Keri Allan unveils the latest game character to be made into a Three Speech Top Trump - Crash Bandicoot.
Crash Bandicoot is not doing too bad for a sprightly 12 year old computer game character. First appearing in 1996, many a developer has had a bash at a Crash game, even steering him away from his genre roots to appear in both racing and party games.
Now in the realm of Radical Entertainment, the company has seen the genetically-advanced bandicoot’s character evolve over the years, but in what ways?
“I think the Crash characters are a lot less perfect than they used to be but that’s quite deliberate,” notes Chris Mitchell, game designer/writer for Radical. “To me a perfect character is really boring, so now all the characters are stuffed full of character flaws. One person may not pick up on all of them but these flaws are the source of most of the dialogue in the game. I’m a real believer that a good character (especially in comedy) is defined by their flaws. They’re at the point now where if we just put these characters in a room and get them talking the end result is going to be funny.”
But what about the role of technology in this evolution?
“Technology is always a blessing and a curse. I always want to push the characters farther with each game and now - with the higher poly count, bigger texture map size, better shaders and wonderful tools like Mudbox for sculpting the details - we are starting to reach our goals,” explains Raine Anderson, lead character modeller at Radical.
“When Crash first made his appearance, he was confined to a certain number of polygons and hence his limited body shape. Now we have the chance to push him and the other characters farther to try to create individuals that you feel like you can interact with and enjoy playing with while still trying to keep the likeability of the Crash of old. He is starting to feel more real, more concrete. He feels like a vinyl action figure running around in his own world.”
The one universal constant Radical has found among fans is that they all agree he’s awesome but have no agreement as to why. Radical’s view on this is that it’s because he can’t talk.
“He’s a vessel of complete freedom for people that pick up the game,” says Mitchell. “For the players it’s not a case of ‘make that guy over there move’, it’s really them in the game. I believe it’s true that we get more value out of his silence than a lot of other products get out of a chatterbox leading man.”
ramp up that sex appeal score! check out his cute little button nose and funky hair.
Comment by burning robe — May 12, 2008 @ 11:37 am
Only week I agree with the sex appeal;)
Comment by JohnSketch — May 12, 2008 @ 11:57 am
I’ve never understood those that player hate on Crash, I’ve played a good 3 or 4 of the Crash games, and I’m now playing some of them again with my 8 year old daughter. Good games most of em and Crash is cool by me.
Favourite bit: first site of the hog ride, Crash looks around and ‘does the eyebrows’ - priceless
Comment by MrJimmy — May 12, 2008 @ 11:59 am
yiff yiff grr miaow etc
Comment by lxd — May 12, 2008 @ 12:09 pm
Should the sex appeal even be relevant in this case? (probably not unless small furry animals float your boat)
Comment by reakt — May 12, 2008 @ 12:28 pm
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Pingback by Top Trumps - Crash Bandicoot | GameBlews PS3, XBOX 360, Wii, PSP, DS News — May 12, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
“Crash Tag Team Racing” & “Crash Bash” are great family-oriented games. Or, I believe, add a whole new element to after-hours drunken video gaming. The fart & belching noises during the loading screens can then be funny to players older than 7!
Crash has lost his way recently; probably due to the shoddy camera not allowing the player to see where the on-screen character is in “Crash of the Titans”, but hopefully the cheeky Marsupial still has a future on the latest consoles in the next instalment, “Crash: Mind Over Mutant” (or “Crash: Invasion of the Bandicoot Snatchers” as it is known in-house).
He really needs a kids (young or old) cartoon series to re-invent interest & promote the new game.
Also, perhaps cameo appearances in another game (like “Super Smash Bros. Brawl”, or a “Ratchet & Clank” title) to introduce him to a generation of gamers who may have missed out.
Born to ride… born to spin… born to survive!
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — May 12, 2008 @ 1:12 pm
Crash never should have been sold off. Naughty Dog was just doing a damn good job.
And as for that sex appeal score… I’d normally assume furries would be all over him, but I think Sonic still reigns as THE video game icon to the furry world.
Comment by StevenRafael — May 13, 2008 @ 11:01 pm
Crash was my favourite video game character/franchise back in the PS1 days, but since Naughty Dog stopped making Crash the series has gone downhill with Spyro.
They need to return to the roots, instead of saying they are going to, and instead adding in “features” which take away from what Crash was: Run, Jump, Spin with a nice fixed camera and linear levels, essentially a side scroller viewed from behind the character.
The Only thing(s) that could get me interested in a Crash game again would be a Naughty Dog made Crash game, (PS Store?, HD Remake?). But since neither Sony or Naughty Dog own the rights to Crash, the franchise would be better off dead imo
Comment by Sam — May 14, 2008 @ 5:18 am
PS. As I posted in the “Poll: Low-cost games on the PSN - which is your favourite?” thread, the following Crash titles have all been given PEGI (Pan-European Game Information ) age ratings for the PlayStation Network, so you’ll be able to reminisce with the titles from the Naughty Dog days anyway…
Crash Bandicoot (Action/Platform)
Crash Bandicoot (downloadable from PSP Store) (Action/Platform)
Crash Bandicoot 2 (Action/Platform)
Crash Bandicoot 3 (Action/Platform)
Crash Team Racing (Racing/Arcade Racing)
BFN,
fp.
Comment by fanpages — May 14, 2008 @ 10:29 am
The sex appeal really depends on if you’re a furrie or not
Comment by CrashShouldBePlayStationExclusive — Jun 11, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
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