‘Crash Bandicoot 4’ Thought Stew

22 years after the release of its previous installment... Crash Bandicoot, the beloved 1990s platforming video game franchise, sees a continuation in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Wait... For the uninitiated, Crash Bandicoot is something you might remember from decades ago. A bright and appealing platformer with a cartoony marsupial protagonist that arguably had …

Imitation?

As a writer, I deal with this problem often. I worry, some times a little too much... Is my work way too similar to [insert film/book/show here]? Yesterday, my blogging and reviewing friend Rachel posted her thoughts on the recently-released animated feature Spark. The film was made by ToonBox and Red Rover International, the Canadian-Korean …

Animation’s Naughty Dog…

A naughty dog? What in the world does an undisciplined canine have to do with the medium? Recently, I've been getting into a video game series called Uncharted. The developer of said series happens to be called Naughty Dog. Let's go back a little ways and look at something that put this very developer on …

Retrospective: ‘Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage!’

Insomniac Games scored a big success with their PlayStation platformer Spyro the Dragon during the holiday season of 1998. Naturally, a sequel was immediately put into development, following buddy studio Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot trajectory. Spyro 2: Ripto's Rage! (or Spyro: Gateway to Glimmer in the UK) was speedily readied for fall 1999, and ended …

Retrospective: ‘Spyro the Dragon’, Part 1

Released in the autumn of 1998 for the PlayStation, Insomniac Games' Spyro the Dragon was one of many games that was a staple of my young'un years. Like any good game from any era, it is one that has held up over the years, and one that I continue to enjoy to this very day. …