1 of 2 | The "Spyro the Dragon" series has been completely remade in "Spyro Reignited Trilogy." Image courtesy of Activision
Nov. 13 (UPI) -- Spyro the Dragon is soaring back onto consoles Tuesday in publisher Activision's remaster of the purple fire breather's first three PlayStation 1 adventures titled Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
Developer Toys for Bob -- in bringing Spyro out of the late '90s and into the modern day on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One -- has remade Spyro the Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon from the ground up with updated HD graphics, smooth controls, improved environments, new lighting and recreated cinematics.
"At its heart, the original Spyro trilogy is such an engaging and fun adventure, and this was our chance to give fans that great experience again, in a way that feels crafted to today's gaming landscape," senior producer for Toys for Bob Peter Kavic told UPI.
The team, working out of Novato, Calif., updated the three games through a developmental tool known as Spyro-Scope. This helped with the mapping out of environments from the original titles so that the relative heights of jumps and placements of treasures in Reignited Trilogy are accurate.
Toys for Bob was able to build upon elements from the original games and add its own creative input as it modernized the look and feel of characters and animations with more detail and graphical fidelity.
"A remaster is a different beast entirely," Kavic said. "It was great for us because we had benchmarks and reference materials for each character and level that helped inform our first steps on how to reignite each aspect of the three games."
Reignited Trilogy was made with the support of Insomniac Games, the original developers of Spyro. Toys for Bob had reintroduced the purple dragon in 2011's Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure following a hiatus. Skylanders went on to become a successful series on its own that dropped the Spyro name.
"It was also important to us to consult with the original developers and others originally involved to make sure we kept as true as possible to the spirit of the original games," Kavic said about Insomniac. "They have been extremely supportive and very positive in their feedback on our work, which has been a great confidence driver for the team."
Reignited Trilogy will have two soundtrack options, including the original series score by Stewart Copeland of The Police and a remastered soundtrack that adapts to what is happening on-screen.
Additionally, Copeland has composed a new main theme song, titled "Tiger Train," which will be featured in Reignited Trilogy.
"It was our mission to bring his soundtrack to new levels through the updated technology we have available," Kavic said. "We were very cautious of changing his music too much - it needed to be genuine to the original but updated for the remaster purposes."
He said Copeland was more than supportive of what they built.
Tom Kenny voices Spyro -- he had provided vocals for the title character in the original Ripto's Rage! and Year of the Dragon. Kenny has re-recorded audio tracks for the remastered trilogy alongside other original voice talent and will be featured as Spyro in the first game.
The series celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.
"We wanted to create a love letter back to the fans with this remaster and unleash the dragon in a significant way that reminds fans why they fell in love with gaming in the first place," Kavic said.
