The successful release of the Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy has lit a fire in the hearts of Spyro fans, who hope the adventure series will be Activision's next remaster.
It seems what was once considered a pipe dream could be a step closer to actually happening.
Spyro the Dragon is a platformer that casts players in the role of Spyro, a young, purple dragon who is accompanied on his journeys by a dragonfly called Sparx. Here's a trailer for the first game in the series, released for the PS1 in 1998.
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Activision has decided to resurrect its 20 million-selling platforming adventure game series Spyro the Dragon with the help of toys and augmented reality.
Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure is based on the character from the original PlayStation days and is due out this autumn, according to USA Today.
Activision is said to be targeting gamers aged six to 12, and plans a line of action figures.
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It's the first face-off of the New Year and with it, the opportunity to bring the cold, hard, iron first of order to the games cupboard by rounding up the games we really should have covered by now, but didn't for reasons too numerous and too tedious to get into. It's also the chance to take a look at how the first high profile release of 2009 - EA's Lord of the Rings: Conquest - measures up under Eurogamer's unyielding scrutiny.
As we've got a lot of software to get through, we've bumped up the interesting games to the front of the feature, then grouped together the rest in the form of smaller, round-up featurettes at the end. However, as per the norm, all games get the full screenshot gallery treatment - captures losslessly derived from the HDMI ports of both consoles at full range 24-bit RGB precision. Where PS3 outputs a 1080p signal on any given game, additional galleries are provided, along with their 360 counterparts.
For the headline games there's also the customary video coverage. Set your Flash Player to 'high quality' to appreciate the full might of h264 encoding, or check out the author's blog if you want to download bandwidth-saturating full-HD versions running in real time, optimised for playback on PS3, Xbox 360 and dual-core PCs.
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So then. Spyro. If you've got even this far, chances are your mind recalls the golden days of Spyro's reign on the original PlayStation. Days spent in a colourful platform world of gliding dragons, cutesy combat and endless collection. Well, shame on you for living in the past, you Luddite. Spyro has moved on. All that childish fun, charm and enjoyment have been replaced by A-list voice talent, a set of brawling moves and a shiny new suit.
But at least he has indeed moved on. This is the first Spyro title to let you to fly around freely, so you can forget the hamstrung flapping of previous titles. And it's enjoyable, it really is. When you first emerge from the caverns of the early game into an open valley hub-world, you'll find it hard to resist wheeling through the SEGA-blue sky and diving amongst the insects, spores and seeds floating about. There's a real sense of freedom, especially as you've just escaped the confines of fiery catacombs; in fact, it's a genuine 'ooh' moment akin to taking in the first vista of Cyrodil or Washington in Oblivion and Fallout. There's not quite the same sense of epic scale - after all, the valley is only the size of your average settlement or catacomb. But for a moment, it feels as though what you might have been expecting to be a medicocre title could turn out to be something truly beautiful. For a moment.
Up to this point - which occurs about 30 minutes in - we'd been pleasantly surprised by elements such as the depth of the combat system. It's a sort of low-fat Devil May Cry affair with an unnecessary amount of moves and combos, and you can grapple, juggle and spin your foes to death in a pleasing variety of ways. Of particular note are the grabs, pulled off with a quick stab of the B button, where Spyro or nemesis-turned-ally Cynder grab a nasty in their jaws and shake it to death like a kitten in a tumble-drier. These moves are accompanied by a sudden drop in game-speed which we're still not certain is 100 per cent intentional. The frame-rate fluctuates so wildly at times that it could simply be a product of overcrowding.
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Activision Blizzard has issued a new release schedule with several key titles conspicuously absent.
It was all sun, sand, sea and Sierra games for Eurogamer the other week when the artist formerly known as Vivendi took us on a press trip to Mallorca. You might have already seen our previews of Ghostbusters, Prototype and 50 Cent: Blood on the Sand, but they weren't the only games on show.
