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.
