The Full Potential of a Modern Spyro Sequel

With the massive success of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, many avid fans have been asking the question, is Spyro next? So today, let’s say hypothetically, a new Spyro game is in the works. What should it be like and what direction should Activision take? Here are my thoughts!

Recapturing the Magic

Spyro is a beloved franchise with a dedicated fan base who have seen the rise and demise of their favourite purple dragon and as a result, they’re both enthusiastic and very cautious about its future. Toys for Bob struck gold with The Reignited Trilogy and managed to perfectly recapture the heart and soul of the original games, breathing new life into them without taking anything away. Going forward, I strongly believe that Toys for Bob are the perfect developer to develop the Spyro series as they have been working with the brand since 2011’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure and love it or hate it, those games garnered a huge audience and introduced a new generation of fans to the dragon.

Due to this and their success with Reignited and Crash 4, they have demonstrated that they are a talented studio with an awareness of what made the original games special. As outlined in The Art of Reignited book, they had to actively hold themselves back from going too overboard with ideas in their pursuit of maintaining that faithfulness to the original games. If Toys for Bob were given full reign on a brand new Spyro game in the style of Reignited, I strongly believe that they’d be able to maintain that level of quality and produce the best game we’ve had since the original trilogy.

Keeping it Simple

Back when they released, the original trilogy were pioneers in making the most of the limitations of the PlayStation hardware. They were some of the first games to be able to render in an entire world with no fog effects and still be able to see all the basic geometry of the world around you. Because of this, the worlds are compact: bite-sized but bursting with secrets and collectables so there’s always something to find. Yet due to their length and scope you can easily run through a level in 10-30 minutes (depending on your knowledge of the games) which makes for a very accessible pick-up-and-play experience.

In the modern age of gaming, developers seem to have the ideology that ‘bigger is better.’ But as we’ve seen with some of the Spyro sequels, too big can lead to plain and empty environments with little cause or reason to explore. I strongly believe that maintaining the small size with minor expansions is the way forward and if they wish to expand the scale of the worlds then proportionately more secrets only accessible via power-up or an alternative character (such as Sgt Byrd) would be the correct way to make the levels feel fuller and promote organic exploration from the player.

Art Direction

From the original trilogy to their wonderful recreations in Reignited, Spyro is known for its unique and magical art style. Even with the restrictions 3D gaming had in the 90s, Insomniac still managed to immerse you in the fantastical landscapes that you would expect zany dragons to live and thrive in. From floating islands to giant crystals and treasure hordes, there truly is nothing that feels more like a Spyro game than the foundation set in 1998. The only games that have come close to recapturing the original vision are the Skylanders series with their similar set pieces and visual aesthetic. By contrast, the purple dragon’s features and environs became less whimsical and sometimes even creepy looking in the Universal sequels’ attempts.

Reading through the Art of Reignited book it was clear that in their efforts to not stray too far visually from the source material, Toys For Bob had a lot of ideas that they reined in when ‘reigniting’ the original games. However, after seeing them recreate every mundane dragon from the original into characters with their own personalities and idiosyncrasies, I am personally excited to see what they could do with full creative control over a brand new game in the style and engine they have already produced for existing games.

Music and Sound Design

This is a very easy decision to make: who better than Stewart Copeland to produce a new Spyro soundtrack? We haven’t had his beautiful compositions grace our ears much since he produced the music for the original trilogy and Enter the Dragonfly. While he did assist with the new mixes for Reignited, having a brand new soundtrack for the new game from the legend himself would truly be a return to form that this series deserves. As for the sound design itself, whilst I still prefer the original jingles and effects of the older games the new and refined sounds still feel like they belong and with a little more tweaking to sound a bit more whimsical they would be a welcome addition to a new entry in the series.

Gameplay

Spyro has a fun, yet simple, gameplay loop – kill enemies, collect gems, complete a minigame or two and progress to the next level. While solid enough on its own, the sequels of the past have struggled to find their feet with a new twist or gimmick on the formula. I believe Spyro 2 handled the new gameplay element introduction best by presenting you with obstacles you could not progress past early on and then giving you the means to proceed past these soon after (think swimming, climbing and the head bash specifically). The biggest issue developers seem to have is that Spyro has to walk on all four legs and cannot be allowed to fly freely outside of specific circumstances such as speedway levels or using flight power-up gates, this ultimately means that his arsenal is quite limited which is where the elemental breaths come into the picture.

First introduced in Year of the Dragon, these breaths have very edge-case uses such as opening doors, freezing enemies or catching dragonflies and vanquishing enemies. The main issue with the introduction of these breaths is their execution— usually, you only need to use them to progress past certain locks in the world that require you to, for example, put out a fire or short circuit an electrical lock, but they have so much more potential. If they were given or unlocked periodically throughout the game(à la a Mario powerup) and allowed more manipulation of the environment then they could prove to be a lot more useful and afford the player greater control and variety over their progression through a level. For example, if there is a small water basin that you can’t quite jump out of to reach a ledge on the other side, the ability to freeze the water with your breath and jump from the top onto the ledge is an incredibly simple— yet not utilised— idea. The potential for a properly developed system of elements is there, it just needs care and research to ensure that it doesn’t become a nuisance to the end-user experience.

Overall, I’d honestly be overjoyed if Activision reveal a new Spyro game using the Reignited pizza base and I believe that with the right amount of love and care (and with Toys for Bob at the helm) we could get something truly special, worthy of being ranked up there with the original trilogy. What do you think of my suggestions and what would you love to see in a new Spyro game? Let me know in the comments!