The little dragon Spyro has taken over my PS4 and I'm all for the big adventures with this little dude.

Continuing on from my first impressions, I have since continued into Ripto's Rage! and Year of the Dragon. I have learnt that some things are just incredibly innocent and easy, but sarcasm and late 90's retorts reign supreme. Because "I'm a fawn, you dork!" as said by Alora.

When was the last time someone called you a dork?

The tone of the entire game is lighthearted and cheery, even ebullient. The feisty main character is full of energy and always accepting of his purpose in the game. Each of the cutscenes are short and lively, and adds a sweet twist on the drama that is taking place, and instructions are simple. The characters are still very politically correct in their behaviour, speaking kindly even though they may be angry, annoyed, determined or even feeling blue. It's a reminder that it's a kids game and that there was a time when you could still be friendly when people and characters pissed you off.



Characters do sound a little less dramatic compared to what I've heard in replays of the original Spyro series, which is probably a gentle step in a modern remake. Given, some characters needed a little more drama in their lives and made up with little ironies only caught by the older generations. The game is full of these little gems - pun intended - and don't we just love these?



Nowhere in the game do I find the common adulty cynicism and mistrust about what is happening, even though Spyro has the personality of a feline and the villains are eagerly villainous in each of their different plots. The game is pure: here's a task, do it. Simple.

Of course, the remaster takes a while to get through all three games, which were originally released separately, especially when challenged with a full-time job (unlike when you were a kid and could play all day) and with the current state of national resources (ed - Eskom why?!), but when you can, it makes a great game to jam through over the weekend. Speaking of resources...

Please note: Spyro: Reignited Trilogy turned into Shelly's collectathon over her usual gaming grind.



Collecting all the things would be an understatement. There are thousands upon thousands of gems to collect, keys to find and boxes to open.

On top of that, collecting frogs, sheep, penguins and other random non-aggressive creatures gives Spyro health back based on the colour of Sparx, the cute little dragonfly that’s essentially Spyro’s adult supervision. I only learned in the second installment of the three-part Reignited series that Sparx’ function was Spyro’s living health bar. Maybe I missed it in Spyro the Dragon, but that only made Sparx love even greater through the follow-up games.

A huge irk for me was the inverted flying controls. Why? It’s a dragon, not an airplane. And why is there no option for me to change to (what would be) normal controls from the inverted controls? This was a game changer for me as I left the flying levels alone since I struggled so much with this.



I felt something similar to swimming, which was only from Ripto's Rage! and onwards. See, I'm not completely nuts (debatable, I know)! I knew there was swimming somewhere, but I did feel a little disappointed in that the swimming controls changed compared to the running controls, which was probably unnecessary.



Once you got used to it half way through Ripto's Rage!, it did get easier, and you became a pro at it when you got into Year of the Dragon.

Overall, the Reignited Trilogy gave me the experience of going from game to game with consistency in controls, menus looking the same and the vibe not changing, but also giving me new mechanics with each game and a fresh story that had no relation to the previous.



The menus, I must say, were incredibly simple and easy to follow. Throughout the titles, they gave direction when you felt lost and gave you information that would otherwise clutter your thankfully retractable UI. More cute dragon butt, please!

The updated graphics brings so much more to the story, leaving you in awe at the very least. The amount of love put into the detail is very apparent, making it so easy to fall in love with the Dragon Realms, Avalon and the Forgotten Realm.



However, with the updated graphics and the fact that the PS4 is a powerful console, I was disappointed when the images became jittery and stumbled through FPS lag quite regularly. Spryo: Reignited Trilogy uses the Unreal Engine 4 so this should not have been a challenge within this remaster.

Things I loved about Ripto's Rage!:

The start of the mini games that were added as quests in Ripto's Rage! really gave me something extra to do past the collectathon and flaming all the baddies.

Using my collected gems as a currency to progress gave the collectathon a little more meaning in the greater scheme of Avalar. Mr. Moneybags, you were probably as villainous as the real game antagonists, but you gave my gems a real purpose, and I thank you for that.



Things I loved about Year of the Dragon:

Cat Ice Hockey is the best brain child anyone has ever had!

Playing other characters gave Year of the Dragon that extra diversity, away from the same old little Spyro in the previous installments. Sure, this is Spyro's game, and he certainly owns that top dog spot, but Sheila the Kangaroo had me in stitches. She sounded so out of place in her mountainy homeworld as an Aussie, but she is a fantastic character to play. Yeti is more like a whitewashed Hulk smashing things for phat loots, but I'm okay with that. I really enjoyed that each had their own magic to add to the game, their own abilities and their own little story.



If I had to tell you which of these was my absolute favourite out of the three Spyro titles, Year of the Dragon will get my whoot whoot. Spyro still remains an epic family game with excitement, a little button bashing, quick thinking (and hopping) and hours of fun.