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.

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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?