While it’s been theorised since February that a remaster of the much-loved Insomniac Games trilogy would be hitting shelves later this year, our suspicions finally seem to have been confirmed thanks to a few Amazon leaks today. While Activision is still staying Mum on the issue, Amazon Mexico today launched a product page, closely followed by its Indian counterpart.
So, what do these pages tell us? For one, it will be called Spyro Reignited Trilogy and looks to be seeing a release on at least the PS4 and Xbox One. While the Mexican page only shows a title, release date plus a few points of info – leading one to think it could be a fake – the Indian page followed through with convincing screenshots and even a cover.
If the information is correct, it’s set to see a release on the 21st of September. This would make sense as the original Spyro the Dragon came out on the 9th of September, 1998 – more or less exactly 20 years ago. The Mexican page lists the price as 727 Pesos, which converts to roughly US$40. While the Mexican page only mentions the PS4 version, the Indian page shows the Xbox One cover indicating a dual release. No word yet on a Switch port yet, though, or PS Vita (hey, a man can dream).
As expected, it will remaster the original Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage! (Gateway to Glimmer in PAL regions) and Spyro: Year of the Dragon – with the latter two being released in 1999 and 2000, respectively. The screenshots are looking nothing short of exceptional too. They appear to be quite clean and modern – however, do not lose the colourful, cartoony and friendly nature that the original trilogies art design is known for. Twitter user, Nibel has created some fantastic comparisons to the originals if you want to get a better idea. Spyro himself is looking quite good too. Nothing like the straight up sickly appearance he conveyed in Skylanders.
This remaster is being developed by a studio called Toys for Bob. While I’m sure we would all like Insomniac Games to be involved (who are currently working on Marvel’s Spider-Man for the PS4), Toys for Bob are no strangers to the Spyro series having developed four Skylanders titles. They’re also currently working on an upcoming port on the Switch for Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.
As someone who just finished playing Spyro 2 for the first time, having played 1 and 3 to death previously (here’s a *COUGH* review *COUGH*) I’m very excited for this remaster. We’ll update as the information comes available.
Growing up while the fifth generation of consoles reigned supreme meant that Brendan missed out on much of the 80’s and early 90’s of gaming the first time around. He either lacked the cognitive ability to play them, as naturally, he was a baby - or he simply didn’t exist yet. Undeterred, Brendan started a blog called Retro Game On in 2011. This followed his exploits as he collected and played everything he could get his hands on no matter what the release date. While RGO is mainly YouTube focused these days concentrating on video reviews and historical features, the itch to do some old fashion writing never went away. More recently, Brendan has been a staff writer for the gaming website, GameCloud, mostly focusing on the indie gaming scene in his locale of Perth, Australia.
