Has This Bandicoot Crashed?

[Dave]

Has this bandicoot, Crashed?

In this thread, I started out with the intentions of examining my favourite Crash Bandicoot game from the past, since I have semi-gone off modern gaming. That view will most likely change when Modern Warfare 2 comes out but none the less, here I am. So, I stared going through all of the past releases in an effort to single out my favourite one of the series and upon closer inspection, I realised that Crash Bandicoot is dying. Not literally but the series is dying in my opinion. This is truly a sad day for me. Firstly, playing Crash Bandicoot as a kid was one of my greatest memories, noticing that it had gone so downhill that the huge boulder in the second one wouldn’t bother chasing you any more is fucking sad. Secondly, I am now in two minds about whether they should realise another game in the series. I often thought they should go back to the roots and bring out a revamped game similar to the first few. Then I look at the game they offer now and I think maybe they shouldn’t. I mean, no point further tarnishing a good series.

Anyway, my love affair of this game started a long, long time ago. I got a PlayStation for my 7th birthday and the only game I got with it was Crash Bandicoot. To be honest, it was the only game I needed. I spent so long on that game that even when I did get new games like Abe’s Odyssey, I only played them for a while and then got right back to the lovable bandicoot. It is probably the best game I have played in my life. Not for graphics, not for creative design but for just sheer playability and enjoyment. There wasn’t a day in my life that I did not wake up and put on Crash Bandicoot. It was a great game and the beginning of a gaming phenomenon that swept everything out of the way.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, was just as brilliant in my eyes. Honestly, it was one of the finest sequals to a game I have ever played and just further reinforced the fact that Crash Bandicoot was on top of his game. Smashing through crates and rocket launching his way to the top. It was a hilarious game and something that is very pure. Pure in the sense that it didn’t try to be something else, it was just a fun game that you could sit down and play for hours and hours at a time. I cannot tell you how many hours I spent playing that game right through. Mainly because I missed one fucking crate and didn’t realise until the end. They released this game for the XBOX 360 arcade a while back and I downloaded it without hesitation. I, again, played it for hours upon hours and it really got me back into playing retro games. I started playing Final Fantasy games more and I found an old copy of Future Cop LAPD, another of my favourite retro games. It really brought back some great memories and is just a damn fine gaming experience.

Then we have Crash Team Racing. By this point, I was a complete fan boy by this point and anything that they brought out as a sequel to Crash Bandicoot 2, I would have gotten without a doubt. I was taken aback with this game when I got to play it. It was so good. I mean, there was plenty of other games like this out there but this was by far the best of them. The follow up to this game was Nitro Kart, which is not an altogether bad game but I would think that it was the beginning of the end for the series. Team Racing though was amazing. A truly great game that inspired me into more racing games. To this day, these 3 games still stand as some of my favourite games ever.

My question is: Where should they have stopped and has the series been ruined by…

This:

And this:

I think so. But what do you guys think?​

 

[The Doctor]

Let me start out by saying, I used to love te Crash series. Warped is one of my favorite 3D platformers. I haven't played it since, so it's possible I'm viewing it through a nostalgia filter, but I don't think so. Same with Tag Team Racing. Both were just a pile of fun.

But with games like Crash, Boom, Bang, and the one they released on Gamecube (Rise of Cortex, I think it was called), can you really blame he series for dying? Crash could never reach the iconic status of Mario or Sonic, no matter how had he tried. It just wasn't happening.

I think right now, we should hope death comes quickly and swiftly, and amuse ourselves with the highly enjoyable older games.

 

[NSL]

I'm with Doc. I loved the early games, and even still own NitroKart, but it was never going to be as big as it was meant to be. Sonic and Mario were established icons by the time this game came out, and I don't even think the gamer mags or sites thought it would reach those levels.

I'll keep playing it, because it was fun, but I hope it dies a quick death. If they keep dragging it on, it will only get worse and worse, and ruin the nostalgia of the early games.

 

[Dave]

Yeah, I have to agree with you guys.

I don't think that Crash was ever going to reach the heights of Sonic and Mario, that's for sure. However, it did have a run for a while that would have put the fear into Sega and Nintendo. At it's peak, Crash Bandicoot was one of the biggest icons in gaming because of the games that were produced. Naughty Dog and Universal Studios really did a great job of making these games very playable and very enjoyable.

The thing is now though that they haven't come along very far since the first couple of games. Many would say that this is a plus because they enjoyed the initial games more but I see it as a bad thing. It is only natural for games to evolve to the times that we are now in. It is how sports game stay relevant, even though we have the last game in the series, which is probably very similar. Crash Bandicoot did not evolve with the times and has been left behind to wallow in the past.

It is definitely a shame and I, like you guys, really wish it would just end.

 

[The Rob]

I could never get into Crash for some reason. I just didn't find the games to be all that much fun (call me crazy if you must), and I much prefered Sonic. Don't get me wrong, the Crash series was good and Crash Team Racing on the Playstation 1 was a worthy adversery to Mario Kart 64 (which is argueably the best game of it's kind... ever). I was just too immersed in the Sonic the Hedgehog world to fully appriciate Crash's pro's, rather then just focus on it con's.

I think Crash pretty much died once it made the jump from the PS1 to the PS2, the games just weren't different enough to really catch the attention the series deserved.

 

[DigitalNight]

As the series went on and got more twisted within gimmicks and party games, I lost track of it. I still have my Playstation One titles and have been known to pull them out and play them. The fun factor is there, but they have not preserved well graphic-wise in my opinion.

I have to agree with Rob, when he his PS2, the games became 'a new animal' so to say. And Unfortunately for the Crash purists out there, the animal was the 'bored-a-saurus.' I did try to like them, I really did. But it was not the same.

He lays to rest with a ton of other characters in the Video Game Pet Cemetery. Plots include those of Aero The AcroBAT, Sox the Sax playing Cat, Bubsy, and a slew of others. I guess you'd call him the 'Survivor' of the animal pack.

 

[Sean Valjean]

I used to love Crash Bandicoot in the ps1 days, but, for now, the character is dead. While I don't blame them for trying Crash on the ps2, I tried the first Crash game for the system (can't remember the name) and didn't care for it much. I haven't tried the other ps2 Crash games, but I've heard that they were crap.

Right now, Crash Bandicoot is pretty much dead, there's no reason to believe that the franchise can't make a comeback. It's highly unlikely, and it'd take one HELL of an overhaul to compete with the awesome games out now, but I believe that any game can be great if the effort is put into it. After all, the Tomb Raider franchise went through a similar slump when it went to the ps2; then they got a new developer, released Legend, and now the series is respectable (and enjoyable) again. Maybe Crash can do the same.

On a side note, Sonic is an icon and he hasn't had a great game since Sonic & Knuckles.