Thursday, June 26, 2014

Crash Bandicoot: A Gem that Needs Revived

When I was just five years old I received a copy of that mischievous orange marsupial, Crash Bandicoot, and it remains to be my favorite video game franchise to this day.  As far as I can remember, Crash was my childhood.  I had all the games, action figures, plush toys, remote control cars, pinball machines, posters, drawing books, and even the happy meal toys.  To show my dedication to the franchise, just this year I got a tattoo of Crash on my left arm.


Now in the past year or so there have been rumors about the bandicoot making an appearance in the world once more.  Needless to say it has me all worked up with excitement, but it leaves me doubtful at the same time.  I have spent countless hours on the internet searching for answers, or maybe just a sign of hope that I'll see my childhood icon in the spotlight for at least one more time.  The genre of platformers in video games has dwindled down to almost nothing, I think a new Crash game would send the players back to the good ol' days.

So the start of all this madness is when Activision decided to delete every trace of Crash off of their website, as well as taking down all the websites they were managing that happened to be Crash related.  Literally.  You can not find any official Crash website anymore, almost as if he never existed in the first place.  Activision has also canceled several Crash games that were in the works back in 2010 such as, Crash Landed, Crash Team Racing 2010, and Cortex Chaos (a sequel to Crash Twinsanity).

Next is the PS4 launch trailer.  Now this went viral.  In the PS4 launch trailer you can see a street sign in the back with a silhouette of Crash pointing up to a symbol that looks like the old Sony Computer Entertainment logo.  Here is the picture:


There is also a trash can attached to the pole right below the sign of Crash.  To me this symbolizes that Sony is digging Crash out of the trash that Activision threw him in and bringing him home.  Now I know that there were other classic game references in the launch trailer, but why was Crash's so detailed?  

Now after the launch trailer, Sony still dropped some hints along the way.  For instance on a Sony controlled Twitter account, Sony Denmark posted a Christmas themed Crash picture (one back from his Naughty Dog days!) with the caption "What do you want under your Christmas tree this year?"  Also back on November 13th, 2013, Sony Brazil posted a picture of Crash but this time he had the official Playstation logo beside him.  After these pictures were posted both Sony and Activision denied that any Crash Bandicoot games were in production.



 Sony Denmark


Sony Brazil

So after all this hype, you would think that E3 2014 would be the year of the bandicoot right?  Sadly, the long waiting Crash Bandicoot fans were let down once more.  Sony's press-conference was Crashless.  Because I can't accept reality I have to believe that maybe, just maybe there will be something at Gamescom 2014 or even E3 2015.  I won't believe that the Crash franchise is dead, the character is too iconic to just let him rot away into nothing.  

Somewhere along the line Amazon France supposedly "leaked" artwork of complete reboot of the series and having Sony Computer Entertainment as the publisher.  Of course this was all covered up and it was claimed to fan art work.  Amazon US at one point also had a Crash PS4 title but it was taken off not too long of it being online.  I'm not quite understanding how all these titles keep getting "leaked" onto Amazon.




At this point I think I can say on behalf of all the Crash fans out there, we do not care who makes the game or how it is done.  We just want one more game that stays true to the franchise.  Or maybe even an HD collection of the first four games.  Anything! 

Here are some links below for the PS4 launch trailer, leaked gameplay of Crash Landed/CTR 2010, and etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaAETaMbRC0 - PS4 launch trailers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlAt24wL6qs - Crash Landed Gameplay

http://www.thesixthaxis.com/2013/11/26/playstation-brazil-posts-crash-bandicoot-pic/ - Brazil post

http://www.psu.com/a022046/Sony-Denmark-adds-fuel-to-Crash-Bandicoot-speculation- - Denmark post

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4fSuvmKD9A - Crash Team Racing (2010) Gameplay

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKjydTw6UPg - Crash HD remake?

No comments:

Post a Comment