When I was a kid, I'd play a handful of games on rotation. Spyro was one of them. Like most seven-year-olds, I was a pretty big fan of dragons and having one front an adventure game was enough to lure me in. I also enjoyed that I could actually play it without having to ask for my parents' help, a real gamechanger for little Grace.
It was simple, really – gliding around, picking up gems, and roasting butterflies to bring back my dragonfly friend, Sparx. It aged well, too, staying in my rotation for an unprecedented amount of time. Almost three decades on (gulp), I've been through a myriad of console generations and developed a taste for different genres. Yet, I still feel like there's a dragon-shaped hole in my heart waiting to be filled.
Imagine my surprise when developer Toys for Bob unveiled a brand-new Spyro, Spyro: A Realm Beyond, during June's Xbox Games Showcase. That's the same team who remastered the OG titles in the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy and the studio even created a new entry into another of my favorite childhood franchises, Crash Bandicoot.
As excited as I am about the return of my purple fire-breathing friend, one question still hangs over my head. How will Toys for Bob bridge the gap between the much-loved '90s Spyro and the modern world? It's a much less forgiving landscape for games these days and it's also mighty competitive.
Take flight
In comparison, playing PlayStation in the 1990s was like living off scraps. I'd grab PlayStation Official Magazine to get demos to play on repeat (here's looking at you, Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee). Sure, Toys for Bob successfully remastered the Spyro trilogy, but it also actually made it harder than I remember it being – which was fine for me now, but seven-year-old me would've been mighty sad.
If Spyro: A Realm Beyond wants to appeal to both millennials and Gen Alphas (and the in-betweens), there's a few things I think need to happen. Spyro, at the end of the day, had all the features of a great adventure game from exploration to abundant storytelling to clever mechanics. But, will they translate as well now?
For now, there's not too much to go on. The Xbox Games Showcase reveal lasted just over a minute, with little of the new features on show, although ut there was enough to know one thing for certain. In Spyro: A Realm Beyond you'll be able to utilize free flight for the first time. In 1998, Spyro glided between areas, but as a little purple dragon, he never flew. Introducing that mechanic to a whole new world of Spyro is a pretty big deal.
But, I think it's equally important for Spyro to stay true to what made it great originally. Take the well-rounded level design and the plentiful movement combinations. And while I didn't spot Sparx in the trailer, I hope to still have a companion that you can love as much as you love Spyro.
"The world needs more radically joyful, colorful games," Toys for Bob recently declared. And as the trailer demonstrates, there's going to be a whole lot of color and a whole lot of modernization, blending the old with the new.
While I've argued that there's a lot of competition in modern era gaming from big budget titles to indie's alike, there is one thing I know and that's that there's not much in that niche space of fun nostalgic characters to play as a family. I'm a '90s gamer that is now in her mid-30s with two small kids.
We play Super Mario Party and LEGO games regularly because it's fun for everyone. They love it because the character is fun and vibrant, I love it because it makes me feel all warm and cosy inside. I'm almost a little jealous that my kids will get to experience a Spyro with such vibrancy and clarity. They can't even imagine the way that games used to look, but they also think I grew up with dinosaurs.
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