The developers behind the iconic PS1 platformer Crash Bandicoot were aiming for their game to feel more like a classic Looney Tunes cartoon rather than a video game, according to Naughty Dog co-founder Andy Gavin. He recently sat down with tech news site Ars Technica for their War Stories web series earlier this week, explaining the various hurdles and inspirations that shaped one of the original Playstation’s flagship titles.
Created to serve as a competitor for platforming mascots like Mario and Sonic The Hedgehog, the titular character of Crash Bandicoot is a sentient (and some would argue senile) marsupial tasked with thwarting the schemes of the evil Dr. Neo Cortex and his army of evolved animal minions in all manner of wacky adventures spanning multiple console generations. Given the bright, colorful world he lives in, the goofy slapstick action that defines his life, and the fact that he’s more than a little mentally unhinged, comparisons could be made between Crash and classic cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck – which Andy Gavin says was Naughty Dog’s intention.
At about the six-minute-mark of Gavin’s War Stories interview, which is available to watch on YouTube, he describes how he wanted to draw inspiration from Looney Tunes and then-airing shows like DuckTales and Animaniacs to give Crash Bandicoot a more cartoonish feel than other video games at the time. This would also influence Crash’s humorous death animations, which featured the marsupial getting crushed and blown up like Wile. E. Coyote on a bad day, and also required Crash’s character model to receive the majority of the game’s on-screen polygons, almost a full third. Interested fans of the Crash Bandicoot series can check out the full episode below:
Released in September 1996, the original Crash Bandicoot would wow gamers with its groundbreaking-for-the-time graphic prowess and smooth, fun gameplay which captured the wacky cartoon aesthetic Gavin described in the interview. It would spawn numerous Crash Bandicoot sequels and spin-offs over the years, switch owners from Sony to Activision, and go through a controversial reboot/redesign in the mid-2000s before eventually being put on hiatus for the remainder of the decade. Crash would then see a mild resurgence in the late 2010’s following a brief appearance in Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and a remastered collection of the first three games in the series titled the N.Sane Trilogy, allowing modern audiences to marvel at Andy Gavin’s vision of a Looney Tune in video game form with a modern coat of paint.
It’s fascinating to hear Gavin’s stories and ideas regarding the creation of Crash Bandicoot, and it’s equally safe to say that he and Naughty Dog succeeded in making their iconic mascot feel like a character ripped straight from a Tex Avery cartoon. Crash’s wacky antics, amusing deaths, and colorful graphics helped set him apart from the more serious characters gracing the PS1 at the time and cemented both Crash Bandicoot and Naughty Dog as pioneering forces in the watershed period of 90’s video gaming.
Source: Ars Technica via YouTube