Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Is Another Crash Bandicoot Game Being Teased?

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Dec 092019
 

Around this time last year, we were discussing rumors of a Crash Team Racing remaster, which came to fruition with the announcement of Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Now, one year later, we once again have Crash Bandicoot rumors to discuss.

The latest wave of rumors began last month, when PlayStation’s “It’s Time to Play” advertisement included an unknown mask character in the background of the Crash Team Racing segment.

Fans also spotted a bus advertisement featuring a new render of Crash.

That brings us to today, with both a State of Play and the 2019 Game Awards on the horizon, both good opportunities for a new Crash Bandicoot game to be announced.

Youtuber/streamer Canadian Guy Eh tweeted about how several social media influencers posted pictures of themselves with little Crash figurines they received. This resembles what happened last year, when Crash-themed dice and cookies were sent to people ahead of the Nitro-Fueled reveal.

There hasn’t been a new Crash Bandicoot game in a long time, with 2008’s Crash: Mind Over Mutant being the last non-mobile entry, and even the last mobile game being a racing spin-off from 2010.

It’s possible that the positive reception to both the N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled means the series is finally getting a brand new entry again.

So, will a new Crash Bandicoot game be announced either tomorrow at Sony’s State of Play presentation or Thursday at the Game Awards? If so, what will it be like? Share your predictions in the comments!

Clive ‘N’ Wrench Demo Available Now

 Video games  1 Response »  Tagged with: ,
May 242019
 

It’s been a long time since we talked about Clive ‘N’ Wrench.

This indie 3D platformer had a Kickstarter campaign back in 2015 that didn’t succeed, but unlike the other 3D platformer we were talking about at the time, the game’s development remained active, with frequent updates on Twitter and Patreon.

Now the first public alpha demo of Clive ‘N’ Wrench is available.

This demo includes part of the hub world, two of the game’s levels (“The Chimp, the Bag and the Bunny” and “Bunny, I Shrunk the Chimp”), and one boss battle. Right now it only has controller support, with mouse & keyboard support to follow.

I tried out the demo and found it to have a lot of promise, even though being in alpha means it’s still a little rough.

First off, it just looks beautiful. The character models are great for this style of game, and everything feels like an homage to classic 3D platformers like Banjo-Kazooie, which is exactly what I signed up for.

It was fun to dive into, and I really liked the world design. The music also sounded like it came straight out of those older games.

On the other side of things, the camera gave me the most issues. That’s partly because I couldn’t find an option to invert the camera, but it also seemed to have a mind of its own, zooming in way too close or pulling far back at certain points despite my attempts to control it. While the controls were generally good, jumping got a little strange and floaty whenever I’d try to pull myself up onto a platform.

But this is just an alpha demo, so the game still has a long way to go. From what I played here, I think Clive ‘N’ Wrench will be a fantastic throwback to classic 3D platformers once it’s been polished.

Are you going to try the Clive ‘N’ Wrench demo?

Fiona Frightening Was Officially Cancelled

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
May 012019
 

In 2017, we discussed the long silence concerning Fiona Frightening, a 3D platformer that had been planned for the 3DS and Wii U.

The most recent update had been from March 2017, when the developers said they were waiting for the demo to be finished.

Every now and then I search for news, and today I saw that the TV Tropes page said the creator posted on September 19, 2018 that development of Fiona Frightening had been halted.

And when I clicked the link to read the delay/cancellation announcement… it had been deleted.

However, it isn’t completely gone. It was a DeviantArt journal entry, and previews of it are still readable on DeviantArt. So when I dug further and found people discussing the game’s status, I was able to see what the original journal announcement said:

So, for several months now; I’ve had commenters asking questions all along the lines of ‘How’s Fiona Frightening coming along?’ And it’s only after a lot of thought, soul searching and attempting to contact folks involved with no response, that I have to announce this. As of now, according to my knowledge, development has been halted indefinitely, if not permanently.”

The journal entry goes on to explain the problems they ran into in more detail. Basically, the programmers they hired kept leaving, which stalled their progress, and then he lost contact with the producer of the studio. The preview ends there, so the rest of the announcement has been lost.

However, then I looked up the studio, Azurous Studios… and what did I find but their official announcement of the game’s cancellation.

It also cites the issues with programmers and concludes with a wish that they’ll be able to revisit Fiona Frightening someday.

(My guess is that the announcement from the studio is why the creator deleted his own post about it.)

I was excited for Fiona Frightening was it was first revealed, and I kept hoping they’d return even after their long silence. Unfortunately, it looks like Fiona Frightening is gone for good.

In other news, we have a Patreon now! This is sort of experimental; Patreon is changing the way it handles fees for creators starting on May 7, so if you’re interested in making one, doing so before then is the best option. Since I’ve debated about it in the past, I decided to go for it.

Anyway, if you want to support this site and my other sites (although buying my fiction is always the best option), the Patreon page is up!

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