Reignited Review (detailed)

While on the topic of Spyro 1, chasing down the egg thieves was quite a bit tougher- they tend to notice Spyro sooner and it's harder to try to cut them off. The only place this is an issue is Town Square, where I couldn't catch the thief before it jumped down from the upper section. The camera doesn't always keep up (I was on Active camera and tried Passive without noticing a difference) and I found myself getting hit by projectiles from offscreen a few times. In fight levels, the camera doesn't stay behind Spyro when changing height which gave a disorienting effect and made it hard to gauge if I was too high or too low especially when trying to hit flying targets. Supercharge has a strange system where after certain amounts of time, your speed increases as opposed to being directly tied to Spyro's height relative to the start of the charge. The originals used the increased speed and a ramp to launch Spyro, while the remasters have scripted boosts in certain locations- Tree Tops was a clear case of this where the long paths couldn't be circumvented and the speed boosts could kick in to overshoot the strong chests.
Despite all of this, Spyro 1 Reignited is well worth your time whether or not you've played the original classic and I'm very happy it's accessible to a wider audience. The collectathon isn't dead!

Spyro 2 is my favorite of the trilogy, and narrowly my favorite of the remaster as well. The biggest problem is obviously that Elora's "I'm a faun, you dork" line is now delivered completely differently- and in fact every character is toned down, always being appreciative of Spyro instead of the variety of responses. I'm being sarcastic, of course. The real biggest problem is the underwater controls, because the originals managed the impossible feat of having good underwater levels! In Reignited, it's hard to explain but Spyro will continue sliding in the previous direction of movement even when changing direction. And the camera issue when moving up or down in flights (now speedways) also exists when swimming, which made Aquaria Towers a miserable experience to complete. The boss fights were also significantly changed. Crush now chases Spyro after 3 hits instead of 4, and doesn't drop his shield when attacking. Gulp, the hardest boss of the original trilogy, HAS BEEN BUFFED. Everything Gulp does is now faster and the attack where he jumps on Spyro can now home in, and the blaster attacks also aim better. Lining up hits with a barrel is nearly impossible once the fight gets going, and forget about getting a bomb to blow up. Ripto is mostly different in how the orb powerups work, with damage from each being constant instead of dealing less with each hit from the same activation. The phase 3 fireballs can also, you guessed it, home in and hit you from offscreen.

Lightning round of level changes! Colossus ice has an extremely wide turning radius which made hockey worse somehow. Idol Springs has auto-aim on the fish for the idol which is actually a huge improvement. Hurricos has completely revamped the electrorb challenge to only have 2 enemies around at once, instead of spawning 3+ (it's possible to get 7 at once in the original!) which made it more tedious somehow. Crystal Glacier improved the George challenge with better follow AI and the fish always being flameable. Zephyr somehow made cowleks worse by reducing the distance they fly when charged and making it so they don't keep walking away after being flamed- you have much less control. Scorch heavily nerfed both of its challenges, with Bombo now being named Bob (why?) and only throwing single bombs at fixed points, and the monkeys being less aggressive with coconuts and taking much longer to reclimb their trees. Fracture Hills reduced the distance Earthshapers are pushed back on charging into them, which made the already annoying and difficulty alchemist challenge even more annoying and difficult. Magma Cone nerfed the popcorn crystal challenge vs. Hunter as well- Hunter just can't find them as effectively, turning the second challenge from a close race to 15 to one that I won 15-3 first try. Shady Oasis made it easy to get ahead of Shorty which makes it so he won't follow you until you backtrack, again for no reason. Cloud Temples appears to have made it so you can only hide behind trees for Agent Zero. Mystic Marsh pencil challenge, the auto-aim on spat objects no longer exists in first person so the egg is much more annoying to get in.

In conclusion, Spyro 2 can be a bit of a jarring experience coming from the original, but it's a mostly faithful remaster and I loved replaying it, even though I'd replaying the original maybe a month prior to beginning.

Moving onto Spyro 3, there are also a lot of arbitrary changes to challenges that can make them easier or harder, and all of the generic issues like spitting objects persist. However, I have a new camera grievance that's very serious here, that actually first came up in Canyon Speedway in Spyro 2. You see, I played with both camera settings inverted on a controller. So when I went to use my mouse for any first person aiming section, like that orb challenge, the egg challenge in Country Speedway, or anything with Agent 9... moving the mouse left would move the reticle to the right until I changed my camera settings, and then I would have to change them back.

Another problem with Spyro 3 is the bosses, all of which use their "easy mode" versions from the original. Let me explain- the original Spyro 3 had a hidden adaptive difficulty setting that would silently make subtle changes if the player was dying repeatedly (easier) or collecting certain optional eggs (harder). Every single case I know of was on the easier setting in Reignited, ranging from a rhynoc in Cloud Spires to every boss HP. Anyway, Buzz has increased speed when chasing Spyro so you can't outrun the buzzsaw here, and decreased time between dropping the fire shield and charging. Spike is a joke, with exact delays on every action and only 6 HP instead of 9 (and 1, 2, 3 shots per phase instead of 2, 3, 4). Scorch has his shield up more often but all of the attacks are easier to deal with, and the Sorceress... I don't like the Sorceress redesign. Part of her character was that she was vain without having a real reason to be vain, and the Reignited team took that and tried to idealize her- it just doesn't work. Also the fight was already obnoxious and now it's worse because all of the homing issues from Gulp exist here, and she turns to attack Spyro quicker so hitting with the turret is nearly impossible, and Agent 9 shoots down vehicles much slower, and the UFO now alternates shooting from the left and right sides instead of always shooting straight ahead, with the Sorceress aggressively chasing. Whew. At least beating up Moneybags is still fun.

As for the side characters? Sheila is much less satisfying to control, with her kick now slowing her instead of being able to move while kicking, and her jumps are lower as well. Additionally her bounce jump has such a wide window to activate that I found myself landing from a jump, waiting, and then trying to do a regular jump only to go way too high. I dreaded all Sheila sections. Sgt. Byrd was interesting- flying around felt a bit more awkward but the missiles and waddling were much nicer. I do wish he flew a bit faster, though. Bentley was a bit better to control than in the original, though his club swing is now a bit off to the side and hits a smaller radius, which made the whack-a-mole challenge brutal. His jump was much improved. Agent 9 benefits the most from a modern control scheme, going from an awkward third person shooter to a standard lock-strafe control scheme. My only complaint is the camera one from earlier. Lastly, Sparx controls fine. I liked using the mouse to aim in any direction.

Spyro 3 also had one major, major issue I encountered at the very end of my playthrough. 45 gems disappeared and didn't exist, and fortunately I was able to collect them after closing and reopening the game. I almost gave up right there because that shouldn't be a thing that's able to happen. More minor is that some enemies can get extremely cheapshots in, most notably in Enchanted Towers and Dino Mines. Some challenges just don't function properly, like the mushroom seed challenge in again, Enchanted Towers. I had one seed bounce off of the plot it was supposed to plant in and go over the edge, and I couldn't retrieve it or reset the challenge so I had to exit the area and try again. Several points in the original would adopt a fixed camera perspective to show relevant information, but not the remaster. This made the Spooky Swamp Sheila challenge ridiculous- or it would have, if it wasn't changed to have the rocks not respawn. Spyro 3 definitely needed some more attention and polish in its original form, but Reignited takes it to a whole other level.

Overall though? I enjoyed my time with Spyro 3 here. There's a lot more problems compared to the first two but all three games are well worth your time. If you're worried about the amount of content from my 18 hour completion- don't be, I've completed the original trilogy in 10.5 hours. There's plenty here to explore and as I said at the beginning- I would happily play a Spyro 4 in this engine.