Spyro the Dragon Remaster: Why it Needs to Happen!
February 13th, an article on Kotaku.co.uk started trending across Twitter. And for a good reason! Author Laura Kate Dale, who was previously responsible for pre-announcement leaks of both consoles and games (Nintendo Switch, Until Dawn VR, Playstation Slim), wrote an article announcing that a remaster of the original Spyro trilogy for the first Playstation was in development by Activision. The remaster would contain the full games as well as extra assets from Spyro the Dragon, Ripto’s Rage, and Year of the Dragon and is set for announcement in March of this year with a release date set for fall for PS4, with PS4 Pro support!
Like most 90s kids, I grew up with such consoles as the Atari, the Super Nintendo, and of course the Playstation One. Though I didn’t own an Atari, through my first job I was able to afford and purchase both of the other two consoles. I’ll never forget my first three games I ever played: Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Mario World, and Spyro the Dragon. I would get off work and come home to hurry through my schoolwork with anticipation of hopping onto my gaming system and spending an hour fighting to beat level after level. Back in those days, games didn’t take hours to beat. They took days. And for me? Months. But yet I’d look forward to it every day. You could tell games weren’t about making a deadline or being the “next different thing”. They were passion projects meant to tell a story that evolved within itself.
With how quickly new games and consoles are released and how quickly technology is trying to accelerate, it’s not just important for a company to look back on it’s roots: it’s imperative. Sometimes surrounded by a million different ideas stretches us out so far that we cannot concentrate on the main one. Video games these days exist to give you a short experience, and then anticipating short spurts of new content your wallet doesn’t like. With so much focus on multiplayer competition and speed-running, where is the enjoyment of a month-long struggle through a single-player story?
It’s not about how to get to the end, it’s about the adventure getting there. While multiplayer allows new gameplay with each match, singleplayer still has the upper hand in pulling your heart because it’s YOUR story. YOU went on the journey, and every step, whether forward or backward, was YOU.
Remasters give us a chance to rediscover those adventures that pulled our heartstrings in our youth. Head of Sony’s Playstation Europe, Jim Ryan, discussed why backwards compatibility doesn’t fix this craving. In an interview with TIME, he stated,“I was at a Gran Turismo event recently where they had PS1, PS2, PS3 and PS4 games, and the PS1 and the PS2 games, they looked ancient, like why would anybody play this?”
Remasters let us view the world we love to get nostalgic over, in today’s eyes. This also allows those who weren’t able to or didn’t play the game back in the day to start their own epic journey with the graphics they are used to seeing in a normal game. This way, old and new alike can experience the game together with enjoyment and awe.
As for me, I can’t wait to revisit my youth in HD. I was never able to fully complete the game when I was younger, so maybe this time around is my chance. Regardless, my childhood joy is filled to the brim with this news and I invite those of you who have yet to experience this masterpiece of a classic to create your own adventure, or enjoy it with someone else!
