The Crash Bandicoot Series

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11-02-2010, 12:28 AM
Evastio

The Crash Bandicoot Series

Yesterday on Youtube, I was watching some Crash Bandicoot gameplay (from the games made by Naughty Dog) and it reminded me of how fun and awesome those games were. Sure, they took quite a lot of elements from Mario, Sonic, and other various platforming games, but Naughty Dog put so much of their own flair and charm to it, that you'd hardly notice. Everything, from the gameplay animation to the funny death scenes to the music (especially the music with it's wackiness and catchiness) made the game series so unique and unlike any other game.

I haven't really played that many of the non-Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games, though I found them, okay, I guess. Crash Bash was fun enough, but the wackiness factor was lacking, and it seemed a little too tame for a Crash game. Crash's Huge Adventure was quite impressive, though they reused quite a lot of stuff (though at least it felt quite a bit more like a Naughty Dog Crash game that way). And since it was on the GBA and not a console system, it would be unfair to say that the graphics, animation, and music weren't as good as the Naughty Dog Crash games. Crash Nitro Kart is probably my favourite non-Naughty Dog Crash game, seeing how the music felt wacky enough, they portrayed the Crash characters quite accurately, and it felt quite a bit like a real successor to CTR (though the futuristic vehicles ruined that, somewhat). As for Crash of the Titans, that would probably be my least favourite (as a Crash game, the concept of controlling all enemies in the game was fun), seeing how a few of the characters weren't really portrayed well (especially Dr. N. Gin, seeing how they got rid of his old voice, which was the coolest thing about him. They also made Coco a little too spunky). It also strayed from the original Crash mechanics by an insane amount. Though disregarding that fact, the game was quite a good one, though they probably should've used a different character besides Crash, seeing how the game didn't play like a Crash game at all.

Those four are the only non-Naughty Dog Crash games I've played, by the way.

So, what do you guys think about the Crash Bandicoot series, both the old and new games?

I know that there's an insanely slim chance of Naughty Dog making Crash games again, so at the least I'm hoping that Vicarious Visions will be making the new Crash games. Or maybe Retro Studios could get the rights to Crash and give him a grand revival with a new "Naughty Dog-like" Crash game?
11-02-2010, 12:52 AM
Psychotic

The music was great!

YouTube - Crash Bandicoot 1 Theme
YouTube - Crash Bandicoot 1 - Hog Wild, Whole Hog Music

Makes me feel like I am 11 again!
11-02-2010, 12:55 AM
Clo

When I was 11, I thought Crash Team Racing was the greatest thing ever. I don't even want to know how many hours I spent racing my brother and unlocking everything. I want to play that game right now!

I loved playing as Ripper Roo, because I loved his maniacal laughter as I passed by the LOSERS.
11-02-2010, 01:15 AM
Levian

The first three were great, with the third one being the peak of awesome. The rest of the ones I played, sucked! :mog:

The Demo I played of Crash Team Racing was awesome, though. I played that level with my cousin over and over again.

I played the newest game, Mind over Mutants. It was very repetitive and not very challenging for the most part, got tired of it real quick.
11-02-2010, 01:17 AM
Jessweeee♪

The racing games were pretty fun.
11-02-2010, 01:48 AM
Clo

http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:r...Ripper.gif&t=1

Yep. There's my hero right there.
11-02-2010, 02:12 AM
Depression Moon

I never owned any of the games, but I remember playing someone else's copy years ago for about a few minutes.
11-02-2010, 04:08 AM
DMKA

Yeah, the first three were wonderful, Warped being the best, and Crash Team Racing, while a blatant Mario Kart ripoff, was hella fun. Me and my little brother would play it for hours at a time.

Wrath of Cortex was alright, as was Nitro Kart, but pretty much everything after that the only Crash game I played was Twinsanity, which sucked bigtime. None of the others have peaked my interest in the least, and Crash of the Titans looked plain awful.

But yeah, I have very fond memories of the original and how awesome and amazing I thought it was on my brand new PlayStation back in 1997. :D
11-02-2010, 04:42 AM
Rostum

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMKA

But yeah, I have very fond memories of the original and how awesome and amazing I thought it was on my brand new PlayStation back in 1997. :D

This. Great times.
11-02-2010, 09:24 PM
MJN SEIFER

Back in the day, Crash was basically for Sony, what Mario and Sonic were to Nindento and Sega repectively. By the time Sonic started appearing on other systems, it was clear than no one cared about "representive games" so Crash appeared elsewhere too - in fact I think it's only mario who appears exclusively now - I don't think XBox has one.

I liked Part 2 the best, but Part one scores really high too - It's only let down being lack of skills, and having a really poor save system, but the game was good. I liked how in Part 1 the levels only got cloned once, in Part 2 there were a few more clones, but they were done sparingly. In Part 3, there were far too many clones - each "Warp Room" was basically "Castle, Bike, Water, Chase, Ride".

Quote:

I loved playing as Ripper Roo, because I loved his maniacal laughter as I passed by the LOSERS.

That laughter is sampled out of a Disney movie - at least it is in the Platform Games (I'll have to check the racing).:cool:
11-03-2010, 01:28 AM
Meat Puppet

I played a Crash Bandicoot mod for Left 4 Dead 2. God that was weird. The things people can do with a few props!
11-03-2010, 01:31 AM
DMKA

Quote:

Originally Posted by MJN SEIFER

By the time Sonic started appearing on other systems, it was clear than no one cared about "representive games" so Crash appeared elsewhere too - in fact I think it's only mario who appears exclusively now - I don't think XBox has one.

I liked Part 2 the best, but Part one scores really high too - It's only let down being lack of skills, and having a really poor save system, but the game was good. I liked how in Part 1 the levels only got cloned once, in Part 2 there were a few more clones, but they were done sparingly. In Part 3, there were far too many clones - each "Warp Room" was basically "Castle, Bike, Water, Chase, Ride".

Quote:

I loved playing as Ripper Roo, because I loved his maniacal laughter as I passed by the LOSERS.

That laughter is sampled out of a Disney movie - at least it is in the Platform Games (I'll have to check the racing).:cool

Tell that to Microsoft.

http://attackofthefanboy.com/wp-cont...ster-chief.jpg
11-03-2010, 03:30 PM
Mo-Nercy

I owned all kinds of awesome on Crash Team Racing. I could beat Oxide by more than half a lap back in the day. I always sucked at hitting the Sewer Speedway shortcut though, that jump was hella hard.

2 and 3 were awesome. The Polar and Puma stages remain to this day as some of my fondest memories of gaming.
11-05-2010, 05:38 AM
Rase

I never really got what the fuss about the games were. I knew plenty of people who liked them, but I just played Mario 64 instead.
11-05-2010, 03:14 PM
Hollycat

I have all of the old CB games on my psp, and platinum on every level on warped and ctr, YAY ME! also I finally got the last gem on the original
11-07-2010, 01:34 PM
Mo-Nercy

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rase

I never really got what the fuss about the games were. I knew plenty of people who liked them, but I just played Mario 64 instead.

Yeah, the stages in the old Crash series were very linear which was somewhat dated for platforming even back then. For me, it was just something I grew up with. And back in those days, young gamers probably only would've had one current-gen console and for those with a Playstation, Crash was pretty much all the console had to offer in terms of platforming.
11-08-2010, 05:10 AM
DMKA

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Crash was pretty much all the console had to offer in terms of platforming.

Errrm...

- Crash Bandicoot Series
- Croc
- Strider 2
- Oddworld series
- Gex series
- Tomba
- Ape Escape
- Klonoa
- Skull Monkeys
- Tons more that I played in high school but can remember the names of off hand

PlayStation had a ton of platformers. More than N64 did.
11-08-2010, 04:07 PM
nik0tine

One of the greatest achievements in my life thus far was coming very close to lapping the racer in second place in CTR.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DMKA

- Skull Monkeys

:heart:
11-09-2010, 01:37 PM
Ultima Shadow

I'll go with Crash 3 over Mario 64 any day. For real.

And CTR is in my opinion the best racing game ever made. I played it for countless hours with my brother and friends, and did everything that was possible to do in 1P mode. The hardest part was beating every single Oxide ghost on Time Trial.

Quote:

Originally Posted by nik0tine

One of the greatest achievements in my life thus far was coming very close to lapping the racer in second place in CTR.

Done that on Hot Air Skyway, using the "unintended" shortcut while racing against computer players on Easy. One of my greatest accomplishments in the crash games would probably be finding that shortcut without looking it up.
11-09-2010, 09:55 PM
Shattered Dreamer

I love the Crash Bandicoot series! Even if the levels were linear & repetitive at times the difficulty increased at a decent pace, that coupled with the humor made those games epic!

On another note Tomba was awesome too!
11-14-2010, 05:46 PM
MJN SEIFER

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mo-Nercy

Yeah, the stages in the old Crash series were very linear which was somewhat dated for platforming even back then.

You are entitled to your opinion, but I fail to see how Crash levels can be described "linear".

Crash: Some Levels have alternate paths, you can return to levels later in the game to get everything.

Crash 2: Levels interwined with eachother, full of hidden paths, and again you could keep returning to get everything.

Crash 3: Linear-ish, but not quite. There were still some alternative paths, introduction of "special moves" meant you had to leave parts of the level until you had learnt the appropriate skill.
11-18-2010, 04:29 AM
Evastio

By the way, even though I prefer the old Crash games to the new ones, this one seems quite interesting. It's too bad it got cancelled. I like how the art style resembles the Naughty Dog Crash Bandicoot games' art style (specifically Crash's design). Also, the story is quite interesting, how regular bandicoots need his help, though I wonder if Cortex is in the game or not.