Games that need remaking: Crash Bandicoot

It’s astonishing to think about, but it is about eighteen years since the release of Crash Bandicoot on the original Playstation. That means that not only if the game were a person, it would be old enough to participate in activities far too unsuitable for its family-friendly image, but also it means that yes, you’re really old.

The original Crash series was Sony’s answer to Mario and Sonic, and established a memorable cartoon mascot. In later life, Crash somewhat lost his way: not just by flirting with rival consoles but generally the games are regarded to have been rather terrible.

But for those brief few years on the PS1, Crash was king. The series reached its peak in 1998 with the release of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, which brought with it a new gameplay elements, including racing, and a female counterpart for Crash, called Coco. It sold over 5.7 million units and became the 10th best selling original Playstation game of all time.

What’s astonishing is just how well the game stands the test of time. Purely looking at the graphics, if you run the game in an emulator now and boost the resolution up to HD, whilst the textures are somewhat blurry, the bold colours and shapes scale brilliantly. And as you might expect, the game is just as playable as ever.

So it is perhaps a bit odd that all of these years later the game has never been re-made or re-released. Considering how often Nintendo squeeze another drop of cash out of the same old Mario games it is astonishing that Sony has never thought to do the same. Is original developer Naughty Dog just too busy turning out another serious, grown-up Uncharted title?

Heck – look at this list of the other best selling PS1 games – almost every title on the list has received updates, remakes or reboots. Metal Gear Solid is still one of the biggest names in gaming, Final Fantasy is still going strong and Tomb Raider recently received a reboot. Even Abe’s Odyssey has received a PS4 remake and will be released in a few weeks time. What about poor old Crash?

There are scant unconfirmed rumours that Activision, which most recently released a Crash game has sold the property back to Sony, which if true would pave the way for a re-release/boot/make.

Even Crash’s co-creator, AndreW Gavin has weighed in on what the future for Crash should be, telling the Official Playstation Magazine:

“Crash needs a total reboot. There’s an opportunity to reset the history, and go back to his creation story and the original conflict with Cortex. In that context, you could reprise classic Crash 1 and 2’s settings and villains. It would make sense to use a more modern, free-roaming style. I would concentrate on Looney Tunes-esque animation and really addictive action. That’s what we did with the original Crash, and there’s no reason it couldn’t be done today. Given the current Crash games, people forget that he was once cool. Our Crash had a certain whimsical edge to him. Sure, it was goofy – but it wasn’t dumb.”

The fans too are still there. A simple search on YouTube reveals fans so dedicated that they will learn the themetune on guitar:

…or will modify GTA IV to play as Crash:

…Or, of course, will spend hours perfecting their skills to complete “speed runs” of the original games:

So c’mon Sony, how about it? Bringing the original three Crash games (especially Crash 3) to the PSN seems like a no-brainer. Though of course, we wouldn’t say no to a reboot either.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.