The gunslinging desperado dinos and dynamite-chucking lizards both have a crazed-delight about them that was never actually there before, while the turret-operating dino is visibly annoyed every time its weapon overheats. It’s a bit more cartoonish, colorful, and exaggerated than what’s seen in the originals, but it’s rendered in a way that feels right as if this is how it always would have looked if not for the technical limitations of the time.ĭino Mines in particular has become the zany, dinosaur-infested version of the old west that it always should have been. The same goes for the overall art direction for the level. Enemies behave as they always have, but they have a bit more personality now thanks to the effort put into their redesigns. His head crest has a measure of elasticity to it and bounces along as he runs, and his flames scorch the grass as he passes through. Spyro doesn’t just have have a generic run anymore, now he bounds along like a true quadruped.

Toys for Bob hasn’t neglected the opportunity to add some additional modern flair though, and it’s found the commendable amount of detail they’ve added. This might throw off someone who’s played the original games recently, but it otherwise feels quite natural. The most major of these is the relocation of camera control from the shoulder buttons to the right analog stick. This isn’t to say that all the controls are exactly the same some minor adjustment have been made for the sake of modern convenience. His jumps feel the same as they always have, his fire breath has the same range, and his charge still has a satisfying sense of speed to it. This really cannot be overstated Spyro handles exactly as he should. We recently had the chance to get some hands-on time with the newly revealed Dino Mines level from S pyro 3: Year of the Dragon and found that it does indeed play just like it’s PS1 predecessor. If what’s been shown at Gamescom and now this most recent preview is any indication of the full and final release, then it’s safe to say that they’ve completely succeeded. Not only did they have to preserve the original gameplay without any source code to work from, but they also had to present the game in a way that feels modern while still agreeing with fans’ sense of nostalgia. This is even more true of Toys For Bob’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy. Sane Trilogy is much closer to a full remake than a remaster it plays the same, but its presentation is fully modern in a way that a pure remaster could never even hope to be.

This assumption might hold true for remasters of more recent games like the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot or The Last of Us, but it rings more and more hollow as the games get older. All one has to do is take what’s already there, give it a new coat of paint, bump up the framerate to 60fps, and make sure the updates don’t break the gameplay experience. In theory, remaking a classic game should be a relatively easy task to accomplish.

Dino mines spyro