Crash Clash Racing
Crash Clash Racing was a game that was going to be developed by Traveller's Tales Oxford Studios. In fact, a different take on this game has ended up releasing as Crash Tag Team Racing, from a completely different studio, Radical Entertainment, in 2005 for PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube, an arcade racing game more or less similar to Crash Clash Racing's core ideas.
Development
After wrapping up production on Crash Twinsanity (2004), Traveller's Tales Oxford Studios began work on their next title. The premise of their new game was an arcade kart racer game, featuring Crash Bandicoot and his friends, which would have involved personalized cars for each character, enabling the cars to "clash" and form an amalgam of a weird racer-shooter hybrid.
Sounds familiar? Well, that is because this project did actually saw the light of day, but by a completely different developer team and under a different name. Radical Entertainment was re-assigned to develop this game, which they did under the title, Crash Tag Team Racing, and eventually released in late 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube consoles.
However, it seems like the minds at Traveller's Tales Oxford was the ones who came up with the idea of "clashing", in which two cars can merge into one, with one player driving the car and the other player taking out the racers with a weapon. That being said, according to Keith Webb, their project did not go far in development, as it was only closed and Radical most likely started over with their design after the shift between studios occured.
Sounds familiar? Well, that is because this project did actually saw the light of day, but by a completely different developer team and under a different name. Radical Entertainment was re-assigned to develop this game, which they did under the title, Crash Tag Team Racing, and eventually released in late 2005 for the PlayStation 2, Xbox and GameCube consoles.
However, it seems like the minds at Traveller's Tales Oxford was the ones who came up with the idea of "clashing", in which two cars can merge into one, with one player driving the car and the other player taking out the racers with a weapon. That being said, according to Keith Webb, their project did not go far in development, as it was only closed and Radical most likely started over with their design after the shift between studios occured.
Story
Crash Twinsanity developer, Paul Gardner briefly hinted at the storyline the game was supposed to follow in an interview he gave to Crash Mania.
"[...] the racing game would be set in Crash's head, with the rest of the Crash team traveling inside Crash's brain, with the tracks all based around Crash's dreams and memories."
– Paul Gardner to Crash Mania
It is indeed a faschinating statement, because the game would likely have been connected to what happens at the end of Crash Twinsanity, when Dr. Cortex is transported to Crash's brain. However, according to another develoeper, Keith Webb, no firm plans were decided; no storyline was lined up, as the team tought they would tackle the gameplay first and then see how it fitted into the Crash universe.
It would likely have been connected to the Twinsanity-style storyline, but no firm plans were decided.
– Keith Webb to Crash Fan Page
Only one concept art has ever surfaced for the game, featuring a very obscure character, who made his first and only appearance in Crash Twinsanity (except for a skin in Crash Tag Team Racing and a brief cameo in one of the DLC tracks for Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled), though Webb also vaguely remembers doing a sketch of N. Trance, which has been, unfortunately, lost with time.
It shows how their character Evil Crash from Crash Twinsanity would have made his return to the series as one of the racers, and it also proves that each and every character was already intended to have their unique vehicle at the time (as evidenced by Evil Crash's evil ride).
As you can probably guess from the title of the game, the clash feature had already been planned by this team, which served as the basis for the title and got carried over to Radical's Crash Tag Team Racing.
However, Keith Webb also stated that Radical did not take their ideas, as they most likely started anew with their vision of the game.
As you can probably guess from the title of the game, the clash feature had already been planned by this team, which served as the basis for the title and got carried over to Radical's Crash Tag Team Racing.
However, Keith Webb also stated that Radical did not take their ideas, as they most likely started anew with their vision of the game.
"It was literally just in the concept stage, so some design document proposals, with the aforementioned artwork and the like. Radical likely started a fresh with their version rather than strictly basing it on ours."
– Keith Webb to Crash Fanzone
Characters
According to Keith Webb, besides the obvious choices, such as Crash, Coco, Cortex and Evil Crash, Nina was also planned to be playable, and N. Trance and the other evil doctors would have likely been opponents to the main players.
"Nina was also planned to be playable, and N.Trance would have likely been an adversary to the main players, as well as the other Doctors."
– Keith Webb to Crash Fanzone
Final Words
Despite the fact that I quite enjoyed Crash Tag Team Racing at the time, I can't help but feel like Crash Clash Racing could have been a better game altogether, as Crash Twinsantiy has reamained a truly memorable game from the TT Oxford team, and an all-time favorite amongst the fanbase. Maybe we could have had both games? Needless to say, It would have been odd to see both of them released at the same time.
In the end, Crash Tag Team Racing proved to be a mediocre kart racer, but on the bright side, it has managed to introduce beloved new characters to the series, such as Pasadena O'Possum and Ebenezer Von Clutch, and the less popular, but still widely recognized Willie Wumpa Cheeks, so all in all, I guess we should be happy with what we got.
In the end, Crash Tag Team Racing proved to be a mediocre kart racer, but on the bright side, it has managed to introduce beloved new characters to the series, such as Pasadena O'Possum and Ebenezer Von Clutch, and the less popular, but still widely recognized Willie Wumpa Cheeks, so all in all, I guess we should be happy with what we got.
Many thanks to Keith Webb for taking his time to answer my question, which you can read here.
Trivia
- There were listings for the game available online as early as February 13, 2005, for example on EB Games (link to archived page).
- You can learn a bit more about this game from an interview with Keith Webb here.
Sources
- "Q&A with former developer, Keith Webb" Crash Fanzone, 2017
- "Crash Clash Racing" on Crash Mania
- "Crash Clash Racing" on Bandipedia