2 years ago, the PlayStation celebrated its 30 anniversary. Naturally, in the midst of celebrating the nostalgia for the system, we reminisced about some of the most iconic games and characters that we were introduced to from the system.
The Nintendo 64 was still kicking it with their Italian plumber mascot we all know and love, and while the early library of the PlayStation had a lot of great games on it, it truly needed its own platforming mascot to rival with Mario. Where Sonic started falling behind, Crash Bandicoot was born. On September 9, 1996, the original game was released for the PlayStation in North America.
The first game went on to become the eleventh-best selling game in the history of the console. Its sequels, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped would go on to be the seventh and eighth-best selling games on the console respectively.
With Nintendo capitalizing on the emerging 3D space with Super Mario 64, Sony struck back with Crash Bandicoot and proved that they had the ability to play too. Today, Crash Bandicoot is one of the most beloved video game characters of all time.
Crash Bandicoot truly means a lot to me. It was one of my earliest video games in my life. I actually first played Warped when I was 5 years old in a bank of all places where my mother was conducting banking business. Meanwhile, there was a television and a PlayStation 1 there. Me, my brother, and two other kids were there sitting and playing Crash Bandicoot: Warped (specifically, the level "Orient Express") while the parents were off conducting grown-up business.
If you've yet to see it, you should watch this video from 2020 where Andy Gavin, the co-founder of Naughty Dog sat down and goes into length about the development of Crash Bandicoot, and the technological marvel that the game truly was.
In celebration, various Crash games are on sale. The N. Sane Trilogy is currently 70% on Steam, Xbox, and Switch. But not PlayStation for some reason. Sony, what are you doing?
The same is also true for Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, which is currently 70% on Xbox, and Switch. Once again, no PlayStation discount. It never had a PC release for... reasons? Hell if I know. I would've loved to grab it on Steam.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is also 70% on Steam, Xbox, Switch, and thankfully this one does include a PlayStation discount too. You can also buy it on the Blizzard store, though that one has no discount.
What about Crash's purple dragon friend, Spyro? He got a new game announced a few months ago at the Xbox showcase, A Realm Beyond.
But Crash and Spyro go together like peanut butter and jelly. Spyro isn't celebrating his 30th anniversary until 2028, but he is basically a brother to the orange rodent. Naughty Dog and Insomniac actually worked very closely with each other on the original PS1 games under a shared producer (Mark Cerny), becoming not only great friends in the process, but each game actually included demos from the concurrently-produced game from the other franchise.
He's getting in on the celebration too.
The Spyro: Reignited Trilogy is currently 65% on Steam, Xbox, Switch, and guess what. PlayStation actually has a discount for this one.
We're not stopping just there though, because some bundles go one step further and give a bunch of the games to save even more money.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy
Xbox Crash + Spyro Triple Play bundle
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time
Switch Spyro + Crash Remastered Game Bundle
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Spyro: Reignited Trilogy
What are your memories with Crash Bandicoot? Do you think you'll pick up one of the bundles? Let us know in the comments below.
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