Crash Cancelled

A video on Youtube brings us the first peek of Crash Landed – the unreleased demo of a cancelled Crash Bandicoot game for DS by Renegade Kid studios. Other games by the studio: Moonan FPS that looks like a cross between Doomand Alien Trilogy (PSX) and yet has a very slick and cool feel to the movement, which elevates it somewhat from the difficulty of making an FPS work on the DS. The Nintendo DS is not designed for first person shooters. The screen isn’t big enough, the controls are too small, the system was designed to be portable not cinematic. Dementium II – a horror FPS sequel, (with echoes of the House on Haunted Hill 1999 movie remake,) has creepy and volatile visuals, but is lacking in freshness. By now you get the idea of the kind of game these guys like to make – first person, walk around and be engaged (shooting or jumping.) So not thinky games, like Braid and Limbo – which is surprising because the xbox would be a perfect home to a cinematic FPS and the DS would be a good home for a cerebral 2D platformer. These games were switched at birth.

As far as the video of the cancelled game, leaked by the studio onto Youtube, Sonic springs to mind – with the precision jumping, collecting objects, ricocheting enemies to defeat them. The tone of a classic platformer, but with an added dimension. The genre never really succeeded in transitioning from 2D to 3D back in the days of the original Tomb Raider, where navigating 3D space just feels awkward. Except in the PSX game Tenchu which simulated all the slippery mischief ninjas enjoy – turning a rope and grapple hook into a flying fox, sneaking up behind people and slitting their throat, creeping alongside walls (somewhat reminded of another great game about creeping, Metal Gear Solid – especially in the VR Training.) In Tenchu, your ninja negotiates 3D space with ease, but then movement is so important to the mechanics of that game. Tenchu is about moving like an assassin, it would not have worked at all if its Japanese developer, Acquire hadn’t figured out a way to make the movement a fun process.

The results of the 2D to 3D platform transition experiment were the weird hybrids of Spyro and Crash Bandicoot which did manage to find their own audience among a certain type of hungry gamer. This was before games like Lego Star Wars began to address the problem with navigation in 3D space.

Wall E DS would be an exception, but that’s because he moves slowly, wheel tracks instead of legs. Crash of Crash Bandicoot walks and runs faster than the time it takes to ingest the environment. It would require tiny taps of movement – small spurts to be as effective in 3D as Sonic is in 2D.

What do fans think of the demo?

There seem to be two schools of thought on the demo. One thinks that the demo is harking back to the classic platform style – which seems to be a good thing according to fans.

The other thinks that it looks drab, clunky and that only Naughty Dog should do Crash games. Which I think is a little unfair, considering the demo was built in two weeks.