Redandblack64 released another new update on their fan PlayStation 1 remake of Spyro: Season of Ice. For the Autumn Fairy Home, it adds Moneybags who hints at the flammable pumpkins and the fairy they'll unlock when all of them are lit. The Mermaid Coast has also has some tweaks, such the lighthouse positions and an additional mission of taking out all Rhynocs in the realm to collect a frozen fairy.
Another new addition to the game update is the level Lava Prairie, a prehistoric realm surrounded by lava. The cavemen are based on the Bonebuilders from Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage!, and we see the similarities more closely with the cavemen 3D models. The realm itself is heavily based on its core counterpart, from the cave paintings and the layout. There are currently two hostile prehistoric Rhynocs, a green one with a club and a yellow one that breathes fireballs. There are also a few additions to collecting gems, such as the floating vases and the seasonal snowglobes from the Spyro fangame, Crisis in Chronolia.
While traversing through Lava Prairie, like the original game, the player has to be careful not to fall off the open gaps and edges otherwise they fall into the surrounding lava. There is also the addition of a cave that adds more flavor to the prehistoric world with its dangers and collectibles to find.
The sidequest involving the flying pterodactyls has changed for this 3D remake. In the original Season of Ice, due to the top down gameplay perspective, Spyro had to move balls of cacti over to geysers to have them launched at the pterodactyls to take them out. Here, a powerup fairy by the exit portal grants Spyro temporary Superflight for him to fly around and easily flame the pterodactyls while in the air. The superfly powerup can also be used to flame the floating vases and do the season snowglobes scattered around a small area of the Prairie.
While playing through this realm, much like Mermaid Coast, it feels like experiencing a new level with Lava Prairie from a whole new perspective but with familiar assets. The next level on the list is Market Mesa, and it makes me wonder if the creator will borrow Chronolia's alpaca NPC models for the upcoming level in this Season of Ice remake.
Youtooz has released their promotional photos of their upcoming Skylanders Chop Chop and Drobot plushies. Previously the plushies had incorrect features that the original designs didn't have, like Chop Chop's helmet angled backwards and Drobot's snout pushed in. Fans were quick to point them out and Youtooz made the decision to delay the Drobot and Chop Chop plushies until their designs are fixed.
“It happens that way,” he said, “It's a new generation. They want a new generation of sound and everything… they’ve got to modernise it. No harm, no foul.”
However the news sparked backlash with the Spyro fanbase who are big fans of Stewart Copeland and were hoping he would return to compose the soundtrack for A Realm Beyond. Some believe with Stewart not composing forthe game, it is doomed to fail, or lost value, with others declaring they won't preorder the game.
Will Toys For Bob respond, or will they ignore the backlash and continue on with their own composer chosen for A Realm Beyond in their push to not cater too much to nostalgia?
A Spyro fan film, Special Delivery, is a project currently in development by Dessert Monkey, who plans to release the movie later in 2026. This is the first I've heard of the fan film, and after watching animation tests, the first few trailers and the latest one, I became interested in this project and reached out to Dessert Monkey.
In the announcement trailer for Spyro: A Realm Beyond, we are given a glimpse of the villain who will be featured in the new game. We could only see his clawed hands, his cloak, horns, and his menacing glowing staff. Fans are currently speculating about the identity of this new antagonist.
Spyro: A Realm Beyond has garnered worldwide positive reception upon its announcement, with fans excited about the return of our heroic purple hero. The official trailer for Beyond has reached over 1 million views more than the "All Scaled Up" reveal trailer for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
In an interview with Gamesrader, Toys For Bob CEO, Paul Yan, stated that he's proud of the development team who have been "paying attention and listening to the community."
He
sees that A Realm Beyond could have fallen into two extremes:
"If you
stick too much to nostalgia, then you basically just rehash, and it's
like, 'why did we do that?'" he suggests, saying that rehashing things
would mean "there's no future that kind of gets out there."
Meanwhile,
"on the other extreme, you innovate too much, and all of a sudden you
don't even recognize what the character is and what the series is." With
that in mind, Yan says, "that tension is so real" when it came to
making A Realm Beyond.
After all, he continues, "our goal is that
we want Spyro to live on for a long time. We want not just one new game,
but many new games. We hope that this is the first of many. So we're
going to have to take some risks. We're going to have to move into new
territory, and our goal is to make sure that that evolution is always
speaking to something that is authentic and reverential to building on
the foundation of what is truly Spyro, and then we'll take some leaps."
This will be "uncomfortable," he adds, "but we wanna go there."
Personally I'm okay with getting a new game every couple of years if love and effort is put into them. We don't want Spyro to be in the same situation as the Skylanders franchise: Yearly releases that will gradually milk the franchise to death.
After many many months of speculations, false alarms, bouts of hopes, we are finally shown the next installment in the Spyro the Dragon franchise, a new original game: Spyro: A Realm Beyond.
The Pop Fizz Youtooz plush is now available for preorder until June 30th. But Youtooz has announced they will be delaying preorders for the Drobot and Chop Chop plushies in order to make some edits to them after Skylanders fan feedback regarding the designs for the plushies.
Notable feedback includes incorrect details on Chop Chop's helmet and Drobot's snout.
Chop Chop Youtooz plush with his helmet angled backwards
Chop Chop's original design with his helmet angled forwards
Youtooz announces their next line of merchandise plushies for the Skylanders franchise: Drobot, Pop Fizz and Chop Chop. Each plush is 9in tall and will cost $29.99. They will be released on June 2nd.
