Spyro: Reignited Trilogy returns to Nintendo Switch, in a conversion that is anything but brilliant
Last November 2018 the most famous purple dragon ever returned happily to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, with an ad hoc remaster packaged by Toys For Bob (those of the Skylanders, among other things) and published by Activision: today we come back to tell you about it with the review of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy for Nintendo Switch. After about a year of exclusivity on the aforementioned consoles, in fact, the three chapters of the original series are also ready for a second test run on Nintendo Switch and PC, making it officially accessible literally by anyone. As always the question of a port on the hybrid of the Kyoto house becomes interesting, mainly for two reasons: the technical question of conversion itself, and then the added value of portability. How will it have gone for little Spyro and company?
Conversion on Nintendo Switch: TV Mode
Via the tooth, away the pain: the conversion of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy on Nintendo Switch is not one of those particularly successful, and during our hours of play we have really noticed several defects, probably explained by a conversion attempt that turned out to be in reality a compression end in itself. Not even particularly successful, since as you will know by purchasing the physical version of the game on Nintendo Switch you will still have to download a patch of the day one of about 8 gigabytes: several for the console average. However, the quality of the porting is fluctuating, and particularly differentiated depending on whether you choose to play in dock mode (ie in TV Mode) or in portable mode.
The first really obvious flaw in TV Mode is a general lowering of the Spyro graphic level: Reignited Trilogy. Now, the purpose of this talk is not to compare the various game versions to find a winner, but remember that on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 the Activision title had a resolution of 1080p (up to 4K) and a frame fixed rate at 30FPS. At the same frame rate, which in many cases and above all in the most agitated situations becomes dangerously dancer, going down a bit, the graphic detail of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy cannot even aspire from afar to the levels of the rival consoles. Not bad, you say: because if you buy Spyro: Reignited Trilogy on Nintendo Switch it is definitely not for the technical sector offered by a less powerful console than Xbox One and PlayStation 4.
An understandable reasoning, but in TV mode the general glance is really difficult to swallow: sometimes we even doubted that it was actually 720p. The backgrounds are generally blurred, shadows and reflections are wide open, and a persistent blur becomes more and more annoying as the eye goes far. Even the loading times between one world and another are slightly longer than other consoles, but this detail is certainly not the most problematic. The particle effects and the lighting would have required a little more effort during the conversion, but perhaps it is in the water sources that the technical problems of porting can be summarized: they seem dirty, blurred, as if suddenly the pollution had corrupted Avalar and the Forgotten Worlds.
Portable and tabletop mode
The problems we've talked about so far are Spyro: Reignited Trilogy played in TV Mode. Things change (albeit partially) once the console has been removed from the dock to play in portable mode. The miracles are clearly only apparent, justified by the small size of the screen, which allows us to postpone the defects of the graphic sector, and probably due to a port that had its initial and final point precisely in the mobile version of the title. It is not the first time that titles on Nintendo Switch give the best of themselves in portable mode rather than once placed in the dock.
And in portable mode, Spyro: Reignited Trilogy seems more fluid, more detailed, generally more successful: perhaps thanks to our having played the first few hours in TV Mode. The small size of the screen helps a definition that on the whole decreases further, perhaps going around 480-600p, but we will need the Digital Foundry analysis to be sure. At times you will notice on your console screen a real grid, a pixellated grid that certainly does not indicate a good overall resolution.
In laptop mode, from time to time, some slow downs and some lowering of the frame rate peeps out, but nothing exaggerated for the player. Nothing to report regarding the particularities of the Nintendo console: a just mentioned vibration system goes with oblivion due to the true potential of HD Rumble. It is hard to believe that more dignified results could not be achieved for a conversion of the Spyro trilogy; however, the fun factor is not compromised ... at least in portable mode.
The contents
We still spend a few words for the latest arrivals, perhaps for the players who last winter didn't even notice the arrival of Spyro: Reignited Trilogy on the market and therefore know little about its contents. The package in question, also on Nintendo Switch, contains the remake version (made from scratch, as if they were modern titles) of the first three chapters of the original trilogy on PlayStation 1, namely Spyro The Dragon, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage ( known by us as Gateway to Glimmer, that is Passage for Barlume) and finally Spyro 3: Year of The Dragon. These platforms, which have now become obsolete especially due to the small size of the various levels and the extremely low level of difficulty, have marked the childhood of many gamers, and the characters present, as well as atmospheres and worlds still have much to say to the collective imagination. . Three very pleasant adventures are proposed among other things at a budget price of € 39.99.
