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Crash Bandicootwill turn 30 in 2026.
Crash deserves better than this.
So why has he so rarely received his flowers?
The cameo inUncharted 4was pretty fun, too.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy’s sales are all the evidence you need that Vicarious Visions deserved better.
Beyond that, the orange marsupial’s oversized sneakers haven’t left much of a footprint.
It has me thinking about what other iconic series have managed to accomplish in their first 28 years.
The firstZeldagame came out in 1986, which means the series reached our admittedly arbitrary milestone in 2014.
In that time,Nintendogave us the iconic original, an undisputed classic with A Link to the Past.
Sure, that’s Nintendo, arguably the best game maker in the world.
And, yeah, that’s Zelda, the most consistently acclaimed series in history.
Fine, its an unfair comparison.
Let’s instead consider a series with a much rockier history.
Considering Another Animal Mascot
Sonic the Hedgehogturned 28 in 2019.
I also have a soft spot in my heart for Sonic Heroes.
About 15 by my count.
So why has Crash only managed four?
The Unique Factors Working Against Crash
There are a few differences.
For one, Nintendo has held onto Zelda for its entire life andSegahas done the same with Sonic.
That left other teams filling in and, well, they weren’t Naughty Dog.
Secondly, Crash Bandicoot was always going to be a difficult series to iterate on.
If you only do one of the three, its not Crash.
If you have full control of the camera, that’s not really Crash, either.
This is a series where you run in straight lines.
Crash isn’t a game that can be played forever.
It’s a simple platformer and the games benefit from having set endpoints.
All of that leaves Crash with an uphill battle to fight and not a lot of hits.
I hope that Activision Blizzard gets serious and puts a talented team on Crash 5.
