Getting Reacquainted with an Old Friend

When I was in my early teens, I got a PS1 for my birthday. From that day on, if I didn't have to be at school or asleep, I could usually be found rooted to the couch, controller in hand, racing through wintry tundra in Sled Storm or burning rubber in Gran Turismo. 

That is, if I wasn't already immersed in my favorite game of all time, Spyro the Dragon.

For anyone who has not had the extreme pleasure of playing this game (as well as the two that follow, Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! and Spyro: Year of the Dragon), the protagonist is an adorable little purple dragon named Spyro who travels through different worlds collecting treasure, setting fire to enemies, recovering stolen eggs, and freeing fellow dragons who have been trapped in crystal by the evil Gnasty Gnorc. He is joined on his quest by Sparx, the faithful dragonfly who helps Spyro collect items and acts as his protector, changing colors as an indicator of the titular character's health. 

I remember losing myself in these games for hours at a time; truly, what's not to love? Dragons! Wizards! Druids! Fairies! Shiny jewels! Bad guys got you down? Set them on fire! Oh, they're fireproof? That's what horns are for! Spyro's world is full of color and magic, the music is catchy, hel-loo, you can fly, and, best of all, Spyro is just so. freaking. cute. It was the perfect escape from all of the angst that comes with being a teenage girl. I was obsessed.

However, as one inevitably does, I grew up and left the world of dragons behind. Nowadays, if someone asks me if I am a gamer, I don't feel that I can honestly say yes, but I always think back with fondness on the days when I couldn't wait to rush home from school so I could hook up the console and join my friend on his adventures in the Dragon Kingdom.

I had not even considered getting another gaming console until I made an amazing discovery: the original Spyro game trilogy had been remastered and re-released! The result of this information was that I hemmed and hawed briefly over whether to buy a PS4, eventually deciding against and completely forgetting about the whole thing until last year, when I heard Spyro was being released for the Nintendo Switch. I had zero experience with Nintendo, but as usual, felt like everyone was talking about it, so, naturally, I came down with a severe case of FOMO.

My fate was sealed when I hauled myself out from the rock under which I had heretofore been living and started playing Mario Kart Tour for the first time. (Oh, lord, you guys. Why did no one ever tell me about Mario Kart?!) Needless to say, I found a new addiction. But while Mario's world was one that offered a place of refuge from the black cloud of depression and stress that was the constant companion to my adult self, it could not quite fill the dragon-shaped hole in my childhood heart.

Fast-forward to Christmas morning 2020 (because let's face it, that's the only acceptable speed at which to move through this year). I knew ahead of time that my amazing husband was getting me a Switch (I think a possible tipoff was when he shouted across the room: "OK, I'm buying your Christmas present now, come help me!"), and I knew it would only be a matter of time before I would get to meet my old friend once more. The thought filled me with excitement and trepidation; what if it just wasn't the same? Would I be welcomed back into the company of my old friend as though I hadn't been away for the last 15 or so years? Or would I wander, stumbling, lost in an unfamiliar world, unable to recapture that magic which a younger version of myself had wielded so effortlessly?

As I inserted the little game card and waited (an absurdly long time) for it to load, I tried not to get my hopes up. Surely this "remastered" version of my favorite game would disappoint in some small way. It couldn't possibly be the same game that I knew and loved. They will have put a different soundtrack with it. The animation will be weird. The characters will be different, or they'll have screwed up Spyro somehow and--

Oh.

There he was! My favorite little dragon, just as I remembered him. Same voice, same mannerisms, same facial expressions. Same bright, happy, yellow dragonfly sidekick. Still as adorable and as purple as ever. (More purple, in fact!). Still waiting for me, just as before. It was as if no time at all had passed.

That illusion was soon shattered, however, as it took me longer than I expected to get the hang of the game again. I could reasonably blame this partly on getting used to the Switch's Joy-Cons; nevertheless, I felt a few pangs of guilt as Spyro, guided by my hand, walked around drunkenly, charging into walls and falling into various bodies of water. I couldn't at first remember how to fly, and then when I did, I couldn't remember how to stop flying, which resulted in overshooting many a landing, sending my poor dragon friend plummeting into vast nothingness as his life counter ticked closer to zero ("Did you die this often when you used to play before?" asked my husband innocently, observing my mad skillz. A withering glance saw no further questions from that side of the room).

Eventually, muscle memory kicked in, and we were a team again, Spyro, Sparx, and me, a well-oiled machine working to defeat Gnasty Gnorc's minions and save the Dragon Kingdom. Sharpened reaction times combined with my remembering how to actually land resulted in many fewer deaths for our winged hero. Suddenly, as if by magic, I was no longer thirty-three. I was a kid again, sitting on the couch in my parents' living room, with no concept of time, lost entirely in Spyro's world. And what a beautiful world it is! Spyro Reignited Trilogy has seen the original three games beautifully remastered. Characters, colors, and objects are sharp and vivid. In all other aspects, as far as I can tell, they are the exact same games I knew and loved. Same fantastical worlds, each with a boss to battle. Same soundtrack. Same sound effects (Spyro still yawns pointedly if you take too long to move). And the same joyful feeling I had when I first played, all those years ago. 

2020 has been an interesting year, to put it politely. We have all learned how to wash our hands. We have all become masters of Zoom. We have been forced to quarantine in our homes, away from our friends, prohibited from traveling to see our families. Covid-19 death counts and political headlines have been force-fed to us ad nauseam. I've forgotten what the bottom half of everyone's face looks like. In a year that has been filled with death, tragedy, loneliness, isolation, depression, and despair, we must collect whatever little nuggets of happiness we can find. While this year has separated me from many of the people I love, it has brought me an unexpected gift in the form of a dear old friend, a friend whose shape just happens to take that of a juvenile purple dragon. With Spyro on my side, I know I can better handle whatever the coming year brings, be it friend or foe, Dragon or Gnorc. 

I look forward to the next adventure. 

 

 

Spyro the Dragon for Playstation - 1998 image courtesy of mobygames.com

Spyro Reignited Trilogy - Image courtesy of  nintendo.com