Crash Bandicoot -- Jungle Rollers, Rolling Stones
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You guys are really really going to hate me for this, but Super Mario 64 is not on my Top 40 list. Thats right you sons of bitches! I chose Crash Bandicoot over Mario. Take that suckers. Why have I done this, let me explain y’all.
Super Mario 64 did indeed get 3d ‘right’ when it was released, by giving the power of the camera to the player. However, it was never something you ever had to think about in platformers before hand. Before 3D, for me, Mario was a game about best controlling your speed to tackle the level in the best way, the manipulation of Mario was key to its gameplay. As soon as you stuck a camera you controlled into Mario, the game became about the world rather than Mario, you’d play differently. The moment Mario turned to 3D was the moment it became an entirely new game. In newer titles in the Mario series, like Super Mario Galaxy, you do not even directly manipulate the camera.
Crash Bandicoot on the other hand kept things traditional, you do not control the camera, but it was still a step into 3D gameplay, a better one than Super Mario 64 in my honest opinion. Mario 64 revolutionized 3D, but no game could particularly revolutionize the platformer without creating a sub-genre. Whilst Crash Bandicoot technically didn’t either, it felt like a fresh new game back when platformers were starting to become bland and were released less frequently.
There was nothing more satisfying than taking those boxes on straight on.. You could just spin, and ride right through them, sending shards of wood in every direction. So so satisfying. You could say you get that in Mario, jumping dead into blocks, but you’d have to keep tapping. You could roll into a wall as Sonic too, but no, you spin into these crates, it sends chills down your spine its so incredibly fun. Unfortunately, you’d have to control yourself, spin too often, you’ll completely lose your Apples, sending them in every direction. Spin before looking, you could land yourself a explosive demise.
For me, the game was about perfection. Smash every crate, and slowly you’d discover secret gems. Although I couldn’t do it myself, with the help of cheats, it was made clear that if you collected absolutely every gem, you’d unlock the secret ending!!! Well I watched it and it was toss, but I’m sure I’d crap myself if I had gone into the effort of grabbing them all. As least it was not as anti-climatic as collecting every emblem in Sonic Adventure, to be met with nothing but the emblem list screen. God that hurt me, but more about that later.
There is no question, Naughty Dog wanted to make Uncharted from the very start
Crash Bandicoot is still fun to play today in my opinion, the graphics are still quite reasonable, with the exception of the characters, which are so low poly and low-res, you get some strange aliasing issues which make them look a bit silly. Thats part of the charm for me though.
There were two direct squeals on the Playstation, which both added a LOT more to the game, but I’ve chosen the first in the seires as it laid the foundation for its later games. Other developers attempted to match the success of Crash Bandicoot and Super Mario 64, with titles like Glover, Croc, Gex, Bubsy 3D, etc. In my eyes they failed by doing everything that Crash Bandicoot didn’t, they made the game overly complicated for a ‘platformer’. As the dudes here at work say, less is more!
Buy Crash Bandicoot on the Playstation Store
Crash Bandicoot (C) Activision
