The Double Doghouse

so i’ve recently realized that, like many gamers on the internet, between itch.io and humble bundle over the years, i’ve wound up with way more games than i really plan on playing. so i’m trying to dig into some of those, and i’ll be discussing some of my thoughts on those here!

i have a weakness for collectathons. i grew up on Mario 64 and Banjo Tooie. i cannot get enough of 3d platforming collectathons. so when i saw that the Spyro Reignited Trilogy (released in 2019, originally by Insomniac, and remastered by Games for Bob) was a part of the Stand With Ukraine Bundle on Humble Bundle, i obviously had to dig into it. 39 hours later and i had every collectable in the game.

now, i’ll note, i was playing this game in parallel with the second half of Sekiro. so this was very much a cool-down game for me, and i’ll tell you what it, absolutely delivered on that front. i wasn’t looking for a game with a huge depth of mechanics or gameplay, i was looking have some fun platforming challenges and watch some numbers fill up, and i definitely got that.

across all the games: there was a bit of time spent here adjusting to the like, the floaty-ness of the controls here. on the whole though, i found the gameplay quite tight. there were absolutely a couple levels where i felt like i was fighting spyro’s momentum or not quite getting what i was inputing, but on the whole it was nice. combat wasn’t super complicated, basically matching ramming or flaming to enemy size/metal presence, but it was still pretty enjoyable. the levels were laid out in fun and creative ways through the whole trilogy, and i appreciated the bits of UI that were present in the world, like the collectables status on the gates. the game changer here was the Sparx function to point towards uncollected gems – i kept forgetting that’s a thing but it was a lifesaver when i remembered it existed. the unification of Spyro’s movesets across all three games was fantastic in terms of seamlessness, and i liked the presence of the skill points to unlock the concept art, that was fun.

in terms of the individuals, the first Spyro reigns supreme here – only one of the flight levels made me want to rip my hair out, and otherwise i enjoyed the flow of the game a lot. Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage was neat, and i liked the more forward presence of the antagonist here, even if i was only pretty middling on the friendly NPCs (unbelieveable that they brought Hunter from this game into the third, since uh… didn’t like him at all). i liked the Spyro sections of Spyro 3: Year of the Dragon, but man this game had some PROBLEMS with the friendly NPC sections, which went from interesting to frustrating quickly. i appreciated them experimenting with the formula a bit but it really felt like them pushing the game to its limits and finding out the hard way where it broke. it was neat in the levels generally how the mainlines were short and they offered side or alternate paths once you’d completed the levels, even if it left a lot of the levels feeling a little short.

but yeah, i dunno. i didn’t catch up with Sony’s collectathon mascots until the Ratchet & Clank and Jak & Daxter era, so this was before my time growing up and i really enjoyed seeing all of what it had to offer. was very fun finding out why Spyro is a classic, and i had a great time. if you’re really curious, check out the first wing and if you love it dip your toes into the other games.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy – 7

Recommended.