Will Spyro Reignited Trilogy Rekindle Speedruns

Before Insomniac made waves with Ratchet and Clank or were working on a high profile approach to Spider-Man, they were making a simple game about a purple dragon named Spyro. Being that players at that time were all about platformers and unique characters, Spyro quickly became synonymous with the PlayStation. Three games released in that run, marking it as a high point for the character among most fans. Since then, Spyro hasn’t really come back to that simple magic, instead being a part of the Skylanders toys-to-life craze. For months rumors were swirling about for a remaster of the trilogy, following the trend of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, but now that rumor has become reality. All three Spyro games from the PSOne are getting the remaster treatment, coming as a package on the PS4 and the Xbox One (surprisingly) on September 21st called the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.

Development is actually being done by Toys for Bob, which is the same team that’s been creating the Skylanders games. Before that, they did some development in the 1990’s with games like Star Control, The Horde, and The Unholy War. Toys for Bob are also being credited with helping bring the N. Sane Trilogy to the Switch.

Being that here at Twin Galaxies competition and player expression in their games is the main focus, the Reignited Trilogy brings up the question of whether or not this will rekindle the flame of speedrunning, much like what we looked into for the Dark Souls remake.

Really, when it comes to speedrunning a remaster or the original, it all comes down to how the game is built. If similar tricks work in the remaster, or it runs at a faster framerate, or if there is a speedrun option, then the remaster might be a bigger incentive for previous runners or even new ones. Due to the sheer graphical difference and more rubust geometry, most likely there will be some change-ups to player strategies. However, judging from watching a few Any% runs, there is a lot of routing and movement that goes into the speedrun that should carry over. 

It would seem though that the Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage speedrun will be the most different, due to an exploit that allows for a double jump and some major skips that may not work in the remake. This is what makes Spyro 2 such a short run by comparison clocking in at under ten minutes with the current record being eight and a half minutes. Spyro: Year of the Dragon is in a similar situation, but other skips and exploits might come into play later on.

The School of Spyro Discord helped determine a lot of extra information based on what’s been showed. An older tutorial brought up by those members showed off some of those nuanced techniques that likely won’t carry over into the Reignited Trilogy.

Spudlyman, a speedrunner that has done each of the trilogy through the years, added some insight over Discord, “Both Spyro 2 and 3 have a whole lot of things that you can do that you aren't quite meant to be able to, because of little tiny things you can do to get a bit more height in places than devs expected (djump aside) and loading zones being in silly places and all sorts of stuff.”

“Considering it's a new game, it's pretty much impossible to speculate on how similar the routes will be. Not only is there a chance that many big skips will be gone, there is also a chance that there will be vastly different glitches that may be found in the new games.”

Some other reactions from Twitter include general excitement. Antdude, who is known mostly for his video essays on Kirby games and Rom Hacks, definitely seems pumped that the rumors are true. There has also been an influx in fan art celebrating the dragon’s return.

It's 5:30 in the morning. I'm on a plane to Boston. And I'm freaking out. https://t.co/vwFrzfH9HS

— AntDude @ PAX East (@antdude92) April 5, 2018

reignited trilogy! ✩°｡ #spyro pic.twitter.com/V021tQTOHw

— uneasiness (@mana_chan__) April 5, 2018

That and on Reddit there is a mix of fan emotions. Lot of tears, happy tears.

While most of the reaction is positive there were some legitimately based artistic choices that seemed strange and were collected in a single post on Reddit. There are some points to be made here and are worth looking into if art direction, pallette choice, and such is of interest. Although, some a little more nitpickey than others. To find that list of criticisms, check out this imgur post.  

Overall, it looks like most fans are overly excited about the new remaster, but it will be interesting to see if players can take things further as they usually do. With speedrunning being as popular as it is now, there might be a larger influx of runners picking up the Reignited Trilogy. If the remastered set does well critically and the runs remain mostly viable, this could be the next hot title for runners.

We’ll have to wait until September to find out.