I find it odd that people still love Crash Bandicoot games so much in the year 2024, two decades after the decline of the platform mascot Warz. I myself have a great deal of nostalgia for the old marsupial, his second outing developed by Naughty Dog being a particular obsession, but come on, we're all looking for deckbuilders, soulsliking, and battle royales these days, right?
I have to admit, though, that I was a little disappointed after reading that a Crash Bandicoot 5 was once in development at Toys For Bob, the developers of Crash 4: It's About Time, and that it could have featured an interdimensional team-up with one of Crash's old rivals. No, not Mario.
The rumor in question was started by video game historian Liam Robertson (via EG), who claims that Crash 5 would have been another single-player 3D platformer and a direct sequel to 2020's Crash 4. Robertson also got his hands on some alleged story concepts and artwork. One proposal envisioned a game set in a school for evil kids, with the return of villains such as Dr. Cortex. Another would have seen Crash team up with Mr. Spyro of the Dragon family – another mascot-era darling and patient zero of Toys For Bob's currently-on-hiatus Skylanders toy series.
But then the henchmen at Activision came along, with their vicious claims that Crash 4 “wouldn't meet sales expectations” and that online games were “all the rage.” Crash 5 was apparently canceled early in development to make way for another live service. Team members were moved on to other projects like last year's Crash Team Rumble, which didn't exactly make a splash.
Toys For Bob washed its hands of Activision and went independent earlier this year, following a series of layoffs. Back in March, studio heads Paul Yan and Avery Lodato said they were “in the early days of development on our next new game and are nowhere near making any announcements.” I wonder if any of those scrapped ideas for Crash 5 have made their way into the studio’s current projects.