Play Voicework is equally both nostalgic and appreciably updated. Though for purists, it’s nice to have that handy feature of swapping back and forth with the old score. I’ve swapped back and forth a host of times while playing and often distinctly notice the instrumental additions, but appreciate how closely they hue to the main melodies of Copeland’s work. Toys for Bob has retained the iconic melodies and beats and honored them by adding to their sound with more fuller instrumentation.

All of these areas and characters are complemented by a great modernization of Stewart Copeland’s soundtrack. They bring such variety to the world in just a few seconds of screentime that I practically want to write fanfic about them. One wears clocks on his belt, headband, and wrists, while another artistic-minded one has paintings hanging in the halls of his home.

What used to be a handful of repeated models have become an individual, personality-driven design for each dragon. And I adore the revamped dragons of the original Spyro. The monks of Colossus in Ripto’s Rage have selfies from their trips, while cowardly enemies in Sunny Villa are much sillier scaredy cats. That’s not just in the obvious updates, but in the tiny little details that breathe fresh life into everything. Simple changes like movement and camera controls being mapped to the analog sticks make for such a better experience, though the purist in me occasionally felt it robbed jumps of their former difficulty.ġ5 Images And I wanted to backtrack in order to scour every inch of these worlds because the entire trilogy is gorgeous. Thankfully, Toys for Bob has made sure the gameplay is up to snuff with what I see though my rose-tinted glasses, too. But, on the whole, the visual update has not only brought the trilogy up to speed with how my brain remembers them, it’s surpassed those colorful memories.

The only real hindrances cramping the trilogy’s style are the annoying load times in the first Spyro the Dragon and some slight screen tearing into the worlds of Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage. Levels amongst the clouds have gorgeous horizons surrounding them, the sheen and cracks of ice in frozen tundras sparks, and characters, both friend and foe alike, feel like they’re plucked straight from a Saturday morning cartoon. Levels still play well thanks to Insomniac Games’ original design, but Toys for Bob gives modern depth and life to them. “The developers haven’t tweaked what isn’t broken when it comes to the gameplay, though.

Spyro trilogy