Quick, name two mascots for the Playstation 1!
Most people would say Crash Bandicoot, others would say Spyro the Dragon….and those who are RPG fanatics would say Final Fantasy 7.
I see you in the corner fighting game fans, ready to chant Tekken, Tekken, Tekken
It’s not hard to see why Crash would labelled as such, his games were some of the highest selling titles on Sony’s little gray CD player that took the world by storm.
That said, as many have noted, Crash and Spyro tend to share a lot of parallels with one another. Both were PS1 trilogies that got continued by the same parent company after their original developers opted out to develop titles for Sony, both suffered a quality decrease brought upon by management and both went through some…really interesting reboots….
Another thing both went through was going multi platform!
Now everyone’s told their console tale of when they finally experienced Crash or Spyro off Sony hardware, be it the titles released for the GameCube or the Xbox, but surprisingly…there was a platform that both took a fair bit of time to get to – that being PC.
Now while back in the day, it was possible to play the original PS1 games on computers thanks to commercial emulators like Bleem but in terms of an official PC release….this is where things get interesting….it’s also the one thing Spyro actually beat Crash to by a whole decade.
Behold, Spyro’s first official PC outing below
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| Not quite what ya expected is it? |
Hm…I cannot help but feel I’ve put some Spyro fans on high alert here and maybe ruffled a few feathers.
That’s correct, Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure was the dragon’s first foray to PC and talk about an odd way to kick it off.
Firstly, this is the only Skylanders title to see a PC port as every subsequent title would stay console bound until the series discontinuation in 2016.
It was interesting discovering this little tidbit as I had never really seen people talk about said release and back in the day, it was practically non existent in the stores I’d look around at – at this point in time, most of the PC games were either long unsold bargain bin re-releases of classic games or your quickly chucked together hidden object title.
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| "OH BOY I JUST LOVE CLICKING AROUND ON JPGs" |
This PC port, which seems to have been handled by TransGaming, seems to be on par with the console release but what does surprise me is that there’s very little documentation about it.
With the release I stumbled across, it has a portal of power, 3 figurines and some cards that’re neat to look at.
What I do find odd is that there is absolutely no modding scene for the PC port at all. When Disney Infinity was also discontinued in 2016, the game’s developers, Avalanche Software, made it that all the content in game would be unlocked with these Gold Edition updates on PC, essentially preserving the content long after the figurines had been discontinued.
All that I can glimpse is just from experience, in which case it's a pretty bare bones PC release with some...really bizarre hiccups.
Firstly, there are no graphic options, which is an odd decision, especially for a 2011 release and sometimes the sound from the game would bugger off. The game also has no subtitles, which even for the Reignited Trilogy down the line would be a hassle to be implemented....
Odd thing to cut out but alright.
So hope your ability to read lips is ready for when the sound decides to take a vacation
The game is also prone to some random crashes from time to time, particularly the beach levels. Now these ideally could be be patched out but as noted before - there is no modding scene.
Now to expect something like that from Activision, especially with how they were churning this franchise out yearly , quickly hopping to the next instalment to keep popularity would be naivety. But I am surprised that fans haven’t tried looking into this title or attempted to unlock all the content - especially in an age where even the Skylanders franchise has long since been discontinued too.
If you’re curious on my opinion for the franchise - it exists. I think some character designs are neat and Spyro would’ve been more warmly received had it not been a pre-existing character but I think where it falters is in its juvenile nature. These games were made for kids, but they feel written for really small kids, somehow coming across as more juvenile than the original PS1 trilogy that kicked off the franchise.
As it stands, Skylanders on PC is an interesting oddity, but one that is still sadly bound to a marketing gimmick that I’m relieved has come to an end - especially since you’re already forking out for an entire game, to collect so many figurines is wild.
I do hope that one day we might see a modding scene rise to take a look at the game but for now, this is where our story of this 90s duo begins.
Now lets fast forward to 2017, Crash Bandicoot is back! Well , he was back the year before
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| "IN SKYLANDERS FORM!" |
The N Sane Trilogy brought back the franchise from a 9 year slumber after the Titans duology had wrapped up and many false starts. And not only was it back, it was back with a bang - the N Sane Trilogy proved to be a massive success when it hit the PS4, sooooo…why keep it to one platform?
Fast forward a year later, Activision’s one year exclusivity deal is over and now Crash is coming to every platform , including the franchise’s debut on PC via Steam.
So 2018, we have the new ports and an update for the PS4 version to adjust some stuff people took issue with. But the PC version by Iron Galaxy is a bit interesting.
For starters, it was only the release of the remake that supported 60FPS - which is…odd, never quite got why the console versions were bound to 30FPS since, these aren’t exactly the most intensive visuals put on any console.
So Crash’s debut on PC seemed to be quite the hit. It runs well, it looks great, no catches , no DRM buggery.
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| "Yes, I am well aware I have jinxed myself for later" |
So…what the heck happened with the next PC releases for Crash and Spyro.
Lets start with Spyro.
N Sane Trilogy was an unexpected hit for Activision, as such remakes for the Spyro franchise were rushed into development. While Vicarious Visions had enough time to complete the remakes for all 3 games on their own, Spyro had to have the 3rd game remade by another studio - Sanzaru Games of Sly Cooper Thieves of Time and Sonic Boom Shattered Crystal fame.
But hey, this time around, there was no exclusivity deal, Spyro can hit all platforms at once right?
….nope
The game would release on PS4 and Xbox One in September 2018, while a PC and Switch port would only pop up in November 2019.
Okayyy….so as noted before the remake was rushed, so maybe the year to port might work out?
WELLLLLLL
There were hiccups….
Iron Galaxy was brought back to handle the PC port which was set to come out on Steam, however this time around there were…some quirks.
Like with the N Sane Trilogy, the PC port came with a 60FPS option that was missing on the console counterparts - once more, no idea why
But…this time around the 60FPS option would be broken on release
Now putting the game at 60FPS and higher frames would flatout break some aspects of the game, platforms that were supposed to rise or come out no longer functioned properly, pre rendered cutscenes were bound to 30FPS while the in game ones weren’t.
From here on out, Activision would take a very…frustrating approach with their PC ports for the Crash series onwards. Firstly, for some bizarre reason, Crash Team Racing Nitro Fuel would skip PC platforms despite coming out on everything else, same goes for Crash Team Rumble, a PVP game that would’ve benefited from having a PC fanbase which made no sense whatsoever.
I really do hope that at the very least, Nitro Fueled, manages to get a PC release at some point, but until then, lets go to the , as of now, the most recent PC release of the Crash Bandicoot franchise
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
RIGHT, no exclusivity deal and they’ve done full on multi console releases, this should be straight for
GODDAMNIT
For some bizarre reason, Activision just could never put these games out on every platform all at once and it was just absolutely frustrating.
Especially on PC where they had also skipped a release at this point and there’s really no good reason for it.
So about 5 months after the game’s initial release, and a week after the Switch release, finally Crash Bandicoot 4 is on PC. All is good right?
….Activision for some reason saw fit to overly complicate their blasted PC release again.
For starters, the pricing for Crash 4 was fairly odd, 60 USD on PS4, Xbox One, PS5 and the Xbox Series X. But on Switch and PC , it was only 40 USD
On top of that, despite having amassed a player base on Steam with these titles, they decided that this time around the game would release on Battle.net
…and was one of two single player titles on said platform that was mostly made for online multiplayer gaming.
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| Amusingly what does crack me up is how the South African rating board labels anything with smoking or alcohol in it as "Substance Abuse". Makes it sound like Crash needs to book into rehab. |
So sure, this can’t be all that bad, after all, it’s just another storefront, at least you can still get the game on PC right?
Welll here are the caveats
Firstly, Battle.net doesn’t have many options when it comes to regional pricing, so a lot of potential customers have been alienated
And on top of that, Battle.net games require that you be constantly connected to the internet for the game to play.
For multiplayer games, sure makes sense, not sure how you’re going to play them offline
But for single player titles like the Blizzard Arcade Collection and Crash Bandicoot 4?
No…just…just no, that really shouldn’t be forced on a person, especially since even in 2025, people’s internet connections still tend to be realllyy iffy , even in countries such as the USA.
So yeah, at this point Activision had alienated a lot of people
Congrats there
Oh and this isn’t pointing out how for some odd reason when they did port the Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1 + 2 remake to PC, it came out on the Epic Store…so…there was definitely no proper plan in place for the company’s PC releases that weren’t Overwatch 2 or Call of Duty based.
Come October 2022, Crash Bandicoot 4 would FINALLY come to Steam and this time without the constant online requirement and I cannot believe how something that by all means should’ve been straight forward, wound up being dragged out to such a ludicrous degree.
As for the port itself? This time Iron Galaxy was given a break and instead the PC port was handled by Hardsuit Labs.
Don’t feel bad though, because of the convoluted PC release, Iron Galaxy were brought back to handle the Steam release.
Because ya know, sometimes you can tell someone to walk in a straight line and they’ll end up going everywhere else.
Hardsuit Labs did a good job with the port, it’s on par with the PS5 console release and is so well optimized that the game is able to run really well on low end PCs, something that the Spyro Reignited Trilogy wasn’t quite able to do.
I do hope that with Microsoft owning the IP that going ahead, these PC releases won’t be such a headache to follow. Same goes for hoping that stuff like Nitro Fueled get ported to PC or heck, even that the Blizzard Arcade Collection sees a Steam release too.
And for Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure? Maybe a digital release with all the content accessible would be a good idea
Or maybe some fans could look into modding it for preservation.
Thank you very much for reading my article!
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