Photo: gingerbeardman
For the PS3 gamer, Call of Duty, Uncharted or maybe Assassins Creed are usually the games to play. I have all of them, but I also own the amazing Crash Bandicoot collection – downloaded from the PS1 classics section on the gaming store.
When I think of retro gaming, it always brings me back to the crash classics, putting in many hours of game play making sure I collected every box to collect every gem and stop Neo Cortex once and for all. I’m watering at the mouth just writing about collecting every apple, so as to collect those all important lives.
In Crash 1, it was much harder to collect all the gems because you couldn’t die and receive them anyway as you can in the later games. You had to collect every box to get that silver gem and sometimes it was frustrating – one bad jump could be the end and then you’d have to start over. This made Crash 2 Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot Warped more appealing. Well, also the appeal of being able to ride a little cute polar bear in Crash 2.
The addictiveness of trying to get 100% always inspires me in gaming and Crash made that possible. In many games now it’s impossible to collect every piece of treasure or flag or piece of intel but with games like Crash Bandicoot you always know you can get every gem and relic possible.
The Crash games never really had a plot as it was always about getting the gems then facing Cortex in a final showdown. It kept it simple, but it did change it up so it wasn’t always jumping and bouncing and spinning enemies. You were chased by boulders, driving a speed boat, a plane and riding polar bears.
Crash Bandicoot will always be a game that I’ll love to come back and play again, and one of my fond memories from growing up as a kid. Naughty Dog always has and always will keep on making great games.
