PixlBit

There's one more Crash game to cover, but I want to save that for tomorrow to end BaD off with a bang. So I thought I'd talk about the state of the Bandicoot now. And there is no better way to illustrate it than with this image:

I mean, I know it's just the visuals and everything, but you could not be missing the point any more than this. The only one that does not upset me is Cortex, but the rest, yeesh. Crash looks too goofy, like he went from a timeless Looney Tunes esque character to a lame character created by people trying way too hard to be cool. The goofy is too over the top, the tattoos are so unnecessary, the body shape is too drastic a change, those jean shorts look way too baggy, and you can't see it in this, but he has a god awful mohawk.

Coco, meanwhile, retains little of her original design. She was Crash's brainy sister, now she just looks like some generic girl mixed with a bandicoot. Her old design was fine, why change it? Nina Cortex (the girl to the right of Dr Cortex) shouldn't exist in the first place because her game was shit. Hell, Crunch shouldn't either, his game wasn't shit, but he feels like an unnecessary addition as well. Crash is fine on his owns and the games which succeeded WoC barely use him, so why bother?

Aku Aku and Uka Uka, what the fuck? Their old box shape was fine, it was familiar and just fit in their world so well. Aku Aku just doesn't look fitting for his role. If he was a happy go lucky sidekick, I could see it working, but he's the wise guy looking over Crash, he needs a look that reflects wisdom. Uka Uka meanwhile needs to be intimidating, which he got before perfectly. There's nothing intimidating about this Uka Uka.

The worst, however, is Tiny. See, Crash was about Australian animals from the beginning. Bandicoots were Australian, as were the villains. They were genetic experiments gone wrong of kangaroos, dingos, koalas, komodo dragons, etc. Tiny was never a normal tiger, but a Tasmanian Tiger, which were only found in Tasmania before they went extinct. Tiny shows that they just either did not understand or care enough about Crash to make sure that their direction would be one to make fans of the bandicoot happy.

Even worse is that from the trailer of Crash of the Titans, he was nothing like old Tiny. He was more like Smee from Peter Pan, with a voice like Jerry Lewis. Tiny was simple: Big, intimidating, tough, and stupid. They couldn't even get the simplest types of characters right.

I guess these changes upset me so much because when you look at Mario, he hasn't needed change. Nintendo has faith in the character and they know a completely overhauled look won't strengthen the brand. It just shows they don't have faith in the brand. 

The gameplay meanwhile abandons what made Crash good. Old platforming challenges are now replaced with the most basic of platforming, right down to enormous platforms to jump on. The focus now is making a beat-em-up, why I have no fucking clue. But it's about jumping on giant enemies to control them, which could be a good idea. But what I played saw no signs of inspiration or vision, just another game to squeeze whatever power the brand has.

I'd love to see a new Crash that captures the spirit of the old games, whether it be downloadable or retail. It doesn't need to be a linear platformer, it could be more like Mario 64 or Jak and Daxter. That doesn't matter to me. What matters is that the developers understand why Crash was good, possibly even grew up playing his games, and want to play another good Crash game. He deserves the same respect Ratchet and Sly got with their PS3 entries.