Why Crash Bandicoot would be perfect for Smash Bros

Today the internet saw a Smash Bros leak that revealed Ryu from Street Fighter to be a DLC pack making him part of Nintendo’s new marketing trick of adding third party characters to try and get more people to buy the game. All realistic joking aside the inclusion of third party characters is ginues as it allows fans to access fights they could ever hope to become real. That was always the intention of the Smash series to begin with but having third party characters invites fans of multiple franchises to come and enjoy the experience. Since Brawl for the WII we’ve seen many fans debate and demand certain characters to be in the series. Some of which have actually turned up like Sonic, Mega Man, Pac-Man and now Ryu however theirs one third party character that no one seems to be mentioning but I personally think would make a great addition to the franchise, I am of course talking about the orange rodent known as Crash Bandicoot.

Since the reveal of Pac-Man last year the thought of Crash being in the game has become something that fills me with excitement but like always theirs that part of my brain that keeps  telling you that the likelihood of it happening is on the same level as Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Of course over the coming months time changed, Nintendo announced DLC characters, they introduced the fighter ballot (which let fans vote on who they wanted to see in the game) and Spider-Man joined the MCU. Now anything is possible thanks to the Ryu announcement but unfortunately not many people seem to agree with me on Crash being in Smash Bros with the repeated response being “it wouldn’t work”. For this post I will explain my reasons for wanting Crash Bandicoot in Smash Bros and why I personally think he would make a great choice for the game.

He use to be rival’s with Mario

Yes I am aware that this is a cilice but it’s important to note that back in the early days of 3D Gaming (N64, PS1, Sega Saturn/ Dreamcast) Crash was known as an arch rival to Mario during this era. Now lets amylase this for a minute, this newest installment of the franchise includes Sonic, Mega Man and Pac-Man all three of those characters were rivals with Mario at some point within a different era of gaming. Pac-Man during the arcade, Mega Man during the NES (in terms of selling more copies) and Sonic during the 16-bit era (SNES, SEGA GYNESIS). Now If you include Crash Badicoot someone who was around during start of 3D you basically have the complete collection of gaming rivals. Not to mention back in 1995 (the year I was born) Sony and Nintendo made a deal to produce a CD add on for the SNES, of course these plans did not happen and this is what gave Sony the inspiration to create the PlayStation, no Nintendo no PlayStation. Added the Bandicoot would be a great reference to the two companies rivalry back in the day.

It would make up for PlayStation All Stars

For those of you who are unaware for this title, “PlayStation All Stars” was Sony’s poor attempt at making their own version of Smash Bros. However the plan backfired and now Sony is more than anything willing to pretend that the game ever existed. One of the many mistakes they made with that game was completely leaving out one of their core fighter’s aka Crash Bandicoot. Now I am aware that Crash was a third party character but that’s no excuse if Nintendo can get Ryu a Street Fighter than Sony can easily get Crash for “All Stars”.

It could reboot Crash’s Career

As a lot of people know Crash’s career has pretty much been in a creatively stagnant since becoming a third party character in the early 2000’s. His last game was released in 2009 and barley sold any units. Granted Naughtydog has stated their interest in buying the rights back to try and reboot the franchise however I do believe that bringing him into the Smash Bros Universe could be the final push to get the character back on track. Adding him into the roster could help increase the characters popularity not just for old gamers but new ones as well that may not of heard of the character before. This would help gain interest for a new generation and maybe help create new games. 

Crash’s Moves List

With the Smash Bros series a lot the character moves tend to represent some of their moves from pervious installments of their series, this would be the same for Crash. This is mainly the part were the “it wouldn’t work” argument comes in as people tend ask what moves would he preform. Personally I think Crash would have a great set of moves for Smash Bros and here are a few suggestions. Just to be clear I’m talking about the standard set of moves (The ones you preform with the B button) as those are the main moves most people focus on.

B-Spin: Probably the most obvious one but by pressing B constantly will cause Crash to spin on the spot. You would also be able to tilt the control stick to left or right to move Crash to get more hits.

Side and B Slide: Tilting the control stick sideways (left or right) will cause Crash to slide across the stage. This move is from Crash Bandicoot 2 and would be helpful when trying to gain an extra hit on your opponent.

(Skip to 3:27-3:33)  

Up and B Jet Pack: Another move from Crash 2 this move will allow Crash to fly over the stage and allow him to get back to the stage if thrown off.

Down and B Body Slam: This move is where Crash can slam on the stage with his body. This move would allow him to gain extra damage on opponents who come into contact with it, similar to Yoshi’s Ground Pound attack 

Final Smash: This final Smash would be where Crash would gain Aku Aku to cover this face and make him invisible for a short period of time. This would be from the original games where if Crash found three Aku Aku masks his face would be covered and he would be able to run around the stage push enemy’s away with just one hit. However in Smash Bros it would work in the same way Wario’s Final Smash does where his movies would become a lot more powerful and cause appoints to fly off the stage with just one hit.

Conclusion

So in Conclusion I think that Crash Bandicoot would make a great character for Smash Bros. If you disagree feel free to explain why in the comments below. Also which third party character would you like to see in Smash Bros? 

Is Chris Pratt right for Indiana Jones?

It’s been a while since I’ve done something blogger-ish that wasn’t Uni related. This is mainly me not being bothered to write anything and also me not really knowing how to work blogger despite being on here way back in late 2011 when I was trying to do movie reviews out of complete boredom (don’t ask), however that was nearly five years ago and since using blogger for University profiles I’ve been able to develop some “decent” skills in blogging and being able to push my ability and enthusiasm to give this one last shot. Quick note, this won’t be a weakly, monthly or daily thing I will only be doing this when I get the time and have an interesting topic to talk about. With that quick note out of the way lets being…

There has been a lot of talk about Chris Pratt, of course that’s to be expected after Guardians of the Galaxy and The Lego Movie and with the super bowl trailer for Jurassic World. However this news comes from something that has split the Internet into two places that being a rumor of Disney possibly rebooting Indiana Jones and looking for Chris Pratt in mind for the role. Now the idea of Disney giving the franchise a fresh coat of paint isn’t anything new. Back in March 2014 this rumor first accused with Bradley Cooper in mind for the role and even before than the idea of Disney doing a Indiana Jones movie was to be expected after they brought the rights to Lucasfilm back in 2012.  

However as we all know things can change overtime in the film industry and after the success of GFTG one can expect the Pratt would be on Disney’s radar. However what’s seemed to split people is the very idea of a “reboot” to a franchise that is dearly beloved by thousands of people. For this article (or blog post) I’m going to try and explore both sides and bring in a overall concussion with this topic.

Why Pratt Should Be Indiana Jones

Frist lets get this out of the way right now I think if the role would be re-casted Pratt would suit it perfectly. His transition from a comedic actor to an action star is incredible and there’s no doubt that after his role in GFTG why wouldn’t Disney consider him for the role? In many interviews Pratt even admitted that one of his biggest inspirations for Star Lord (aside from Han Solo) was Indiana Jones not to mention Pratt has managed to receive the title of “Harrison Ford of today" which isn’t surprising considering he shares a lot of “quirks” with Harrison in a sense of playing an action hero. They both have a great charm and wit to them; they can carry the lovable “prick” role very well and are have a great likable presence whenever they’re on screen. Not to mention Chris Pratt’s new build of Muscles thanks to GFTG, which he worked out transforming him into a macho man.

Yes it’s easy to assume that Pratt would be the best pick for the role, he just has that sense of someone that could make a great action hero, however with every positive action there’s a negative re-action.

Why Chris Pratt Shouldn’t be Indiana Jones

Later this week someone on SchmoesKnow website posted an article debating his views on why Pratt shouldn’t be Indiana Jones. You can find a link to the article here:

http://schmoesknow.com/fck-chris-pratt-not-subtle-editorial/33803/

While the author of the article dose brings up many good points on this subject there really is only one reason why most people wouldn’t want this to happen. The thing with this franchise is that it’s one of the most cherished and loved franchise’s on the planet, people love these films as it brought back and paid tribute to the adventure serial films of the 20’s and 30’s. Not to mention many would argue the role of Indiana Jones can not be replaced becuase when you think of the character, you  think of Harrison Ford. This pretty clear that Ford has left a strong mark on the role and that mark will be hard to replace or re-create. This is proved by the number of other actors who have played the character in Video Games or audio books as they tend to just make an Harrison Ford impression instead of bringing the character into their own. 

Many people keep the first three films very close to them, so when "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" was released back in 2008 the amount of disappointed fans that were left in despair after what they just witnessed made them try and pretend that "Crystal Skull" never happened. It’s this protection that makes the very concept of a reboot or another continuation frightening to many fans. It’s the same reaction that makes the Ghostbusters reboot being met with critical backlash. Fans don’t want to see change made to their favourite franchise’s so whenever this film will be a reboot that cleans the previous films history or continues it with a different or same actor it will always be met with backlash. 

Maybe it’s best that the franchise’s wasn’t touched though, I mean lets be honest aside from the 4^th instalment "The Original Trilogy" it’s pretty much perfect so why ruin that? Why keep on supporting the argument that Hollywood is “out of ideas” so much they have to rely on nostalgia to make money.

The James Bond Effect

However how do we know if this reboot will be terrible or the worse thing ever. Maybe replacing Ford with Pratt is exactly what the franchise needs. This is something I like to call the James Bond effect where replacing a favorite actor with someone else proves to be better than audiences expect. In terms of Bond seven different actors’ each one improves on what the previous actor left before him have played the character. Why shouldn't Indi take a same approach? I mean James Bond was one of the main inspirations for the franchise in the first place, hence why Sean Connery was cast as Indi’s Farther in Last Crusade. Lets prove this with another franchise, when Spider-Man was being rebooted a lot of fans hated the casting of Andrew Garfield as the title character. However it wasn’t until the Amazing Spider-Man’s release that people turned the other way and now look were we are, making petition's so we can keep him as the character.

Is Spielberg setting Pratt up for Indi? 

Now for a bit of theory based writing, what if Spielberg is setting Pratt up for Indiana Jones? Now lets break this down, Spielberg casted Pratt in Juristic World (which is being released this year), Spielberg originally directed all four (Face it people Crystal Skull happened) films in the franchised and even directed Jurassic Park 1-2 and is producing the new film. Maybe he saw something in Pratt that no one else has seen yet, maybe he made a deal with Disney to wait and see if Pratt is a hit in the new film before deciding to go with any other actor. It’s possible I mean judging from the trailers his character acts a lot like an Indi type character.

It wouldn’t surprise me if maybe Spielberg is the one that’s trying to get this new film into production considering he threw George Lucas under bus for Crystal Skull and has pretty much abounded Shia Labeouf. Not to mention he tired to get Jurassic World made since 2002 so he's pretty dedicated to go an extra mile for his films. 

Conclusion

In conclusion we the only thing to do is wait until the announcement is official. Whenever we like this or not Indie will get another film eventfully. Considering his popularity, charm and the possibility of Spielberg setting him up for the role.  I wouldn’t be surprised if Pratt dose end up getting the role if the film dose happen (considering how quickly Disney green lit Star Wars it's pretty understandable). Overall wait for Jurassic World because until that films comes out we will get an idea if Pratt is right for the role or not.