The upcoming Spyro Reignited Trilogy, as the title implies, contains remastered version of the first three PS1 Spyro games. Outside of a single teaser image, developer Toys For Bob has only publicly shown the first entry. That all changed today during a recent episode of PlayStation Underground where the studio played through a level from Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage.
The demo kicks off in Idol Springs, an early world in Spyro 2. It centers around saving the locals from evil wooden idols. Spyro 2, as some might know, is more open and introduces more characters around each of the levels.
As has been the case with the first game in the trilogy, Toys For Bob is quick to point out their attention to detail. In fact, as Senior Producer Nick Livingston explains, they have a tool that helps them remain faithful to those earlier games.
“We built this tool called Spyroscope,” he said. “Because we didn’t have access to the original assets, we had to build this tool internally that allowed us to extract all the original mesh, original placements, and even the pathing of the character so we could bring that into this modern recreation that we’re doing now.”
Most of the demo is spent detailing how they translated this game over from the PS1 and into the modern age. But they’re also adding and improving when they feel it’s necessary. For example, the shields in Idol Springs are barbecue lids to go with their flaming hot dogs on a stick. To them, these little touches are within the realm of small details they are consistent with the world. However, they haven’t forgotten why they’re remastering these titles in the first place.
“For us when we were remastering this, we wanted the Reignited Trilogy to honor the original games,” said Livingston. “So from a gameplay perspective, we wanted to keep it the same because the game is already fun. People love these games. So we wanted to find ways to modernize it and improve things where we could.”
It’s unclear when we’ll get a look at the third game, Spyro: Year of the Dragon. It’ll most likely be before the Spyro Reignited Trilogy releases on September 21 for PS4 and Xbox One.
