Crash Bandicoot

My first introduction to Crash Bandicoot was in the late 1990s and early 2000s through the various attention grabbing commercials for PlayStation. At that time, it was a guy in a Crash suit with a megaphone at different locations getting people to take interest in his many upon many adventures. During this time the PlayStation slogan was Live in Your World, Play in Ours.

I even remember the Jak and Twisted Metal commercials from this time which were live action presentations of people in costume or digital game characters transposed into the real world. It was these commercials that got me interested in the franchise. Even if it was a one time thing, I still wanted to get a taste of the game play.

Crash Bash Demo and Game

In the posts for the 3-Day Weekend and Addicting Game Demos, a particular game demo disc from the PSU was to thank for my introduction to the series. The PSU Demo Special, as I called it, housed both Crash Bash and Spyro Year of the Dragon game demos. Despite the demo tag, it felt nothing like some of the demos that were experienced at this time, because there was so much to do and there were no kick backs to the main menu screen.

A little bit of everything was accessible in regards to locations and some of the playable characters. Some time after the demo I was gifted with the full version of the game which contained a hidden demo for Spyro Year of the Dragon; of which was extremely difficult to access when it was attempted last. There were so many arenas unlocked and the background music was nice to listen to especially when it came to those boss battles.

When company was over we would take the multiplayer mode for a test drive. Most of the time it would get confusing because we had a tendency of targeting one another during team match ups; not on purpose though the characters moved a little faster than anticipated. Still a favorite that's worth revisiting during down time or when you just want to hear the music in the background.

Crash Bandicoot on location with a megaphone rallying a crowd
Crash @CrashBandicoot via Twitter

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped

It may sound weird placing this installment after Bash but this is the order in which I was introduced. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped was a graduation gift of which I enjoyed immensely. Though a bit different than what I was used to from the previous game it was still a nice addition to my meager game collection of the time.

There were no character choices with this installment as you were either playing as Crash or his sister Coco. Crash was the main go to with some of the arenas while Coco will come in gracefully for some of the arenas. From what I can remember she surfaced during the Tiger Run missions, Jet Ski missions and some of the High Flying missions.

Never a dull moment in game play; from my perspective anyway. As with Crash Bash this particular installment also had a hidden demo of Spyro the Dragon. This demo was easier to access than the Year of the Dragon one and practically appeared automatically once you double back to the main menu screen.

Your tasks during the Spyro demos was to awaken dragons, capture dragon eggs, collect gems and complete missions from several different areas. You were practically running, flying, gliding and breathing fire all the live long day. It got even more interesting when I discovered how to access the roof area in the area with the bulls; just had to remember to stop because there were no walls to keep you from going overboard (into the water).

Have There Been Others?

No other installments have been played from either Crash Bandicoot nor Spyro. I've seen so many introduced over the years yet haven't gotten any for myself. Though to be honest my gaming habits haven't been the same like back in the day where I clocked upwards of 7-10+ hours a day.

My shortest gaming session was around an hour long and that was during a revisit to Legend of Dragoon after the umpteenth restart to see if a change in strategy made any difference to my characters' abilities and skills. A lot of revisits have taken place this year and hope my traditional gaming marathon sessions are among them.

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