Crash Bandicoot is one of the most famous platform games/character of all time, being a major player for Sony back when the PlayStation One got its start. It along Spyro the Dragon gave you a ton of great platforming on the console. Each character has spread abroad since then, having games on both the Xbox and Nintendo consoles that Sony competes with. I sort of wish they stayed with Sony only but you can’t do anything about that at this point. Either way, Crash was a great series that could do no wrong for the first 3 or 4 entries. But then things went downhill. Now there are tons of game reasons I could cite here to provide more of my opinion but I’ll leave that for dead currently. Crash Bandicoot’s most glaring problem is that he hasn’t been around in a major game since 2008 (my pic with this post is the latest game released). So we went all of 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and very soon all of 2015 with no new Crash game. I could have simply stated that we haven’t gotten a new game since 2008 but seeing it spelled out like that gives even more emphasis on how long it has been. Far, far too long. But let’s assume that there is a new revival of the series coming in 2016, at long last! There are 4 things I think the game needs to have or do correctly to have me happy with it. I really hope that we see a reboot eventually, but until then let’s look at our fantasy world: a new rebooted Crash comes in 2016 to the PS4 and Xbox One. What do I want? I’ll tell you, in no particular order.
1. A warp room where you go to one of 5 selected levels. Yes, that may be a bit of a picky point but I’m cashing in on some nostalgia with this point and a few more. Honestly I don’t care if there are key differences in the story or gameplay, per se, as long as there is still a strong connection to the original trilogy. In Crash 2 and 3 you use a warp room to go to the various levels before being able to confront the boss for the set of levels you just beat. That should be the same. You pick a level, beat it, do the others etc, then you do the boss button or whatever afterwards. That is something that should be instantly familiar with old school Crash fans. It wouldn’t be hard to reintroduce the warp rooms in a meaningful way again.
2. Crystals and Gems. Continuing on with the nostalgia, you should need to collect no less than 25 Crystals in the various levels before confronting the final boss. And yes there should be some 50 odd gems out there for you to get. Gems for breaking all the boxes in a level (if there weren’t boxes in the levels it’s not even worthy of playing in the first place, so let’s just assume boxes are there as a matter of fact), gems for doing cool and unique bonus 
missions and things like that, etc. I think that needs to be a part of the game. Maybe make some of the Crystals a bit harder to find so you don’t get them no matter what, randomly generate them in new locations something like that, that would be cool. Some of the gems in the old Crash games, even when you knew where to go or what to do, were a challenge at times. Make that the same with the Crystals.
3. Strong variety in levels. The Crash games have several different types of levels. Take Crash 2 for example. There are levels where you play like normally, following Crash from behind going forward to the end of the level, with occasional 2D gameplay featured as well. Then you have levels where you’re being chased, from the other camera direction, from boulders and polar bears. Then you have other on rails type levels where your ride a baby polar bear. There are other types as well, such as space levels too, leaving a massive amount of variety in what you do in the game. Any new Crash reboot needs to have the same thing going for it. There needs to be a great variety in the levels just like there used to be in the trilogy.
4. Hard to get trophies. I know, some of the gems in Crash games are so hard to get they’re a major accomplishment in their own right, but I want to see this new form of rewarding gameplay be featured prominently in the new Crash game. Namely I want there to be at least a trophy or two (or achievement depending on your console) that are really hard to earn. I don’t care why they’re hard, I just want the type of thing to really aim for even after you’ve beaten the game already. The old Crash games are so much fun I never have any issue playing them even after beating the entire story but still you know where I’m coming from; it’s always nice to have more.
That covers my 4 wants for a new Crash game! How about you? What would you want to see? Be sure to let me know in the comments!
*Obviously this post reflects some thoughts that were older on my part, but I never got around to posting it and I liked it so I figured why not? :p
