Before Crash Team Racing was released, many saw it as a soulless cash-in on the success of Super Mario Kart. Opinions were quickly changed when Crash Team Racing actually turned out to be good. Quality multiplayer racing action combined with a solid and beefy single player mode made Crash Team Racing one of the most popular games on the original PlayStation.
Before Naughty Dog made games about mass murderer “everyman” Nathan Drake, they made platformers – quite good ones too. Crash Bandicoot was created in conjunction with Universal Interactive and Sony Computer Entertainment, and really set the standard for platformers on the PlayStation.
Crash Bandicoot was one of that games that really helped to change the fortunes of the PlayStation in its early days. The game also arguably made a name for its developer, Naughty Dog, a company which has gone on to become one of the best technical studios in the world. Pity about what happened after Naughty Dog stopped making Crash games, though.
Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin has written a rather interesting post on his blog providing insight into the localisation process for Crash Bandicoot and its sequels.
Back in the 90s, Naughty Dog was one of the few companies delivering quality PAL conversions – most other companies simple slapped some borders on and slowed the game down by 5 frames per second (looking at you, Square and Capcom).
A future blog post will examine the Japanese localisation of the game. Given the different character design and tone of the Japanese versions, that should be one insightful article.
Naughty Dog’s final PlayStation platforming effort.
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped was released for the PlayStation in 1998. It was the most critically successful game in the series, but it was the last time that series creator Naughty Dog would work with the character in a platforming game. After this, Universal Interactive took the game to Traveller’s Tales, then to Radical Entertainment, but could never replicate the success. This ad is for the US release of the game.
