Spyro Reignited Trilogy's first PC mods make it retro again
Also there's a doge mod.
It's been just over a week since Spyro Reignited Trilogy first glided onto PCs, which means there's already a bunch of mods for you to try out. Somewhat hilariously, many of these (and indeed the most popular) are ones that seek to make the remastered Spyro games appear more like the original titles. We have come full circle.
Also, someone's replaced the Spyro model with a Shibe from Nintendogs. Do it for the memes.
Over on Nexusmods, the current most-popular Spyro Reignited Trilogy mod is Aveean's Classic Spyro mod, which takes the new model and gives it the retro Spyro colours. According to the mod description, Aveean was inspired to create this following a Reddit request - and simply because they liked the original colour. Aveean has altered the main Spyro skin to have "less pink on the body, unsaturated horns and belly, dark red wings and light scales", all of which give Spyro a slightly cooler shade. Here's my purple boi before and after the mod:
It's worth noting you can already get a retro(ish) version of Spyro by using the game's cheat codes, but this mod allows you to retain the modern model while regaining the original colours.
Another mod seeking to strike the balance between old and new is the (amusingly-named) My Legs mod, which removes the Reignited Trilogy Sparx's legs and teeth to make the dragonfly resemble the original. You may recognise the mod creator from Spyro: Myths Awaken, a fan game which got sent a cease and desist letter by Activision and is now known as Zera: Other Worlds.
If you're a real stickler for tradition, modder ColossusSteppes has created a mod that reverts the Reignited dialogue subtitles and names to their original versions. You can check the precise details for that over here.
Looks aren't everything, however, and modder chompFish is undertaking a vast project to bring back the sound effects of the original games. chompFish says they're a hobbyist music producer and sound designer, and all the retro sounds added in the mod have been given a remaster. I have to admit, there's something very satisfying about the original jewel collection sounds, as you can see in the mod video below.
Ok, so aside from recreating the retro feel of the games, there's also a wonderful range of different skins for Spyro (such as this Rainbow delight) and my personal favourite, a mod that turns Spyro into a doge. It uses the Shiba Inu model from Nintendogs, and looks utterly bizarre when gliding around and breathing fire. I love it.
If you want to install these mods, you'll need to do so manually without the use of a mod manager. Make sure to check out the mod pages for instructions from the authors (for the dog mod, you'll need to use WinRAR to extract the files into the Paks folder). Now somebody just needs to create a way to pet it.