Spyro Reignited Trilogy is a platform video game developed by Toys for Bob and published by Activision. It is a collection of remasters of the first three games in the Spyro series: Spyro the Dragon (1998), Ripto’s Rage! (1999), and Year of the Dragon (2000). It was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in November 2018 and for Microsoft Windows and Nintendo Switch in September 2019. Each game is a 3D platformer featuring the titular protagonist, a juvenile purple dragon named Spyro, as he attempts to restore peace in a set of worlds specific to each game by vanquishing enemies. Spyro’s sidekick, a dragonfly named Sparx, acts as his health, defending him from a limited number of enemy attacks. Additionally, the games feature a number of collectibles which must be acquired to make progress, such as gems, which also act as currency, and dragon eggs.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy attempts to remain faithful to the gameplay of the original games. Each level is designed to match the size and layout of the levels in the originals. A few features, present in only one or two of the original trilogy, were unified across all three games in Reignited, such as the addition of “skill points” in the first game, or Spyro’s ability to roll from side-to-side in later instalments. The remaster also made a few changes to content in the originals that was no longer considered appropriate. Some enemies in the first game, for example, wielded semi-automatic weapons in the original PlayStation version of the game; they wield paintball guns in the Reignited version. Additionally, a genie character in Ripto’s Rage! had its name changed from “Bombo” to “Bob the Flagkeeper” to avoid referencing a stereotype of Arabs and Muslims common since before the publication of the original game. However, most of the game’s differences from the originals centre around quality-of-life improvements. All of Spyro’s lines were re-recorded by Tom Kenny in all three games of Reignited. Visual graphics were overhauled, and non-playable characters were given more distinct and varied personalities. The soundtrack was also re-recorded, with the options to play “dynamic” versions of the new recordings, where tempo is adjusted with Spyro’s movement, or switch back to the original recordings.

My complete playthrough for the trilogy, starting with the original Spyro the Dragon, began on February 24th, 2021.

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