Cindi Mayweather
Member
Recently there's been a contingent of gaffers hellbent on a Crash Bandicoot revival. It's not Crash didn't have great games, but a lot of you stopped playing Crash the second he dropped off Playstation platforms exclusively.
Throughout the years there have been over ten Crash Bandicoot games. Why the sudden interest in a revival? Crash's time has come and gone. Sony has historically played a big part in quirky, imaginative game exclusives and given their (small) stake in Shenmue III, they could potentially help revive a multitude of far more deserving franchises that actually warrant a revival.
Let's take a look at game series' that deserve a Sony revival more than Crash Bandicoot.
Dark Cloud
Near the beginning of the Playstation 2 life cycle there was what was being advertised in Playstation magazines like OPM (rip) and PSM (rip) a "Zelda killer." While more ActRaiser than Zelda, Dark Cloud and its sequel proved to offer an alternative to other action rpgs at the time with its emphasis on dungeon crawling, randomly generated dungeons, and town building. It wasn't Zelda, but what it offered it was extremely good at. As you slowly rebuild the town, stories and subplots open up. The sequel took it even further with the ability to build items and weapons and the choice between two characters with varying abilities. In the time since Dark Cloud 2's release in 2003, the Dark series has completely fallen off the map. With its developer Level 5's later success on series such as Dragon Quest, Layton, and Inazuma, there was very little vested reason to return to the franchise. I feel with today's gaming audience more open to action dungeon crawlers thanks to the success of series like Dark Souls, the Dark Cloud series has potential to gain a new audience and cement its place as a unique type of alternate RPG. Dark Cloud 1 and 2 have been re-released via Sony's ps2 classics for ps4, the first time to my memory that the series has been acknowledged by Sony since 2's release over a decade ago.
Jet Moto
Known for high speed and even higher difficulty, the original Jet Moto games made by Singletrac were some of the best games for the original Playstation. There have been three Jet Moto games. Two games (2124 and Solar) were cancelled, and the series just completely disappeared. After leaving Playstation, Singletrac games like Twisted Metal and Jet Moto were kind of left in the dust and shuffled between multiple developers. But whereas Twisted Metal had the occasional great game that saw a return to form, Jet Moto never got to see the light of day again. Since the last Jet Moto, the traditional arcade racer as it once was is kind of a dead genre: this generation didn't have a new Ridge Racer at launch for a new Playstation console, SSX's reboot completely bombed. Today's racing game is typified mostly by open-world offerings and simulations. That doesn't mean a new Jet Moto doesn't have a place if marketed correctly or even designed in a way that is more appealing to the more modern racing game taste. I think Jet Moto has more than earned a place in today's Playstation landscape and I'd be very interested in seeing how a modern interpretation would turn out.
Jumping Flash
Another game series that has only had two games. Noticing a pattern? Half first person shooter, half first person platformer, Jumping Flash was a unique beast when it launched and still remains that way even today. If you're old like me, it was probably one of, if not the first Playstation game you ever played. Something like that has lasting impact on you. Jumping Flash is the first game I ever played that actually took advantage of 3d space. Before 3d was mostly determined by graphics in something like Virtua Fighter. But Virtua Fighter (at the time) still only played like Street Fighter: backgrounds and environments were static, there wasn't much if any exploration in a 3d space. Other games that looked 3d, like Donkey Kong Country or StarFox, still took place in linear levels. There wasn't much gameplay difference between Star Fox and Space Harrier or Donkey Kong Country and Sonic. They looked different, but they didn't ultimately play too differently - the "3d" was purely aesthetic back then, and we were satisfied. Jumping Flash remains the first 3d game I ever played where the 3d was crucial part of the games design and gameplay and not just aesthetic. Jumping Flash still remains great to this day and is a great example of a game that could be transformed by and directly benefit from current generation graphical power. The vertigo inducing platforming could be something else to behold through the power of the ps4, and with Sony's stake in the VR game they've got even more of a reason to go with this than they do Crash Bandicoot.
But let's not stop there! There's a lot more that deserve a revival than Crash. This list is incomplete but these are series come back I'd rather see before Crash:
KILLER 7
Panzer Dragoon
Tomba
Intelligent Qube
Legend of Dragoon
Suikoden
Breath of Fire
Klonoa
Parappa The Rapper
Mad Maestro
Gitaroo Man
Mister Mosquito
Jak and Daxter
Clock Tower
Chrono
What are games you'd rather see than a Crash reboot, GAF?
Throughout the years there have been over ten Crash Bandicoot games. Why the sudden interest in a revival? Crash's time has come and gone. Sony has historically played a big part in quirky, imaginative game exclusives and given their (small) stake in Shenmue III, they could potentially help revive a multitude of far more deserving franchises that actually warrant a revival.
Let's take a look at game series' that deserve a Sony revival more than Crash Bandicoot.
Dark Cloud
Near the beginning of the Playstation 2 life cycle there was what was being advertised in Playstation magazines like OPM (rip) and PSM (rip) a "Zelda killer." While more ActRaiser than Zelda, Dark Cloud and its sequel proved to offer an alternative to other action rpgs at the time with its emphasis on dungeon crawling, randomly generated dungeons, and town building. It wasn't Zelda, but what it offered it was extremely good at. As you slowly rebuild the town, stories and subplots open up. The sequel took it even further with the ability to build items and weapons and the choice between two characters with varying abilities. In the time since Dark Cloud 2's release in 2003, the Dark series has completely fallen off the map. With its developer Level 5's later success on series such as Dragon Quest, Layton, and Inazuma, there was very little vested reason to return to the franchise. I feel with today's gaming audience more open to action dungeon crawlers thanks to the success of series like Dark Souls, the Dark Cloud series has potential to gain a new audience and cement its place as a unique type of alternate RPG. Dark Cloud 1 and 2 have been re-released via Sony's ps2 classics for ps4, the first time to my memory that the series has been acknowledged by Sony since 2's release over a decade ago.
Jet Moto
Known for high speed and even higher difficulty, the original Jet Moto games made by Singletrac were some of the best games for the original Playstation. There have been three Jet Moto games. Two games (2124 and Solar) were cancelled, and the series just completely disappeared. After leaving Playstation, Singletrac games like Twisted Metal and Jet Moto were kind of left in the dust and shuffled between multiple developers. But whereas Twisted Metal had the occasional great game that saw a return to form, Jet Moto never got to see the light of day again. Since the last Jet Moto, the traditional arcade racer as it once was is kind of a dead genre: this generation didn't have a new Ridge Racer at launch for a new Playstation console, SSX's reboot completely bombed. Today's racing game is typified mostly by open-world offerings and simulations. That doesn't mean a new Jet Moto doesn't have a place if marketed correctly or even designed in a way that is more appealing to the more modern racing game taste. I think Jet Moto has more than earned a place in today's Playstation landscape and I'd be very interested in seeing how a modern interpretation would turn out.
Jumping Flash
Another game series that has only had two games. Noticing a pattern? Half first person shooter, half first person platformer, Jumping Flash was a unique beast when it launched and still remains that way even today. If you're old like me, it was probably one of, if not the first Playstation game you ever played. Something like that has lasting impact on you. Jumping Flash is the first game I ever played that actually took advantage of 3d space. Before 3d was mostly determined by graphics in something like Virtua Fighter. But Virtua Fighter (at the time) still only played like Street Fighter: backgrounds and environments were static, there wasn't much if any exploration in a 3d space. Other games that looked 3d, like Donkey Kong Country or StarFox, still took place in linear levels. There wasn't much gameplay difference between Star Fox and Space Harrier or Donkey Kong Country and Sonic. They looked different, but they didn't ultimately play too differently - the "3d" was purely aesthetic back then, and we were satisfied. Jumping Flash remains the first 3d game I ever played where the 3d was crucial part of the games design and gameplay and not just aesthetic. Jumping Flash still remains great to this day and is a great example of a game that could be transformed by and directly benefit from current generation graphical power. The vertigo inducing platforming could be something else to behold through the power of the ps4, and with Sony's stake in the VR game they've got even more of a reason to go with this than they do Crash Bandicoot.
But let's not stop there! There's a lot more that deserve a revival than Crash. This list is incomplete but these are series come back I'd rather see before Crash:
KILLER 7
Panzer Dragoon
Tomba
Intelligent Qube
Legend of Dragoon
Suikoden
Breath of Fire
Klonoa
Parappa The Rapper
Mad Maestro
Gitaroo Man
Mister Mosquito
Jak and Daxter
Clock Tower
Chrono
What are games you'd rather see than a Crash reboot, GAF?
