Crash Bandicoot: The Thread

[Enesephus]

3 minutes ago, SurrealBrain said:

Yeah. I know you're excited, but I've had my share of disappointments due to things not going as expected.

Off topic, but I never did get into the series. I'm thinking I'll start with the Naughty Dog games and figure it out from there, but what do you think?

Yeah, that's pretty much the way to go. If you like them... you may like the sequels, but they're pretty different (well, Wrath of Cortex isn't but it's also not very good).

[CrashRatchetFan]

On February 28, 2016 at 4:24 PM, SurrealBrain said:

Off topic, but I never did get into the series. I'm thinking I'll start with the Naughty Dog games and figure it out from there, but what do you think?

Start off with the ND titles, Crash 1 is a little rough around the edges (gems and bullshit save option) but the sequels drastically improved. 

Even though a lot of people have gripes with the post-ND games, I'd suggest that you give them a shot. Crash of the Titans I found to be the most polished of them all. 

[Jango]

You should most definitely give it a go. I suggest you to play Crash 1 last, start with 2. CTR play with friends or family. Skip Wrath of Cortex if you love Crash 3. Skip CNK if you love CTR. Give CTTR at least one go, is a love it or hate it game. Titans is good, Mind Over Mutant is very underwhelming. There you go.

[CrashRatchetFan]

Mind Over Mutant is pretty dull in terms of gameplay but I think it's more enjoyable in co-op, same goes with Titans. 

But I think Titans is the better of the two. It's a great game overall. Crash has his spin attack (which, through upgrades, becomes an overpowered gamebreaker allowing you to easily get the combo high scores). You still use the Aku Aku mask to protect yourself (and amusingly, as a snowboard and weapon if you upgrade your abilities). There's so much lore hidden within the game that it's a shame people completely ignored it because of the design overhaul. 

People get all up in arms about the character designs, and that kind of bugs me. Crash himself looks largely the same, except he has tattoos instead of fingerless gloves. The masks and Tiny, I'll grant you but a majority of the cast is still recognizable. 

[Jango]

I certainly love using Aku Aku as snowboard in Titans, I give you that. It's really fun.

[MegasonicZX]

3 hours ago, Jango said:

I certainly love using Aku Aku as snowboard in Titans, I give you that. It's really fun.

It still baffles me as to why they removed that ability (and a couple of other ones) in mind over mutant. I really loved being able to do that, it made speedrunning levels really fun.

[Enesephus]

Hmm, for the sake of conversation, if we did finally get a new Crash Bandicoot game, what would you like to see in it? There's no need to be super specific, but what kind of gameplay mechanics, level design, stage types or story would you like to see?

[CrashRatchetFan]

I'd want something in vein of the upcoming Ratchet game. A full blown retooling but close to the source material. Crash has been out of the picture long enough for a full-blown reboot to not be shocking to anyone. It's not like the story was ever integral to the experience. I would go with a reboot if only because the continuity has become screwed up. As long as the characters we love are there, that's all that really matters.

Gameplay-wise, it should follow Crash 2. Keep the same basic concept, but don't necessarily make it a direct copy of the old formula. Let the new team put their own spin on it. Levels should still be about linear point A to point B platforming, but that doesn't mean they have to be cramped corridors like the originals. I wouldn't mind if there was a huge hubworld with levels spread out like the Spyro games. Hell, I wouldn't mind an open-world game like Jak and Daxter. I expect something inbetween though, like Twinsanity. 

Oh, one thing the game NEEDS is the crates. The puzzles should center around how to break all the boxes without getting your shit fucked up. Floating crate bounces, TNT+Nitro, Crates immune to certain moves, the whole shlock. 

If they go into a more open-ended platformer like Jak 1 or Mario, then I'd still have 100% need all boxes in the game broken. This is making me realize that as long as the CORE gameplay is the same mechanics, I will love it either way (open or corridor).

[E-122-Psi]

In terms of gameplay genre, I'd prefer it to go for the old school platformer route, but with odd bells and whistles taken from the newer games. Truthfully I'd like to see more stuff done with Crash's spin attack (the Titans games messed around with this a little but I feel more could be done).

In terms of level design, I'd like standard levels for once rather than either 'corridor' stages like the retro titles or the sand box-ish Twinsanity and MOM. Basically simplistic pathways, but with enough wideness and short cuts that there's some variety to it. If you wanted a perfect compromise, perhaps have an assortment, or put them in a hub filled with missions and item searching akin to Tag Team Racing.

I fully support retro style bosses however, the original games' format had awesome boss battles with loads of personality.

If they chose more playable characters, I feel they should be optional. Something like Coco was in Mind Over Mutant where they can interchange or allow multiplayer options. The problem with a lot of other characters in the series like the Titans or Twinsanity Cortex or WOC Coco was that they usually felt rather limited and enforced, so I spent most of the time wanting to just play as Crash anyway. We didn't quite get to the point of 'Crash's shitty friends' however.  

Perhaps a cool way of allowing alternative characters would be to have them as homages to previous formats. eg. Coco could once again be a co op character, Crunch could maybe act as a Titan style helper you can choose to utilise, Polar and Pura could be ridden in their usual on rails routes, while Pasadena could escort Crash for vehicle based levels.

[Your Vest Friend]

That might because it was the villain side that got loads and loads of characters, not the hero side. We had, what, six proper anthro good guys across all game media (Crash, Coco, Crunch, Fake Crash, Pasadena and Yaya) compared to the villains which numbered over a dozen (and doesn't even factor in neutrals)?

[E-122-Psi]

True but even those got surprisingly under-utilised. Even Coco, the second most prominent hero after Crash, was playable only a limited number of times and in a rather undeveloped form, while Crunch and the others weren't fully playable so much as ONCE. This seemed rather odd for Crunch, it felt like the whole point of him turning good in WOC was to give the heroes a badass powerhouse.

A more minor tidbit I wouldn't mind; even if Josh Mancell doesn't return as composer, I wouldn't mind hearing some of the old recurring leitmotifs again, like Cortex's guitar riff or N.Gin's techno and of course, Crash's bootstrapped theme from Warped.

[CrashRatchetFan]

I wouldn't mind if we were able to seamlessly explore the island archipelago like Jak 1. Twinsanity had implemented this but you were still confined to follow the path and weren't granted that much freedom to begin with. And you only explored one of the three islands. 

Exploring the beaches, caves and ruins. That'd be grand. 

[Jango]

I loved Twinsanity for doing that, CrashRatchetFan, eventhought the "right" way was still linear. That aspect blew my mind the first time I've played it. I especially love the caves, and the river side areas. Making N. Sanity Island our hub world ala classic Spyro (with minigames, things to collect and do) could work spectaculary. Not only that island, but the middle and Cortex island too. I would totaly dig a Crash 1 remake like that, replace the static map with that idea and re-imagine all the levels and bosses. I was already pretty tired of warp rooms by the time of WoC, going back to that, even for nostalgic reasons, would be uncool. Anyways, speaking of island and locations... Where is Crash 2? It is in the N. Sanity archipelago or they are places from a new island?

[CrashRatchetFan]

29 minutes ago, Jango said:

Anyways, speaking of island and locations... Where is Crash 2? It is in the N. Sanity archipelago or they are places from a new island?

[Jango]

Broken link here D:

[CrashRatchetFan]

@Jango: Does this work?

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/crashban/images/f/ff/Crash_2_Map.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20110119200558

[Jango]

Wow, so Crash 2 is basically Crash 1 during winter?! =D Cool!

[CrashRatchetFan]

Activision is dropping out of E3 this year. 

Now before you say anything, no. They'll STILL be THERE showcasing games, but they won't have a booth. Specifically they'll be at Sony's. 

I doubt it means anything in particular other than E3 being a slowly dwindling show. EA copped out earlier. 

PLUS, E3's official Twitter tweeted this.

[Jango]

My God. And now even E3 is teasing it. If that announcement doesn't happen this would be the biggest turn of events in the history of videogames. Is like Sony is whispering in our ears: - it'sss happeniiiing. But when the E3 rolls in, I'm sure they'll bring the megaphones!

[CrashRatchetFan]

Shawn Layden guest stars in a 200 episode special PlayStation podcast. The part where he alludes to Crash is at 1:16:30, but he jokes that he can't say the character's name in public (I'm assuming because he doesn't want 300 more articles to spawn about Crash's return).

THAT BEING SAID -- I believe we're being worked by Shawn. It's all a giant work. By saying "I'm forbidden to mention the title" he'll inevitably drum up more noise revolving around that name, than if he had just offhandedly said "Crash Bandicoot" -- which he would have been more than justified in doing, since in context, he was CLEARLY referring to Shuhei Yoshida's work on localizing Crash Bandicoot circa 1996-2000, not a new game.

Shawn is a great heel. He'll turn babyface at E3 :V

[Jango]

So this happened and it was awesome, but also fake obviously.

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, Jango said:

So this happened and it was awesome, but also fake obviously.

 

Certainly not an April Fools joke (Like Cresh), which is an awesome thing to have on April Fools day itself!

[CrashRatchetFan]

Okay, some surprises sprung up today. Since leaked copies of Uncharted 4 are out and about, players noticed that there's a playable level of Crash Bandicoot you can play (it's an endless Boulder running level). Proof is here:

  Thing is that back in June 2015, Naughty Dog stated that they planned to use it but said "we don't own it so we can't use it."

Cut to 1 year later, it's playable in the damn game. They would absolutely need ownership or permission from Activision to do something like this. ND were either telling the truth or straight-up bullshitted. Something is DEFINITELY cooking behind closed doors. 

[Chili Dawg]

It's happening. There is no denial now.

Oh god oh god oh god oh god 

SPINNING INTENSIFIES

[Ryannumber1gamer]

ITS FUCKING HAPPENING

CRASH IS BACK

THE LAST OF US HAD AN EASTER EGG IN UNCHARTED 3 BEFORE IT'S ANNOUNCEMENT

THIS ONLY MAKES TOO MUCH SENSE