List of Crash Bandicoot video games

Crash Bandicoot is a video game series created by Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin. It is published by Activision, Sierra Entertainment, Vivendi Universal Games, Konami, Universal Interactive Studios, and Sony Computer Entertainment, with entries developed by Polarbit, Radical Entertainment, Vicarious Visions, Traveller's Tales, Eurocom, and Naughty Dog. The series debuted in 1996 with the Sony PlayStation video game Crash Bandicoot, premiered in North America in 1996. Most Crash Bandicoot games have either been platform games or released for Sony consoles and handhelds.

Most of the games in the franchise are platform games, although the series also includes other genres such as racing video games and party games. Each game focuses on the titular protagonist Crash Bandicoot, an anthropomorphic orange bandicoot. It also features a large cast of other characters such as Doctor Neo Cortex, Aku Aku, Coco Bandicoot, Crunch Bandicoot, Doctor N. Gin, and Uka Uka. The latest game in the series is Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2, a racing game for the iOS devices.

Main series

Racing

Party

Spin-offs

Mobile

Compilations

Cancelled games

With the turn of the new millennium, Universal Interactive Studios wanted the series to make the transition from the PlayStation to the sixth generation consoles. Universal was considering Mark Cerny as the designer for the new game and it was going to be distributed by Sony as a PlayStation 2 exclusive. Details about the game's progress and development are scarce, but Mark Cerny has revealed that the game was to feature open, free-roaming environments, as opposed to the linear structure Crash Bandicoot was known for at the time. Universal was worried about handing the franchise over to a new studio after Naughty Dog's contract expired, which led them to bet on a safer approach similar to the previous games. The game was overhauled and eventually released in 2001 as The Wrath of Cortex. It was no longer exclusive to the PlayStation 2, and the free-roaming aspect had been abandoned.^[1][2]

Following the release of The Wrath of Cortex, Traveller's Tales began working on a new racing game that served as a sequel to Crash Team Racing. This game was to be Crash Nitro Kart, but due to unknown circumstances Vivendi moved the development of it over to Vicarious Visions. Not much has ever been revealed about Traveller's Tales' original vision, but initially the game would have marked Nina Cortex's debut in the series.^[3]

Traveller's Tales then moved on to their next project, called Crash Bandicoot: Evolution. Being actually a "prototype" for Crash Twinsanity, it was set to create a new form of gameplay for the Crash Bandicoot series as it would have combined large-scale story with an enhanced platformer/RPG hybrid gameplay. As a work in progress, it has since become unclear what exactly was intended to be in the game. One of the only solid facts is that a character known as Foofie, an animal that could transform into different shapes, was going to appear. In fact, only a handful of aspects were kept for Twinsanity, such as The Evil Twins as the villains and Crash teaming up with Cortex to defeat them.^[4]

Crush Bandicoot was an idea pitched by Magenta Software in 2004 that never went far into development. The concept of the game was to introduce Crash's evil twin called Crush, with Cortex being retained as the villain. The game was intended to feature zany, open-world sci-fi environments. Crush would have been able to use a variety of vehicles, and at least one playable test environment was created before the project was declined by the publisher.^[5]

Around Crash Twinsanity's release circa 2004/2005, Krome Studios (known for their work with the Ty the Tasmanian Tiger series) began working on a new Crash Bandicoot title for Vivendi Universal. The project (named Bandicoot Brats) ultimately didn't go anywhere with all remaining developers put to work on The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Since the game was cancelled very early during development, no more than a few pictures and documents were produced. None have been revealed due to legal reasons.^[6]

Cortex Chaos is the name of a project started by Traveller's Tales Oxford Studio after the release of Crash Twinsanity. As the name implies, it was intended to star the series's main antagonist, Dr. Neo Cortex, who would have been kicked out of the Evil Scientist league because of his fratenising with Crash Bandicoot (during the events shown in Twinsanity). The game, however, never got past the concept stage.^[7]

According to Keith Webb, one of the main artists for Crash Twinsanity, there was a plan to develop a proper sequel to the game. The plot would have centered around Crash getting sucked into various TV shows (such as a wild west show, or an old black-and-white cartoon) by an invention created by Dr. Cortex.^[8]

After developing Crash Twinsanity, Traveller's Tales Oxford Studio went on to develop another Crash Bandicoot game, a racing title which would have marked the continuation of Twinsanity in a more direct way. This game, called Crash Clash Racing, would have involved personalized cars for each character, all with the gimmick of fusing together with another car. It'd have been set in Crash's head, with the tracks based around his dreams and memories. The project was eventually released by Radical Entertainment, under the name of Crash Tag Team Racing, resulting in something substantially different from the original plan.^[9]

Back in 2005, Crash Tag Team Racing was initially planned to be released on the Nintendo DS alongside the other console versions. Due to the console's inferior hardware, this version wasn't going to be a direct port, but it was going to be as similar to the other versions as possible, and it was being developed by Sensory Sweep. The game was in development for 9 to 10 months before the studio was told by the publisher that it was going to be cancelled, as Mario Kart DS was scheduled to come out at the same time.^[10]

Halfway through the year 2006, a small article was published on the Internet, listing several online PC games which were meant to be released by Sierra. Amongst them there was a mysterious project named Crash Online. The game was set for a release in 2007, but a small copy of its logo was in fact the only thing that's ever been revealed. It was probably going to be exclusive to China and would have required players to pay a fee for each play session. The game can be classified as vaporware, given that it was never publicly cancelled.^[11]

Following Mind Over Mutant, Radical Entertainment started working on their next game, entitled Crash Landed. Development began on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and it would have been ported to Wii afterwards. A DS version was also being planned, but no team was ever decided for its development. Renegade Kid was one of the few contenders, going as far as producing a playable demo as their pitch. The game was intended to be a reboot of the franchise, and would have retold in a different way how Crash came to be, marking the beginning of new adventures. After being mutated by Cortex, he would have gotten entangled with the task of rescuing his fellow bandicoots.^[12] Due to layoffs in February 11, 2010,^[13][14] after being for two years in development it was abandoned in favor of Prototype 2.

Crash Landed was going to be accompanied by a directly related spin-off, a racing game with the likely provisory name of Crash Team Racing (not to be confused with the 1999 game), that was being developed concurrently by High Impact Games. Cancelled in early 2010, it was initially slated for release on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii. It would have featured several playable characters as usual, but only Crash, Dingodile, Polar and a new character simply called Land Shark were finished before cancellation. The project was eventually retooled into DreamWorks Super Star Kartz.^[15]

In late 2012 a single concept picture featuring Crash with an all new design was leaked on the Internet. It came from a photo taken inside Vicarious Visions' studio.^[16] Although it was later revealed that the poster was from a cancelled Crash Bandicoot game, any details about the game itself are still unknown.^[17]

In 2013 Sony Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida revealed Knack was pitched to Sony brass as the PlayStation 4's own Crash Bandicoot game. According to Yoshida, Mark Cerny's idea "was like ‘what about a Crash Bandicoot for PS4?’" when he suggested the concept of Knack.^[18] At the time Crash Bandicoot series still remained under the ownership of Activision, thus it is unclear whether the game was actually intended to be a Crash Bandicoot title or not.

References