#I just want them to stick to the remake pattern a bit longer

[fierykitten2]

Khu’s leaked that we might be getting another Pokémon game this next year and istg it had better not be Unova games (mainly because that breaks the remake pattern of all remakes except Gen 1 because that would be redundant being in the generation exactly double the original generation but also partly because Johto still hasn’t been revisited since gen 4)

If it somehow is Unova I’m saying Gen 10 came a game or two early fuck you. And I’ll still be making the nonsensical “I guess Game Freak prefers the Neo Swords to the Proto Beasts” jokes I would’ve made if Unova games of any kind were announced without also giving Johto any love on Pokémon Day 2024

[fightabear]

okay i just got home from atlantic entertainment expo and i need to share the highlight of my con. also hi @amtrax i cannot believe you found me here

so! last year i started tabling at conventions. last year's Atlantic Entertainment Expo was my first one ever. i absolutely love doing this and getting to meet fellow creatives, and i try to make it a point to create something for creators & actors whose work really impacted me as a way of giving back. and like it feels like (to me, this is not reflective of reality but the imposter syndrome) giving a teacher a stick figure drawing they're just going to put on the fridge. but it's the smallest way to show appreciation for the work they've done that's made my life better.

the second i heard that austin lee matthews, motorcycle master of midgar himself, was coming to one of my local conventions up here in the ass end of canada, i was excited. immediately knew i had to make something special because roche was one of my very favorite things about remake and i'll quote his big bombastic speech patterns when i'm trying to psyche myself up to deal with difficult clients at the day job.

so i make my little roche charms, set one aside and keep it on me, and go about my con weekend - and end up being so busy i can't slip away. i check his table a few times when its slow but i keep missing him, so i just resolve to get it to him tomorrow or send one of my friends.

and an important part of this story is i am terrible with recognizing people from photographs. like... once i actually meet someone in person that information is locked and loaded but i don't remember faces from photo promos.

(i have a story where i didn't recognize adam croasdell who stopped by to talk to me during setup last year, which was my first year of doing cons & i was so busy trying to get everything set up and i didn't recognize him because i was so deep in 'oh god what am i doing' and that is going to haunt me)

near to the end of the day i'm working on a client's commission and someone comes up to my table and waits incredibly patiently as i'm trying to muddle through some EOD burnout. sometimes people just come up and watch me draw so it can be kind of hard to tell if someone's just vibing or waiting for my attention (and my helper had disappeared into the ether so i was Very Whelmed) so when i finally turn, incredibly apologetic and awkward because oh god they were so patient and were waiting way too long, this guy is still beaming. i'm just like! i'm so sorry, is there anything i can help you with? and he just grins and says,

"oh i just wanted to come by and say," and then immediately drops into the roche voice, "HELLO MY FRIEND!"

AND WHEN I TELL YOU I LOSE IT. i immediately apologize to the client because i just need to give this man the thing i made, so i grab the charm and offer it and just start gushing. we get to chat a little bit - i don't even remember i was just so excited - but i have a client waiting. so i assume he's going to disappear into the crowd because - this is taking so much time.

but austin just stands there as i finish the commission... which takes longer than planned! i don't even know how long he was there. he's super supportive the entire time, making comments about my art, and when the commission is done and the client leaves.

so! he buys a vincent charm and then shows me the adorable promptis print he bought from another table and is just like a goddamn ray of sunshine the entire time. he also tipped which he absolutely did not need to do. again - incredibly enthusiastic and excited just to be there and be around fellow fans. it made my entire weekend. we get to talk a little more before i text my next one to let them know i'm ready for them.

i didn't get nearly as much time as i wanted to because man if someone every radiated golden retriever best friend energy, it's austin. literally everyone i spoke to who interacted with him was so taken.

he stopped by again near the end of the day yesterday when i had a line again so i didn't get to talk, but then he dropped that he'd found my tumblr (i'm sure my face was a perfect mask of horror, i pretend to be a professional artist & adult on twitter and here is where i radiate my feral rat gremlin energy) and i am going to finish the extra surprise i was working on and add more to it because - sincerely - made my convention and turned what could have been a very stressful situation into a wonderful memory. my literal only regret is that i forgot my ultimanias at home (along with half of my setup, crying into my hands) because i wanted to get those signed.

Austin, i will bring my awkward ass to your dms once i've recovered from con crunch, but sincerely if you are ever on PEI or get the hankering to go during the summer season, please hit me up. my family has a little cottage by the beach (not to be confused with a cabin in the woods) that is welcome and free for friends to use (in the least parasocial way possible, welcome to the island. after like two good conversations with someone you're buddies). i love the island, i love sharing what i love about it, and i hope this weekend made it clear that the island loves you.

( also if you ever have any art needs that require... whatever in the hell my style is please know i am here )

my god. i cannot emphasize how much i love doing conventions. the vibes, the excitement, all of the connections. realizing people are getting to be regulars and i recognize them from con to con and i get to ask them about how their year was while i draw and get to celebrate the good and try to offer whatever i can to balance out the bad.

my heart is so full right now.

also!! if anyone is still reading this rambling post, please check out @palletteknife. this isn't final fantasy related i am just absolutely obsessed with their work and spent like all sunday showing people this fantastic carrie charm they made ITS SO CUTE AND HORRIFYING AND THE STYLE IS AMAZING

[doktorpeace]

Top 5 Games Of The Year Runner Up And Honorable Mentions

Runner Up: Doki Doki Literature Club (THIS SECTION CONTAINS BIG SPOILERS, IF YOU HAVEN’T PLAYED DDLC AND ARE INTERESTED IN MAYBE TRYING IT HERE’S THE TL;DR It’s good, it plays with your expectations in a very good way and in a multitude of ways, it’s a great little piece of media that brings to life an extremely good character. Also it’s free, go download it on steam.)

Look, maybe it’s because I don’t consume a lot of horror media but this game really stood out to me. Not only for it’s genre though, also for the high quality of its writing and with how great the game is at accomplishing the one and only thing it truly sets out to do: Convey Monika as a character. The horror elements themselves can be a bit hit and miss and some of them are quite predictable, but I feel the game is excellent at building a continuous sense of dread as the player continues through it. It rapidly ratchets up the intensity of its content after taking just enough time for the player to settle in and get comfortable and mixes in JUST A COUPLE of jumpscares (which honestly it probably shouldn’t) in order to keep the player unsteady enough in terms of expectations to keep that dread building. Regardless, throughout the game Doki Doki Literature Club does a great job taking advantage of player expectations both of dating sim visual novels AND of horror writing to ultimately become something just a little bit more. It becomes an excellent character exercise and exploration. Thanks to some smart programming in service of the game’s ultimate intent, to make Monika into a ‘real’ character actually ended up giving me one of the deepest scares any piece of media, video game or otherwise, has ever given me. And it did it without any secondary stimuli like sound or a jumpscare or horrifying visuals. No, in a completely calm moment all that was said was this:

And I REELED back in my chair because the suspense and the dread the game had been building all impacted me at once. You can’t deliver that kind of scare in someone without some smart writing backed up by some VERY smart programming and understanding of player expectations. Honestly Monika is such an excellent and fully realized character despite the game being so short it’s astounding. By taking care to give her a lot of special conditional dialogue, pages upon PAGES of missable content, and even meta-content such as her having unique dialogue that only appears while looking through the game’s files it really just all coalesces into making Monika feel almost real, real enough to give me the willies and to feel a bit sad for her by the end. DDLC is a divisive game and I understand if the game’s handling of certain themes or content doesn’t sit well with other people but for me, and I say this as someone who is no stranger to suicide attempts, the game never went to far. For me it all worked in service of the game’s narrative and Monika’s character growth. Honestly even just little details like how the piano in the soundtrack only starts playing for the first time once Monika is introduced and only ever stops when she’s not watching you or how there’s a lot of different horror elements that only occur randomly so not everyone has the same experience or how some can only happen in fullscreen or in windowed mode, it’s really amazing attention to detail and consideration of her character while also making the game more unique as a product. DDLC was really good. It gave me some good scares but it also gave me a good story and a GREAT character to appreciate. Even if, like me, you’re a bit of a weenie when it comes to horror content I’d wholeheartedly recommend DDLC as a read, assuming you both can handle a jumpscare or two and can handle game content that involves suicide and self harm. I know I didn’t get too in depth here but I wanted to avoid spoiling TOO much and honestly I already said too much as is! Please excuse me! Honorable Mention #1: Yo! Noid 2 - Enter the Void

It’s not often you get a game that’s developed explicitly as a joke that’s so good. Yo Noid 2 is a solid, fun, and funny platformer. It’s all pretty clearly built just to tell one joke right at the very end but the ends ABSOLUTELY justify the means. I can’t talk too in detail about this game without ruining why it’s special, but Yo Noid 2 is a legitimately fun 3D platformer, with good level design, a relatively expressive moveset, a very special Special Action Button, and honestly a great soundtrack to boot! Its difficulty ramps up in a good way across its very short 90-150 minute length culminating in a very fun final boss fight. PLEASE go download Yo Noid 2, if you like 3D platformers and want to have a good laugh it’s 300% worth your time. It’s even free, you have no excuses!!

Honorable Mention #2: Mega Man 11 Mega Man is back, again, and they really did a good job expanding the franchise. While I still like entries such as 9, 10, and 4 better personally there’s no denying MM11 expands the franchise in a positive way more than any other before it. MM11 takes the time tested side scrolling design of the classic Mega Man series and adds just enough of a new wrinkle with the Double Gear system to really expand the player’s horizons and to push their level design concepts. While Double Gear and in fact all of the secondary weapons are entirely unnecessary as is tradition for Mega Man games MM11 does a great job incentives smart use of these mechanics, keeping them balanced with a shared cooldown system between both gears (power and speed) and making every single one of the Robot Master powers actually useful! Also all of the robot master designs are really charming this time, I was initially worried about the addition of voice acting but the voice cast does a great job! The level design is also a treat, while the length of the levels varies DRASTICALLY and Wily Castle 1 is dramatically longer and harder than another other stage in the game overall it’s very easy to just jump into any level and challenge yourself. There is no obvious first boss, they’re all pretty tough, and I started with Acid Man myself. The only thing about MM11 that let me down was the soundtrack; it wasn’t bad it just wasn’t bombastic either, merely present during play but not sticking in my memory at all. MM11 is a great entry in the series and I hope it signals a true return of one of my childhood favorites with more games to come soon.  Honorable Mention #3: Fire Emblem - Mystery of the Emblem (FE12) Taking the great concept of remaking FE’s earliest titles that Shadow Dragon started and actually putting in the elbow grease to make the game really good, FE12 is a stand out entry in the Fire Emblem franchise. While some aspects of its map design are somewhat held back by the original iteration, FE3′s age, the developers at IntSys really did a great job modernizing Archanea and paying good tribute to the characters and story that made this game an absolutely beloved classic in the first place. With overall good map design, modernized mechanics, the best use of an Avatar Character in the franchise, and massively improved unit, class, and weapon balance over the original FE12 polishes its source material to a razor shine. Top it all off with a decent story and great new content that adds a bunch of new dialogue to the characters and this is the definitive way to experience Archenea and its inhabitants. Except for Marth, he was better in Shadow Dragon. Besides Marth’s characterization taking a step back and the gaiden content being rather slapdash and forgettable, this game is everything a remastering should be; Taking what worked and polishing it, improving what didn’t, and adding all new content that fits in with the original game in a productive and fun way for fans. The addition of a wide variety of gameplay difficulties and including the until this game INCREDIBLY rare BS: Fire Emblem expansion chapters previously exclusive to the Super Famicom Satellaview this game cartridge is bursting with good content. It’s a fun, fun game with a lot to offer and great replayability thanks to its BULGING roster of characters and deeply customizable avatar character. If you like Fire Emblem as a franchise I’d heavily recommending finding a patched FE12 rom out there, harder though it is to do now. You owe it to yourself to experience this game. Oh, just play with the battle animations off, they’re REALLY ugly. Still, this game puts Shadow Dragon’s lazy near-direct port of an NES game to DS to shame. Honorable Mention #4: A Hat in Time - Seal the Deal This DLC has been getting some backlash and frankly I don’t get why. While I was a bit disappointed the new chapter was shorter than the base game ones the Death Wish side of things offered a TON of great new content and new ways to experience past challenges. For its modest price point this DLC really does everything I could possibly hope for out of a 3D Platformer expansion. New, tougher challenges to really push my skills, fun new content that fits right in with the base game in terms of quality and polish, and in A Hat in Time’s case GREAT new boss fight experiences. Taking every existing boss and turning them into a downright Superboss level difficulty fight, remixing all of their attacks, speed, patterns, and adding all new stuff to them is such a great idea and I really loved it. Seal the Deal is a ton of fun as long as you aren’t averse to an easy base game getting a VERY challenging DLC expansion. I can understand why the difficulty whiplash might turn some people off but for me it was just right and really hit the spot. A Hat in Time is just so good, I love it.

[comfypants4life]

Rose Cosplay Breakdown

I had a budget of $100 for this and I think I blew it on the dress. But what a dress! Even kids who didnt know Steven Universe thought I was a princess, and even though I was a rebel leader, I kinda felt like a princess too hehe. I’m so happy with how it turned out but there is always changes you want to make after. 

Top of Dress: I made the skirt part of the dress separate because I didn't want the dress to be too heavy and pull me too down. The white part is separate and I did this part first which I really shouldn't have! When you look at Rose's dress there is no seam between the white parts so I really wanted to keep the first layer in one line. I really didn't want a lot of seams on the first layer so I looked at a few corset and sweet heart patterns and combine that with a circle skirt. The next time I wear this dress I will be adjusting or outright remaking the top part to have a more exaggerated sweet heart top, more tailored waist and fuller, wider, longer skirt because I thought the first petals were one of the weakest parts of the dress. I used a matte satin in a warm white or ivory and lined it in the same thing, happy with how breathable it was, and turned all the seams inwards just so it looked more professional. Next time I wear it I will buy a smaller corset, because I couldn’t cinch it enough and I feel like my silhouette suffered.

Bottom of Dress:  I made the dress in two parts, top and bottom. The bottom was made out of a large mesh circle skirt that I connected all the petals to and a hoop skirt. The hoop skirt was the only thing I didnt make, it was going to be so difficult to make and on amazon it was $15.... I wanted the petals to look a little less like fish scales but whatever, I like fish lol. Each layer is a little larger than the one above it. I made them out the cheapest pink and light purple satin I could find, turned them on their ‘wrong side’ and layered it with a fine pink mesh to diffuse the shine. Next time I’m going to make an additional layer of purple at the bottom (if I can find that right shade of purple now that I think about it) just because I didnt like how you could see my feet in the platforms. But at the very least, you can see that when the wind blows, no cage lines

Gem: I made the gem out of plastic resin and mixing pink, white, a little bit of ochre red. I first made a model of it out of air dry clay and then varnish, but it was hard to make it even as it changes from being a pentagon to a circle. In the end I made a 3D print of the gem and made a silicone 

Peachy hair under warm light

Wig:  Ahh the wig! I got three cheap long curly wigs. After a lot of trial and error I cut out two wigs and sewn them into the third one. I re-curled most of the curls into large ringlets and sprayed them with a got2b’s strong hairspray. I kept the bangs pretty straight since every pic I see of her has some face framing bangs. Because this wig was so heavy I was scared it would slip off my head so I pinned the hell out of it. Which was good, because I little troll gave it a yank, punk ass. but it didnt budge so jokes on that little shit! :P 

Sword:  I have a definite love-hate relationship with the sword. I had some extra toekick around from a renovation. it had the weight and the rigidity I wanted and this groove on one side that could totally be a fuller. Sprayed it with PlastiDip (though I should have done a few coats). painted with acrylics and filled the fuller up with a thin layer of clear resin and put three paper flowers into the top. whole hand guard was made of foam and the handle was made out of cutting up two painting stir sticks and using flexible electric tape . the swirl was made on the 3D printer and the Rose on top was made of resin. I used some playdough to make a rose and  then varnished it, made a silicone mold, the same way I made the gem. Oh, I had all these tiny gems and paper flowers left over (I was going to use them to highlight my dress but then storage and durability wise I knew they would look patchy in the first ten minutes of use. Then I put all the little paper flowers, then I paint a bunch of silk flowers and stuck those on... that was me trying to sabotage myself by making up extra stuff that I didnt need to do. 

The 3D printer really can step up the cosplay game. It can make things so much more accurate but i dont recommend using it for large pieces as it takes a long time to make them. My next costume is probably going to be the Winter Soldier cuz I have a massive crush on Bucky Barnes. I will try to use it to make some finger armor for it and make the star because I need it to have percise and equal corners that I see others struggle with. But the majority of the costume will be made of foam, because its much quicker, easier to work with and honestly, just more fun. You can get really caught up in making everything perfect and using the 3D printer can make beautiful, intricate pieces but it can also make some things harder then just sculpting it by hand.  Hope this can be helpful to someone in the future! 

[skyfishcosplay]

A path to follow - Emily part 2

So for My Emily cosplay I felt that I at least needed the sword. It is so far the only prop I have but if I have time I wanna make more props.

It is not 100% accurate, the color for example, mine is more lighter silver than the original and that is because it was the only metallic paint I had.  

The blade is very simple with none of the ridges the original has and that is because I made a choice of having it super accurate or fold-able  and that is much cooler.

I started by getting this sword from ebay, cost 4 pounds so I expected some sort of plastic but it was metal. It is a trick sword, the blades folds into the handle, I am not good enough to do it like in the game so this was close enough. :)

I broke the handle and was able to take it apart. There was four blade parts, two in Emily’s sword(which does not make sense cause the handle is not long enough but that’s a different story). But I went with 3 blades since it would be the closest to the right length since the sword is almost a long knife instead of a sword hahaha. 

So after I removed one blade I put it back together and I fortunately had not broken the original handle so much, so I decided to use it as a base. The top picture shows how the sword would look folded, so I needed an longer handle then the base. (Which I am woman enough to admit I  forgot the first time and wondered why I had measured out so much worbla.) Second picture is just it laid out with the base worbla cover I would use. I had to have the sword unfolded so I would not risk sticking the worbla to the folded blade haha.

  Done. After that I drew on the design roughly and glued on a piece of foam at the top. After that I put on wall filler to get the right shape. Now afterwards, I should have exaggerated the shaped more since the worbla makes them softer.

I covered all in plastic and painters tape, drew on the shape of the metal of the handle. It was not so easy and had to be in several parts. I also used tibra, for the first time so that went as well as you can expect. Tibra stretch really easily. So a few bits are a bit, wonky.... But overall good!

I also did the error in not priming at all before painting, so the seams are noticeable if I look closely.

So here it is with “metal parts” I made the spikes of craft foam and it is the part I am most unhappy with and will remake.

After painting it I removed the tape I had on the “wood part”. I really don’t remember why I thought that was necessary hahaa. And the tape was my pattern. I used black worbla, for the first time as well. Unfortunately it did not stick to the wall filler well and I had to superglue it.

The reason I used tibra and black worbla was because I wanted it to look like different materials and I heard that tibra was smooth and fitted for a metal look.

Then I just painted it. I redid it several times and I am still not happy. I bought wood vinyl I will put on it instead.

So this is my base sword but I will do an updated version this summer where Bubblefish convinced me to compete as well!

/Marlin

[ladala99]

Spyro Reignited Countdown Super Bonus Round - Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled

I really did not expect the Spyro Grand Prix to drop before Spyro Reignited came out of Switch, but it did! I cannot describe the hype I experience watching the trailer, and of course the wide grin on my face using my hoarded Wumpa Coins to unlock everything I could on day 1.

So, now that Spyro is a playable character, Crash Team Racing is a Spyro game as per my weird definition. So, here’s a review!

Gameplay

It’s a kart racer, with the original game debuting on the PS1. That means it has to be pretty simple, right?

Wrong. It’s inspired by Mario Kart for sure, but it has a mechanic that makes it stand out: drift boosting.

You can hop into a slide and boost three times before you must hop again. Each boost gives you a little more speed, and you build up what fans call “reserves,” in which your speed keeps going even after you stop boosting. These reserves also apply to the boosts you get from boost pads, which are more powerful than you can get from drifting alone. New to the remake is Blue Fire, the fastest you can go. It’s really intense keeping control of your vehicle while continuing to boost so you don’t lose your fire!

And then there’s powerups that almost all have a direct equivalent in the Mario Kart series: you’ve got your rockets (red shells), bombs (green shells), warp orbs (blue shells), clocks (lightning bolts), masks (stars), shields (horn thingy? except automatic), potions (banana peels) and canisters (mushrooms). There’s also TNT crates, which stick to you and only go away if you hop a few times.

Another difference is the fact that you can “juice up��� these items by collecting 10 Wumpa Fruit, which are sometimes scattered around the track but usually are in specific crates. The juiced up effects make the powerups stronger and/or last longer, and also make your kart go faster, like coins in more recent Mario Karts. Yes, Mario Kart copied Crash. Antigrav was in Crash first as well, but it’s not in this game.

It has really steep learning curve. If you want to play it like you play Mario, Easy Mode is the only mode for you. Because Medium assumes you have some skill with the boost system. But there really isn’t any bonus to playing any particular mode, so it’s pretty forgiving.

Playable Characters

You start out with eight playable characters, split into four categories:

Polar and Pura are Turning-based characters. These characters turn very sharply, which is nice when playing the game like Mario Kart, but is actively bad when you are trying to drift down straightaways. They’re also really slow. Once you have a handle on the game’s mechanics, these are the hardest to do well with, but when you first start, they’re a bit easier to navigate with.

Crash and Cortex are Balanced characters. They’re slow, but not as slow as the Turning characters, and they turn sharply, but not as sharply as the Turning characters. You still will have a hard time drifting down straightaways. They’re slightly more usable than Turning characters once you’re skilled, but they’re still really difficult. Also: the visible stats lie.

Coco and N. Gin are Acceleration-based characters. They can reach high speeds and still will turn fairly easily. As you get better, you’ll find these characters easiest to play, as you can drift straight or turn relatively easily. Again: the stats lie. They’re better than they look.

Tiny Tiger and Dingodile are Speed-based characters. Experts will use these characters most of all, since they are, naturally, the fastest. Their awful Turning stats make it so they can drift in a completely straight line, but makes it difficult to turn with them. Not impossible, though, as this game’s hopping mechanics make turning possible, if you just get used to it. These guys are difficult for beginners, but once you’ve mastered them, it’s hard going back to anyone else.

More characters are unlocked in Adventure Mode, one by completing Time Trials, and an ever-increasing number through Wumpa Coins (which you earn by doing just about anything). All characters fall into one of the above four categories, essentially making them skins of one another. There’s also actual skins and other aesthetic differences available, but obviously these don’t make any difference to gameplay.

Game Modes

There’s several:

Adventure Mode is the story mode. A lot of things are unlocked here, including characters, karts, and paint jobs. Also, you know, there’s a story.

Single Races let you pick an individual course to race on with various rules. These courses include the Adventure Mode courses, courses from the game Nitro Kart, and all courses made available by Grand Prix (and the PS4-exclusive track is here too, if you’re on PS4).

Cup Races lets you race in cups of four pre-selected tracks. They’re not all covered by this mode and there’s not custom nor random cup, so it’s a little pointless. It is the only non-Adventure-Mode location to show Podium animations, though.

Time Trials let you race the tracks with a timer. If you’re good enough, you’ll unlock time trials by N. Tropy and Oxide himself. If you beat all of the Crash Team Racing and Nitro Kart times set by those two, you’ll unlock N. Tropy and a special skin for him respectively.

Battle Mode has some special courses and types of competition. I never use this mode outside of what I have to for the Grand Prix.

And of course, the Grand Prix itself. There’s various challenges spanning many modes that earn you Nitro Points. These points will unlock new karts, skins, characters, and other related aesthetic unlockables. This is where Spyro is located, and he’s only located here this month. Unless they repeat it later or something.

Wumpa Coins?

You gain a small amount of these every time you do a race or a battle. You can earn a lot more of them online, as you get a 5X boost for 30 minutes of on-the-track time (which depending on loading times can last for about an hour to about two hours in real time. The Switch’s load times in particular are awful).

You can also get Wumpa Coins through *shudder* microtransactions. And because of that, you need to be connected to the server to get coins at all. Only online races require a subscription to your console’s internet service, but everything in the shop (called the Pit Stop) is balanced more to the online race reward rate than the normal reward rate.

What if no internet?

Then no coins, no Grand Prix and no Pit Stop. You still can earn things through Adventure Mode and Time Trials, but the rest is blocked.

If the servers shut down right this minute, anything you have already bought with Wumpa Coins or earned in past Grand Prix would still be available to use. You just would be unable to earn or buy more things.

Given that this is a remake/remaster/whatever this counts as, and everything that was in the original is obtainable through its original methods, while this state isn’t ideal, it’s fair. You’re not losing out on any gameplay, and unlike Skylanders Superchargers, you still can access anything you’ve already bought.

Spyro’s Role

Spyro is being introduced into the game in a Grand Prix, timed to celebrate the launch of the Reignited Trilogy on the Switch.

This Grand Prix features Spyro as an unlockable character through the Nitro Gauge, and Hunter and Gnasty Gnorc buyable in the Pit Stop. Spyro is a Speed character, Gnasty is a Turning character, and Hunter is a Balanced character.

I think these make some sort of sense: Spyro is pretty fast, especially with a Supercharge powerup or in the Speedways. Hunter can do a lot of things, so him being Balanced has logic. Gnasty at first seems more of a Speed type from his boss fight, but the fact that his level is made of dangerous twisty paths makes being agile and Turning-based make sense.

There’s also a track specifically based on levels in Spyro 1. This track changes Wumpa Fruit to gems, and crates to chests. Anyone who gets an invincibility powerup or is rescued from being off-course gets Sparx rather than a regular mask, and the three Spyro characters have Sparx as the “mask” no matter what course they’re in. This includes Gnasty, as little sense as that makes.

Other characters gain skins for this Grand Prix, but not many are direct references to Spyro. Some are generic fantasy or fantasy-related skins, and a couple are direct references to a different Crash game that has nothing to do with Spyro.

There’s also three new karts, one having a scale-like plating and Spyro’s color scheme referencing Spyro, one that’s spiky and has an underbite referencing Gnasty, and one that’s... Arkeyan. Referencing Skylanders.

And that is what made my grin go full-on tears of joy. It’s not just Classic Spyro, it’s Skylanders as well. And Legend, as the Decals (patterns for the vehicle for the paint to go on) have designs extremely similar to menus and architecture from that series.

Beenox is really going all-out, and I love it.

The Pit Stop paint jobs are all gem-based, with facets that give them a really cool texture, and the wheels are Elemental-based, and I’m not certain if they’re Skylanders or Legend-based. Perhaps they’re both?

AND Spyro’s alternate color schemes include Dark Spyro as well as I guess Reignited gives him patterns with the powerups. But Dark Spyro! Based on the Skylanders version of him. But Dark Spyro!

I’m just full-on hype, it’s a dream come true, it’s new Classic Spyro content (Reignited Spyro content, I suppose) and it shares love for the rest of the series, too, even if the focus is on the first game.

Conclusion

I don’t have anything bad to say about this game. It only got on my radar because of the Spyro Grand Prix, was worth every penny from what was included in the box from the get-go, and the Spyro Grand Prix was everything I hoped it would be and more. The only thing I would change is have Elora or Bianca present, but really I expected no more than Spyro himself so I’m satisfied.

This is primarily a Crash game, celebrating the Crash series. It’s a difficult as a Crash game is known to be. And that makes it fun.  “Dark Souls of Kart Racing” ha, Dark Souls is the Crash Bandicoot of... whatever genre Dark Souls is.

Of course, I’m reviewing while still in hype mode, but I’ve put so many hours into this game, and loved it. I can see myself playing it for months to come, and perhaps coming back to it for fun after years.