Aspro posted a picture today that suggested that Crash Bandicoot might just be coming back to Sony or Naughty Dog or to some developer that will be taking better care of him than Vivendi/Universal/Activision ever did. I have to wonder if it's reallly a great idea. Nintendo has learned that old beloved characters that get brought back from the dead, don't necessarily get warm receptions saleswise even if they show up in a quality game. Ubisoft has has middling success with Rayman after he took an extended break. Crash still has a tougher challenge though. In addition to being shelved for a while he had been showing up in games that ranged from mediocre to crap, and that's worse than just being tucked away for a while like Kid Icarus and Punch-out had to deal with.

So that brings me to my question. Is there a game or character that was in repeatedly bad games for a long period of time that was eventually returned to it's former glory? Maybe Tomb Raider? But even Lara had a few okay games prior to the franchise reboot.

Pac-man Championship Edition. There were loads of crap Pac-man games after the awesome 80s arcade games, everything from Pac-man platformers to Pac-man point-n-click adventures. Thankfully, Pac-man CE and DX finally brought him back while properly updating his look and gamplay for modern tastes. I

Kid Icarus?

To answer your question Rob, I think Sony Leeds could do something worthwhile with the franchise for Vita.  It would be useful for mascot games like if they put him in Hot Shots Golf, or LBP Karting or their SSB clone.

Succesful reboots?

- Mario a thousand times.  But that is mainly because Nintendo R&D comes up with great concepts and then sticks Mario in in place of promoting a new character.

- Samus was successfuly brought into 3D

- Spyro (arguably) with Skylanders.

phantom_leo said:

This is kinda off topic and kinda not. I don't have a great answer to the topic question, but I do have a question on the topic. This all started because Sony bought back Crash Bandicoot. I am assuming this is because Crash Bandicoot is Mark Cerny's baby. The Lead Desinger of the PS4 wants his character back, most likely to use on his new system... After seeing Knack though, why should we give a fuq --WHAT-- Mark Cerny wants? Knack sucks! Judging by his current work, just because he gets Crash back, there's no guarantee the game he creates around him is going to be good.

That's Sony Japan's baby.  I doubt Cerny had much to do with the game, and give him a break for his other contributions to gaming history.  God knows we gave Carmack a free ride for a decade, and Specter too.

It sucks that Naughty Dog lost Crash Bandicoot. It would be interesting to see how they'd make one PS4.

phantom_leo said:

Crash Bandicoot was Naughty Dog and Mark Cerny was on the team that created him and the series!

I was talking about Knack.

robio said:

Mario and Samus don't quit fit the fold I'm looking for. Those were always well respected characters/games. They never really had a dark period. Spyro sort of fits the mold, though he's barely a supporting character these days. Still, no arguing with Skylander's success and he was the lynchpin for that.

Yeah, those were more re-inventions that reboots, true.

Bah! I left a new Zelda Music video in the News Section yesterday as an apology!

Dvader said:

I missed it, will look.

phantom_leo said:

OK. Now I feel bad. I just posted something rude in Robio's old character topic. Here's something to make up for it: