Spyro the Dragon Discussion Thread

I'm gonna revive this topic since the new trailer for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy dropped earlier today. I highly recommend looking it up on YouTube if you haven't already, because to me it looks absolutely gorgeous.

Anyways, feel free to discuss Spyro-related things here!


"You gotta believe!" ~Spyro, from the first game​

 

So did I! Spyro was my childhood! I'm so happy he's getting the remaster he deserves! :')

 

On the XBox? I remember the original trilogy was a PlayStation 1 exclusive, so I'm not sure which particular game you're referring to.

As for the plot, the three games all have simple premises. In the first game, the villain Gnasty Gnorc encases all the dragons in crystal except for Spyro (since he's tiny and he missed him), because the dragons called him "simple", "no threat", and "ugly". In the second game, Spyro tries to go on vacation before being summoned into another world called Avalar to take down another villain, Ripto, because the inhabitants of Avalar want that jerk gone before he makes a mess of things and they quickly figure out that he really hates dragons. In the third game, all the dragon eggs get stolen by the Sorceress and her apprentice and minions, and take them to the other side of the world, so Spyro has to go after them and rescue the eggs. There's more to the story in the 2nd and 3rd games, but that's pretty much the gist of it.

 

From what I've heard from the developers, they're trying to remain faithful to the originals as much as possible (aside from the huge graphical overhaul of course). They've even brought back Tom Kenny to voice Spyro once again. They definitely seem to be doing their homework here.

Saaaame. Skylanders was really disappointing...

 

I'm still hyped up about the original Spyro trilogy remaster so I feel the urge to talk about my experiences with Spyro as a whole. I'm gonna put this in a spoilers tag in case any of you don't want to hear me ramble again.

Spoiler: No sheep were harmed during the making of this ramble. A few Gnorcs, but no sheep.

Back when I was a toddler in the late 90's, I was an autistic, shy, incredibly quiet kid. I still am today, for the most part. I was always afraid of trying new things back then. That included video games, ironically enough. They were so foreign and new, I didn't know what to think of them. My mom and brother were playing them, but I was too scared to play alongside them. They eventually managed to force the controller onto me, playing a game called Spyro the Dragon. ...And after a while of testing the controls and exploring this fantastical world of dragons, I was hooked.

The late 90's and early 2000's was the golden age of video games, and there was no better time for me to start playing then at this time. Spyro the Dragon was such a hit with my family and I, that we quickly went ahead and bought Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage and Spyro: Year of the Dragon, which turned out to be even better than the first game. We would play for hours in between homework and school, sharing tips and tricks we uncovered until we completed all three games 100%.

But then... there was a quiet period in the Spyro circle for a time. He got a few GBA games that were decent at best, but didn't carry the same magnitude that the originals had. And then came Enter the Dragonfly... We thought for sure this was the next big installment to the series we were patiently waiting for. ...We were wrong. This game was an unfinished mess. If you thought Sonic '06 was bad, this game came out before it by about 4 years and it was riddled with glitches, collision issues, and agonizingly long loading times. It was more of a beta test then a proper game. We were so disappointed...

But I still held strong as a Spyro fan. Surely a much better Spyro game was to follow. A Hero's Tail soon came out, and it's one of the best recent Spyro games to date that sticks with the original formula. Naturally, I played the heck out of it. A shame Shadow Legacy, its sequel, had to sour everything afterward with how unplayable it was. I'm glad I wasn't able to pick that game up, otherwise I would've been even more upset.

Eventually, the Legend of Spyro games rolled in. We thought for sure this supposed origin story would bring us back to our childhood once again... But, as we later discovered, it was a much different game than we had anticipated. The tone was darker, the game-play was more linear and focused more on a beat-'em-up style instead of the usual collectathon. It was... certainly a much different experience, but they were still pretty good games. They just weren't what we were looking for in terms of Spyro (also, the third game's story is totally a ripoff of Lord of the Rings, I kid you not).

There was another quiet period, and then out of nowhere, Skylanders hit store selves. We, that is my mom and I, were extremely skeptical with what these games were going for, especially with the character designs. Even my mom said Spyro didn't look cute anymore, which was a bad omen of things to come. Regardless, I decided to at least give the first and second games the benefit of the doubt and play them.

...I didn't like them. They were bland, carried next to no charm, and the figures weren't even that nice-looking for me to try and collect them. Needless to say, we were pretty disappointed with Skylanders as a whole, and I didn't bother playing the next annual installments. It was at this time we knew our beloved purple dragon had finally hit rock bottom...

Until, during E3 2017, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was announced. And with it, a glimmer of hope for Spyro's true revival. A hope that, at long last, has come to light on this day. Spyro is a game series that has basically started my addiction for video games. He was my hero, something that I've held dear for literally 20 years. And seeing him in his prime, in full HD glory, brings tears of joy to my eyes like never before.

Okay, I'm done rambling for tonight. Goodnight folks.

 

I've been scouring Twitter (for the first time since college...) and following the Spyro account, which was originally called Falcon McBob for some reason... And I will be doing my best to keep up to date with any news relating to the new Spyro Reignited Trilogy arriving on September 21.

Yesterday, they tweeted these two pictures of a level in Spyro 1, the first from the old game and the second redone with updated graphics. Not gonna lie: compared to the original, the remastered version looks a heck of a lot prettier.

Spoiler: Tree Tops, then & now

 

I'm willing to bet those supercharge ramp jumps will still be the same, which'll be great if they are. Especially when you manage to successfully pull them off and stick the landing.

"You could've picked an easier spot to get stuck."