Crash Bandicoot is a beloved franchise by the public. While it is true that much of that affection comes from nostalgia, that does not mean that the games lack charm even today. Especially its more modern iterations. Playing today the versions of the first PlayStation is better in memory, but they are still platformers with a lot of personality that do very original things that still work very well today.
The demonstration is that Vicarious Vision and Toys For Bob did an excellent job resurrecting the franchise. The former brought us Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy, an excellent collection of remakes that bring the original games from the first PlayStation in a visually and gameplay-enhanced version that is exactly how we remembered them. Toys For Bob, on the other hand, made Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, an excellent platformer that showed that, although it may seem otherwise, Crash still had a lot to say in contemporary 3D platformers.
Recently, an artist who worked on Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, has claimed that Crash Bandicoot was not supposed to end in its fourth installment. That there was going to be at least a Crash 5. According to him, someday we will hear about it, and it will break our hearts to know the details about the game that we will never be able to play.
This game, confirmed to have been canceled after the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Xbox, was not the only project that was canceled for this reason. Also, as we already know, a new remake of Tony Hawk Pro Skater, as well as a game with the codename Project Dragon, which apparently was going to be a new Spyro the Dragon. A tragedy for fans of the 3D platformers of the first PlayStation that, furthermore, seems to be impossible now. Toys For Bob became independent from Activision after the purchase by Xbox, although they are currently working on an unannounced project for Microsoft.
Is it possible that we will see new projects of Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, or Tony Hawk Pro Skater in the future? Yes. Xbox has the licenses for these franchises. The problem is that they have already canceled all these projects and have put their studios to work on other things. Vicarious Vision is a support studio for making Call of Duty. Toys For Bob are not even within Xbox. That’s why any hope we could have of seeing these franchises again is better if we temper them for the near future.
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