Even though September 9th is more often remembered as the Dreamcast’s North American birthday, it’s also the birthday of PS1 platforming icon, Spyro the Dragon, in that it marks the release date of the first game developed by Insomniac Games. Developer Toys for Bob celebrated the purple dragon’s 28th birthday by giving players an incredibly small peek at the next Spyro game, Spyro: A Realm Beyond.
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Spyro: A Realm Beyond‘s Latest Screenshot Comes in Cake Form
As shown by the above video, Toys for Bob used a purple cake to mark the event. And, fittingly, the top layer of the cake was burned off — an action with a big “DO NOT ATTEMPT” warning at the bottom of the screen — to reveal a new screenshot:
Not much in the image has been explained, but the art shows some animals that resemble goats and birds. It’s unclear if the creature in the top right is some version of Sparx, Spyro’s longtime dragonfly companion.
The studio also posted two pieces of concept art online:
This stage is called Arcadian Vale and is one of the earlier levels in A Realm Beyond. Not much is actually shown in these early images, but the team spoke in an accompany blog post about how Arcadian Vale is more or less a tone piece for the game.
“Arcadian Vale captures the charm and wonder that defines Spyro’s new adventure,” reads the post. “Made up of a calm, serene atmosphere, Arcadian Vale is a vibrant landscape filled with natural beauty. Across the scene are cascading waterfalls tumbling down from towering cliffs. Ancient stone structures and weathered monuments rise from the terrain while lush greenery blankets the valley floor, creating a destination that feels magical and alive.
“From curious critters to cheerful fodder creatures, no detail of Arcadian Vale is too small. Every corner captures the same sense of warmth, whimsy, and personality that fans have come to love and expect from Spyro and his universe. The Toys for Bob team have paid special attention to creating a charming world that feels inviting at every scale, all the way down to its smallest inhabitants.”
Toys for Bob is still speaking in somewhat vague terms, but has revealed in various interviews that it is trying to highlight the core essence of Spyro and find that within a game that allows for free flight (as opposed to the rather limited gliding of the past). Some of these central tenets include the feeling of exploration, encountering quirky characters, the fluidity of movement, and expanding on Tom Kenny’s version of the Spyro.
Kenny, an esteemed voice actor most known for his roles as the Ice King in Adventure Time and SpongeBob SquarePants, voiced Spyro in Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage, Spyro: Year of the Dragon, Spyro: Enter the Dragonfly, and Spyro Reignited Trilogy (as well as Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled) and is often seen as the definitive Spyro voice. Even though casting Kenny signals the team’s desire to call back to the dragon’s glory days, Stewart Copeland, famed composer and drummer for the Police, won’t be returning for A Realm Beyond.
While these are but small droplets of information, more is coming in the future, as the team teased in the aforementioned blog post. The game is still slated for spring 2027, so, barring any big delay, any additional reveals will have to be before then.
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Courtesy of The Game Kitchen
