Sane Trilogy-style remake of the original three games, Spyro: Reignited Trilogy, was revealed. Jak and Daxter and Ratchet & Clank have a similar relationship for the same reason. They worked on Spyro and Crash literally right next to each other, in the same room. Their initial developers, Insomniac and Naughty Dog have been close allies for years. The Spyro franchise has a long history of crossing over with the Crash Bandicoot games, starting with a Spyro the Dragon demo in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped and culminating in Crash Purple and Spyro Orange. The first reboot, The Legend of Spyro, was Darker and Edgier, while the second reboot, Skylanders, returned to the lightness of the classic series while also spinning off its own hugely successful franchise and kicking off the 'Toys to Life' genre. Universal Interactive Studios retained the rights, and their Spyro games tried to rectify the aforementioned issue by adding in various gimmicks, such as multiple elemental breaths, combat, and eventually even unlimited free flight.Īctivision is the current developer/producer/distributor of the franchise through its Sierra subsidiary. As a youngling, Spyro was able to glide rather than fly freely (though he was able to fly in special levels and in later games via a temporary powerup).Īlthough the series was a hit, Insomniac moved on after the third game, partly because they felt it was difficult to create varied gameplay when the main playable character is a quadruped (the third game allowed you to switch to bipedal characters and had lots of vehicle sections, and Insomniac's next series, Ratchet & Clank, made heavy use of gadgets and weapons).

Seeing as making a platformer where the player can just fly over everything would've been difficult, it was decided this dragon would be a child, which had the added bonus of appealing to the target demographic. It was decided that it'd star a dragon because, well, dragons are cool! Spyro was settled on purple because it's a rare colour in environments, even in a fantasy setting. It was started in 1998 when Universal Interactive Studios commissioned Insomniac Games to make a child-oriented game on the original PlayStation. The first generation - the legend begins.Ī platforming video game franchise (with a focus on combat in later games) starring the eponymous purple dragon, Spyro.

Spyro the dragon video game