Toys For Bob may just have made a teensy weensy tease that a new Spyro game could be coming for 2023.
In a tweet, the official Toys For Bob account shared this message:
“Big moves and BIG MOOD for 2023 #LifeatTFB”
This came with a little collage of Toys For Bob pictures. Of interest, on the top right corner of the picture, is a teensy weensy Spyro with a nice golden number 25 floating slightly above him.
The very first Spyro the Dragon game was released for the PlayStation 25 years ago, on September 9, 1998 for North America, and then October 1998 in Europe. Following the critically well received but poor unit seller Disruptor, developer Insomniac Games bet their company on a 3D platformer with open world and collectible elements, starring a juvenile purple dinosaur.
Spyro was purposely made so that the PlayStation could offer kid friendly 3D platformers to match Nintendo 64’s offerings, including the influential Super Mario 64, and Banjo-Kazooie, which released just a few months before Spyro in North America and Europe. Spyro distinguished himself from those games with his gliding ability; not only was it a fun mechanic that made players feel free, but it also gave Insomniac the ability to make open ended levels. This design encouraged exploration, which was augmented by its 3D panoramic engine, which could indicate distances by displaying different levels of detail. These and other technological innovations were themselves significant steps forward in the development of 3D games, building on what Nintendo and Rare accomplished with their games.
As a mascot platformer, Spyro’s popularity and influence would prove to extend beyond the innovations of his first few games on the first PlayStation. After 2001, Spyro and Crash Bandicoot would no longer be published by Sony Computer Entertainment, as Universal Interactive would take them multiplatform. The next few series of Spyro games themselves would come to the GameCube and Xbox alongside the PlayStation 2, as well as the Game Boy Advance and DS. However, these games would prove to not be as successful or popular as the first few games.
Spyro’s next major hit would actually prove to be Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure, the big Spyro game from Toys for Bob that would jumpstart the toys-to-life craze. Starting in 2011, Skylanders would become its own big franchise, and a major revenue driver for Activision for the next five years.
Most recently, Spyro’s original PlayStation games received a long needed remake in the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, published in 2018.
While Spyro did not have a consistently stellar gameography, no one can take away the importance of its initial trilogy, and the enduring appeal that saw it bring Skylanders to its initial success. Now that that original trilogy has been remade, Toys for Bob and Activision needs to come up with something different and special for its 25th anniversary.
Will we get a new Spyro game or series of games? Will Activision try to bring back Skylanders already? Or could they be looking at a different direction, say a Spyro the Dragon movie or show? We’re all looking forward to find out what Activision and Toys for Bob will share with us later this year.
Source: Twitter vs Insider Gaming
