What’s up guys? So I’ve been watching my friends play all of these new PlayStation games like Black Ops III, and it inspired me to write a little article concerning PlayStation games. Granted, I am not a gamer in the slightest (I’ve always been an outdoors type of guy) but even I have played two of the greatest games series to ever hit PlayStation: Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon. I have argued and heard people argue countless times over which game series is better, and I wanted to bring this debate to you (if you haven’t had it already with your friends) to see what you thought.
Crash Bandicoot: Crash Bandicoot 2 was the very first video game I’ve ever played, and through it I’ve played all of the PS1 and some of the PS2 Crash games. I still believe that it is one of the best games of all time, so please excuse me if I begin to sound biased. Everyone – and I do mean everyone – knows about the big-eyed, orange-furred rodent wearing blue jean shorts. Crash was very…um, unique, I suppose… by the fact that out of all of the games he’s ever been in, he has never said a single word. Nothing. Except, like, screaming when an enemy beats him up or something, but that’s really about it (I’ve always thought that Cortex made him mute through experimenting on him or something, but as far as I know it was never told why he couldn’t talk). In any case, Crash never failed to impress me, no matter what age I played it. In the adventure platforms, the levels themselves were very straightforward, but that did not make the game easier in the slightest. Armed only with Aku Aku as defense (if you were lucky enough to get to him in one piece within the level) you had to rush every level with enemies constantly bombarding you at every step and the worlds themselves trying to kill you as well (don’t even get me started with that nightmarish boulder level) all in the effort to obtain a crystal. Then you would have to go back to that level and collect all the boxes. Then you might have to go back again to get one of the rare gems, or to complete a skull route (ugh…). Combine that with the control options which never seemed to be enough (Crash 1: jump and spin. That was all) and this game would quickly make you chuck your controller at the T.V. While this game was cruel in that manner, I found it to be a great challenge. I still get tested by the levels within the games 14 years later. Oh, and one thing to point out: the bandicoot had a way of turning bad guys into good people. I even thought he had Cortex convinced at one point. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty cool. In any case, this game was very well put together, and I would love to see Naughty Dog try to do something with it in the future.
Spyro the Dragon: I obtained Spyro the Dragon right after Crash Bandicoot 2, and I found it to be equally as awesome (and therefore, I will be equally as biased). Anyone who has even heard of a PlayStation knows of the legendary Spyro the Dragon series. The original three games involving the all-too-cocky purple dragon and his best friend Sparx the dragonfly have offered a ton of stuff to the PlayStation industry. Unlike Crash bandicoot and many other adventure games of this time, Spyro sported unique open-world designs that were a very impressive part of the games. There were also the interesting main objectives that had to be completed in each game (saving dragons, collecting the dragon eggs – you know the like), the outlandish and mythical creatures that each had their own special moves (and interacted with each other so well – remember how the wizards would duke it out amongst each other within the realms located in the Magic Crafter world? Priceless), and the alternative objectives that made completing the entire game just that much better (like collecting all of the gems to open a bonus realm and gather more gems!). While I dare to say that Spyro the Dragon wasn’t as challenging as Crash was, it more than made up for it with the way you could immerse yourself in and interact with the world and the characters within them, something that most video games at this time did not have. Oh, and the music? Freaking amazing! Sometimes I would just walk into a level and listen to Steven Copeland’s incredible compositions for almost an hour before I even started playing. Overall the games are pure greatness, and if Insomniac were to somehow get the chance to re-create these games on the PS4, Xbox could very well go out of business.
Of course, if I were an actual gamer who knew what he was talking about I could go on for days about each of the game series, but I think I’ve covered the basics pretty well. Keep in mind that I was mainly focusing on the Spyro and Crash games that came out on PlayStation 1, as those were the original games made by the original developers, but I guess you could also bring the ones that came out on the other PlayStation game counsels into consideration. I love both of these characters, so I really can’t say that I would prefer one over the other, but what do you think? Is Crash the ultimate original, or should Spyro claim the throne?
