good”. The camera controls on PC for one aren’t what they could be. You know those games where the X and Y axis have a different sensitivity? So looking left and right with your mouse is fine and just like you want it, but looking up and down is way slower? Spyro has the same issue. Except it’s left and right that’s slowed down. Looking up or down is just like you want it. I get why they thought it’s a good idea. It’s a platformer, you’re looking straight and then down constantly to see where you’re going to land. But it just doesn’t feel right at all and I end up fighting the camera more than the enemies or platform sections of the game. Fortunately there’s a way to fix that. Unfortunately it also breaks the controls for the controller camera. But with the mouse controls now in order, the controller really isn’t needed anymore. There’s another issue, however. Not with the camera fix, but rather the field of view. You can’t change it. Neither in the in-game options nor the config files. There’s a flawless widescreen patch however that fixes this issue. Slightly more cumbersome because you gotta run another program in the background. But it works.

Now the music.. nothing beats Steward Copeland’s soundtrack. And lucky for us, the original soundtrack is still available in the game. And should be the first thing to be changed after starting up the game. It was the first thing I did anyways. Not that the new soundtrack is bad. It gets quite close to the original in fact. But again, it’s Stewart Copeland’s Spyro soundtrack. Why listen to something else in a Spyro game? Sound effects sound great as well. There’s really nothing I can complain about in that regard.

The movement of the Spyro dude feels alright as well. Doesn’t feel floaty or heavy. It just works™. Especially with the mouse it’s rather easy to swoop and float around the levels. Turning around even while sprinting works faster than on my console version, that I’ve played quite extensively by the way. The swimming is still an issue with the mouse however; Sometimes Spyro just doesn’t want to turn around as fast as you’d expect him to. The special flying levels are a breeze however. It’s way snappier and direct than a controller could ever be. Especially with the X and Y axis fix I linked to above.

Another good thing, on my end at least, is the performance. Stutter free 60 FPS is a blast in Spyro and the 30 FPS on the consoles are unbearable now. Higher framerates are supported if the internet is to be believed. But comes with a few bugs. Which are fixable however… again, if the internet is to be believed. While Spyro Reginited Trilogy is more or less a straight port of the console version, the higher resolution, higher framerate, higher FOV (with the fix. Which also adds Ultrawidescreen support) and mouse controls (also with the fix) make this the best version of Spyro. You won’t need a high end super rig to enjoy 60 fps at ultra settings either. An older Vega 56 is plenty to achieve that framerate at 1080p.

The Verdict

Was the wait of almost a year worth it to get Spyro on the PC? I’d say yes. Even with the issues which are fixable with various workarounds, it’s the definitive edition of Spyro – Reignited Trilogy. Mods, more fps, more fov, more pixels and mouse/keyboard controls. That alone makes it the best version for me. Overall it’s the same game as the console version however. Go get the game already. No matter where you get it on, it’ll be a fun game and not just your pink tinted nostalgia glasses making you enjoy the game. It’s actually a good one. More of that, Activision. But please give the PC version a bit more care next time.