Crash Bandicoot's true legacy? All the average games we love

I don’t know if I’ve seen split opinions on Naughty Dog Crash games. It’s pretty much always been praised. Post Naughty Dog is a different story as well.

I think I like the author’s point of comparing the nostalgia most gamers feel for series like Crash Bandicoot compared to the nostalgia that modern day viral games will bring Zoomers and Gen Alpha but I also can’t help but be deeply offended by it.

I just desperately want more new games like Crash, Spyro, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, etc. 😭

The only thing we've gotten in the decades since then was A Hat in Time, which was absolutely terrific, but the lack of other good games in this genre pretty much killed gaming as a hobby for me.

Crash, Spyro, Jak and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, etc.

Don't forget Sly
Check out Tinykin.

crash bandicoot was written in lisp

BUR DAH DAH

Yeah, I feel like the remakes lost some charm specifically when it comes to rendering tech (vertex colors, losing Spyro's skyboxes feels like a crime). Particularly with the new data bloat.

Also with the examples I'm not sure I like the new sounds

(faster/higher-pitch... and they sound re-done? If they're the same are they just better at very low sample rate?), looked it up and people were saying they didn't like the mixing (new is more muted/subtle).

That, and it seems re-makes don't really fix core issues (Medievil's remake).

I think the original tech/limits can be taken further aesthetically for a different workflow (very general/sparse use of textures), especially in the modern era. Still undecided on some artistic/technical choices, but I have much more here than I do in the ways of (low-scope) starting project ideas that I like.

not-very-polished

The entire scene is low-poly with colors defined using the mesh itself, also the image is optimized for color to reduce data, resulting in dithering patterns. In a gray room with black and white triangle tiles, there are 6 badgers of various sizes standing and facing the viewer. Similarly, there are 5 eyes floating in the air one of which is not fully opaque. There is 1 banana on the floor.

I appreciated that the new CTR game allows you to play with the old music. What I did not appreciate is each level taking something like 40 seconds to load. Seriously, 25% of the experience of playing that on switch is loading screens.