Crash Bandicoot was a PlayStation exclusive series, via Naughty Dog, that started in 1996. From there the developer would make three more games before moving onto Jak and Daxter, leaving the property in its parent company’s hands, which was Universal Interactive Studios at the time. From there the property switched hands through many developers, churning out a lot of mediocre titles too soon and too fast. This eventually led to Crash’s demise with Crash: Mind over Mutant, being the last title to come out as of 2008.
Crash would be seen in again eight years later in 2016, with a cameo in Skylanders: Imaginators, but he wouldn’t be fully revived on his own until the HD remakes came out in 2017. Since then, the racing series also got a remake as of last year, but no new actual games have been released, or even announced. What’s the deal? Well, hopefully something will turn up soon, but for now let’s look back at ten canceled Crash projects that could have been amazing.
10 Crash Bandicoot Worlds
Naughty Dog made four Crash Bandicoot games before moving onto their next PlayStation exclusive, Jak and Daxter. The first main game out was The Wrath of Cortex from Traveller's Tales (who are known primarily now for their Lego games).
It is a typical Crash game, but in an interview with Mark Cerny (who worked at Universal Interactive Studios at the time) given to Crash Mania, we learned that Crash Bandicoot Worlds would have changed things up, bringing the marsupial into an open 3D exploration game.
9 Crash Nitro Kart (Traveller's Tales)
Crash Nitro Kart is the sequel to Crash Team Racing. It launched on a multitude of platforms in 2003 and was developed by Vicarious Visions. Before they got the deal, Traveller's Tales had another idea for the game, but all work was handed over to Vicarious Visions in the middle of production.
Not much is known about their original idea, but there is a piece of concept art featuring Nina Cortex that remains. This was the first incarnation of the character. Even though she didn't make it into the game she was originally pitched for, Traveler's Tales eventually used her in Twinsanity instead.
8 Crash Bandicoot Evolution
Speaking of Twinsanity, the game started out much different, codenamed Crash Bandicoot Evolution. It would have featured a sci-fi theme, a space setting, and would have included RPG elements.
Sounds cool for a platformer, but the funny thing about that was Insomniac released the first Ratchet and Clank, which apparently discouraged the team. The game was retooled into the Twinsanity that fans know today.
7 Crush Bandicoot
Hey, if Sonic the Hedgehog can get an evil version via Shadow, then so should Crash. That was the thought behind Crush anyway, from Magenta Software's pitch.
There are some renders and artwork for the project on Crash Mania, but the weird thing is that there is no close up concept art pieces for Crush. How can one pitch a game without the title character?
6 Untitled Krome Studios Crash Bandicoot
Krome Studios, who made a similar 3D platforming series via Ty the Tasmanian Tiger, actually got in with Vivendi Universal for a game pitch. While nothing is known for what type of game they wanted to make based on Crash, it was shut down.
On the plus side, they were offered Spyro instead, which they turned into The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning. Was the idea too good, or too bad?
5 Cortex Chaos/The All-New Cortex Show
The project goes by any one of these names, and as one could guess based on them, it would have been a spinoff starring the series' main antagonist, Dr. Neo Cortex.
The idea was that he was in direct competition with other mad scientists. Some concept art still exists, but that's it. Several pitches went through the works involving Cortex using clones in a Pikmin-like style while other ideas had the game more involved with weird tech and weapons.
4 Crash Twinsanity 2
It appears as though a direct sequel to Twinsanity was in the works, or at least one was formulating in the idea phase. In an interview with Crash Mania, Keith Webb, one of the head artists of that previous project, revealed some interesting details.
Apparently the team wanted Crash to go into different TV shows via a magic remote. Hmm, does that sound familiar? It should because it's the exact premise behind the entire Gex series.
3 Crash Clash Racing
Another canceled Traveller's Tales game would have been another attempt at a racer. This would have set the entire game taking place in Crash's head, namely his dreams. The only concept art that exists is one with an evil counterpart to Crash.
No, not Crush either. Sadly this did not get made, but several of their ideas did sort of make it into the next racer, Crash Tag Team Racing, developed by Radical Entertainment. Despite pitching a lot of ideas, Traveler's Tales only got to make two crash games and their racing ideas never flourished.
2 Crash Online
Sierra Online was going to make Crash Online. That is pretty much all that can be shared about the project. It was listed for release in 2007 for PC and that is it. There is no one that has come forth with details. Not even a piece of concept art exists.
In a world where seemingly everything is turned into a MMO, at least in the Asian territories, even this seemed like an impossible feat. Maybe that’s what the team wound up realizing after announcing it.
1 Crash Landed
The coolest game on here that is actually upsetting to see canceled is Crash Landed. This would have been an open-world reboot to the series, which already is a good idea on that information alone. However, unlike most of these other projects, there is actually quite a bit of documentation out there from pictures to even test footage.
After Mind Over Mutant, Radical Entertainment wanted to take things to the next level. After two years it, and its accompanying racing spinoff, were canceled. At the very least Unseen64 has a boatload of content to share.