18 replies to this topic

[Neppy]

Really loved these games on PS1. I never actually beat Crash 1 yet, but perhaps this remake will give me the opportunity to do so.

Honestly, I think Crash 1 is the hardest of the three to beat. It's especially difficult to get 100% on it also. I have done it one time over the years. I have to get a PS4 in order to play this, but I can't wait to see all that has been done. 

[Anarchy_Balsac]

I dunno, I liked 2 and 3, but 1 was just a ripoff of Donkey Kong Country, wasn't it?

[DashSim]

This does seem like a prelude to a new Crash game. Which, uh, even though I like the PS1 games, I'm prooobably not interested even remotely in a new game. It's like almost 2 in the morning here and I have some rambling thoughts about this here we go woo

 

What makes the Naughty Dog Crash games interesting to me is how they're sort of this divergent evolutionary path in 3D platformer design. We ultimately moved forward with Mario 64's reimagining of the genre in 3D space, while Crash is this off-shoot that was developed alongside Mario 64, but without absorbing any of its influence. So it's applying 2D platformer philosophies to 3D space in a completely different way. Crash arguably represents a beginning of 3D platformer design, but I feel it's more accurately described as the capping off of that era's 2D platformer design. Not that the two are mutually exclusive. The series is kinda fascinating, from that perspective.

 

It's very of its time in other ways, too. Heavy mid-90s WB cartoon character inspiration. It's from a time when system mascots were still important. It's also specifically that mid-90s, Donkey Kong Country-esque school of platformer design that it's attempting to translate into 3D. Couldn't have happened at any other point in history. There was just one teeny tiny little window in which Crash had an opportunity to enter into the world, and it did.

 

And I have, like, basically zero expectation that any new Crash would follow up on the how-do-we-give-2D-platformers-a-third-dimension-when-we-haven't-seen-Mario-64-yet? aspect that makes the original series so interesting. I guess it's the same reason why I don't think a new Battletoads game would works today; it's linked to its particular zeitgeist so strongly that it doesn't really work outside of that without either modern audiences rejecting it or fundamentally changing what it is. You could absolutely create an excellent game featuring Crash, today, while fulfilling all the expectations of a modern game. Buuut then it probably isn't doing the essential thing that makes the PS1 games so interesting, at which point the fact that it's a Crash game is irrelevant and there's no reason to look forward to a good-looking platformer featuring him any more than any other good-looking platformer not featuring him. As someone who likes the PS1 Crash games, I can't imagine a reason that I would be especially interested in that sort of Crash sequel. It's not like the Crash character himself or his story is particularly compelling, a platformer isn't made better or worse by virtue of him being in it. If any of that makes sense. Which it may not. Because it's almost 2 in the morning.

 

Unless they did actually pull off a Crash sequel in 2017 or whenever that built on its divergent evolutionary path aspect, which would be amazing and I would love that forever and ever. It doesn't seem super likely to me, is the thing.

 

Anyway the remakes look good thumbs up five stars okay bye

 

[Neppy]

That is quite a compelling argument, and you make some great points. We were lucky to get these games back in the 90s as you said, and they're actually what got me into DKC, since at the time I hadn't bought many games. So when I was looking for a game to play, and the PSX got stored away, DKC games ended up looking close enjoy to the Crash games that I enjoyed. (As you can tell by now, I have no comeback, as I agree with what you said.) I do hope that they can prove us wrong, and that they can bring some positive life back into our bandicoot buddy here, while doing his spirit some justice. Only time will tell I suppose.