Behind the Scenes: Crash Revisits (112,113,114) (Patreon)

Hello and welcome to this BTS post, I hope you enjoyed going back and revisiting these games as much as I did. It was a lot of fun to work on these videos. However, due to them being a lot more basic in comparison to some other projects this year, I'm going to cover all 3 of these in a single post. So strap yourselves in for a Turbo Charged Extravaganza... because here we go!

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How did these episodes come to be?
Obviously in lead-up to the Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled remake, I wanted to have something Crash Bandicoot related going up on the channel, however these videos were not the original plan. That other video is still in the works, I just don't know when we'll see it. But once I saw that the remake was going to include MORE than just CTR, I got into a serious mood for playing Nitro Kart and discovered something... my old Crash reviews were getting some serious attention. Problem with that is that the videos are incredibly old and DO NOT reflect the channel these days. So I decided it'd be best to revisit all 3 games in preparation, to both update and modernize my previous episodes while also helping the channel to gain some extra momentum into the new game.

Crash Team Racing:
After re-watching my original video for the first time in a long time, I decided that my opinions haven't changed much. So the CTR episode is simply, just a remaster of my original video. People were a little disappointed at the lack of certain jokes returning, but that was an important concept I tried to keep on hand coming back to these episodes. The originals are fine, just a little old. So I wanted to keep their legacy and importance on the channel intact and focus on making new jokes and providing a stronger analysis overall. It's actually helped me to understand some of the pressure that these developers go through, remaking these beloved games. People have nostalgia for the originals, so it's important to protect that, while also including enough new stuff, to actually make something new!

One of my favorite aspects of coming back to these videos is absolutely making the logos! Much like the original Tony Hawktober, these are all logos that have some serious connection to my younger years and I love all of them. This 'Square Eyed Jak Title Screen Idea' was really a thing back when I originally covered the games, so it's cool getting to go back and see, just how far things have come, production wise. Even for details on screen that last a mere couple of seconds.

Crash Nitro Kart:
This episode is the primary reason I wanted to revisit these games. My original Nitro Kart episode, while it is very important being the first episode I technically made, when I started doing this full time in late 2014. It's also an incredibly rushed, poorly thought out video. At the time, I was trying to find my review style and decided to try doing a list of points, however they were all negative points. Some of them were pretty important, but a lot of them are much more like un-important nitpicks. So for the entire video, I'm ranting and raving about a game that I actually had a lot of fun with growing up and still enjoy every now and then, over 10 years later. So it was important for me to given a modern perspective on things.
Also in this episode, I took a quick look at Nitro Kart on Game Boy Advance. This was purely just prep work for Nitro Fueled, getting over the points about playable characters etc. But I also wanted to update a score that better reflected the game. Given I originally covered that game in January of 2016, it was still at a point in time when I was adjusting to scoring stuff, so there are plenty of examples of scores a little too high for my liking.

Crash Nitro Kart's logo is absolutely one of the best in the entire series. It's got a powerful intro behind it and a lot of animation. I knew it would be a trick to get right but, I was feeling experimental and keen to figure it out. Unlike my usual method for making text and other objects look 3D, I actually went into Photoshop's 3D workspace and did somethings in there. The SQUARE was done in here, along with the wheel. However, for some reason, animation in the 3D workspace just never works for me. So I had to do the animations separately. Not that it matters as the final product is something I'm really proud of!

Crash TAG Team Racing:
Now this episode was VERY difficult to work on. My original CTTR video is the second most viewed video on the channel to date, and is an absolute classic. HOW can I possibly go back to it and not have it seem less interesting? Well, keeping on with that initial idea of letting history rest in peace, I decided it would be best to tribute the original episode. Talk about how important it is for myself and the channel, as well as actually including some of the references people love so much as a fun callback. But on top of that, I also did my best to create NEW jokes. One of my absolute favorites is the line...

"The IDEA was definitely there… but the execution... I wish was on me!"

That's such a burying statement, basically saying that because the game was poorly executed, I wish I was dead. Really proud of that one ahaha xD
But like I said, it was my goal to tribute the past, rather than try to do it better. The analysis portion on the other hand, again, I made a stronger effort this time around to remaster my opinions and make them a lot easier to understand, just so that people don't think I'm a raving lunatic. This episode also included a look at the PSP version of the game, which is something I like to do whenever I can. Switching from the main focus to a different game for a new perspective on things always helps to keep the pace feeling fresh. And it's just a lot more interesting to watch, if everything is presented well. And again, I wanted to change the score for Tag Team Racing. 5/10 was just too high but a 3/10 seemed too low, so "mediocre" being the games biggest point. The 4/10 seemed fairly well justified.

Finally, the logo for Tag Team Racing is actually incredibly simple compared to the others. There really isn't a whole lot to say about it. The end result here was good though and it blended into the actual video starting very well. I was debating re-creating the Crash animated road sign image instead, but went with the simpler option, purely due to a lack of time.

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That's a WRAP!
All in all, this trilogy of videos turned out pretty well. I'm happy with all of them, even being simpler than my more modern style. That's by no means a bad thing though, in fact, I'd actually like to get back to some more simplistic series reviews in the future. Especially if it means more content for the channel, faster to produce. The original plan for these was to have all 3 up within a single week as a mini-special. However the Tag Team Racing episode hit several bumps in the road due to family matters that had to take priority. But it's up now and already, the channel has seen a serious boost in numbers again, which is always great to see.

So I look forward to seeing you here again for the Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled behind the scenes. But until then, thank you so much for reading and I hope you have a great fucking day. Cheers! :)