Not only does the Spyro Reignited Trilogy look amazing, it feels great to play. Original Spyro, while once a herald of his time, was looking pretty dated. I had to go back and check old videos just to make sure I wasn’t going crazy. In that way, Toys for Bob perfectly captured the intent of a game two decades old, and crafted it as if Insomniac had made it with today’s hardware. Where relatively simple environments once housed each level’s wealth of collectibles, Toys for Bob reimagined the aesthetics of every corner of Spyro’s universe.

Levels are updated to account for our imaginations that filled in the gaps created by limited technology.

Toys for Bob may not be able to recreate those specific memories, but they tuned each Spyro game to feel completely modern and right at home on the current generation of consoles. Not only was Spyro the Dragon cutting edge at the time it came out, but it played a special role in my own life, which is why I look back so fondly on the series. I replayed the opening couple areas of Spyro countless times, and when I finally got my hands on the full game, I knew how to complete the introductory moments instinctively. I was 10-years old, had just moved to a new place, and didn’t have any friends except this little gray box. I recall my very first memory of the game. Memory is a state of being in the moment, and while it plays well in our head, memories of something like the original Spyro the Dragon may come from a number of places. Memory is often tied to many things, most of which aren’t the actual thing we are remembering. They did so with a zeal for accuracy, not only for the content, but also for memories. Not content with simply remastering those games, Toys for Bob took special care, rebuilding each one from the ground up. Spyro Reignited Trilogy collects the original three PlayStation games- Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, and Spyro: Year of the Dragon-into one massive package. Toys for Bob is no stranger to Spyro either, and while the PlayStation icon may have shifted hands to Activision (and subsequently been used as a base for the toys-to-life series Skylanders), this studio of passionate developers and fans was eventually able to reignite the flames of nostalgia in a big way.

Original spyro