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Does the Remastered ‘Crash Bandicoot’ Tease a Remastered ‘Spyro The Dragon’?

A couple days ago, we got a Remastered version of one of out favorite old school PS1 games: Crash Bandicoot. In fact, it’s not just a single game remastered, but three: Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Hmm, what other PS1 games had a trilogy? In fact, were there any associated with Crash Bandicoot? Well if you were indeed part of the first generation of Sony PlayStation – or read the article title -, then you already know where I’m going with this! If not, here’s a little backstory:

Crash Bandicoot was originally developed by Naughty Dog and they had a sort of ‘bromance’ with another developer, Insomniac games. How much of a ‘bromance’? Well Insomniac’s original claim to fame – before Ratchet & Clank – was a series called Spyro The Dragon; and both Naughty Dog and Insomniac games put secret ‘Free Demos’ of the other’s game in their own game. For example, Crash Bandicoot: Warped contained a Demo for Spyro The Dragon; and Spyro The Dragon contained a Demo for Crash Bandicoot: Warped. The same was true of Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage and Crash Team Racing as well as Spyro: Year Of The Dragon and Crash Bash. The later two Crash games might not have been on this Remaster, but what about Crash Bandicoot: WarpedAre there any hints at its prior connection to Spyro The Dragon?

Well originally, the demos were unlocked by entering a secret code found in the User Manual that came with the game. The code was Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square. And as you can imagine, something special happens when entering this code on Crash Bandicoot: Warped – the highlighted cursor disappears as if the game is about to load a different screen!

This is an incredibly obscure reference and was discovered by Youtuber ThornsOfSerenity. It’s also important to note that this doesn’t happen on any of the other titles. So what is it? A gap in coding when they were bringing this game over? An Easter Egg of the past? OR a place holder for that will activate a demo of a remastered Spyro The Dragon upon a later update?

We might be getting our hopes up here; but considering the success and popularity of this remaster, it’s only a matter of time before Spyro gets a remastered edition. Sure he’s “supposedly” part of the Skylanders universe now, but I think we can all agree that IS NOT Spyro. Will the Spyro the Dragon timeline be corrected? Will our nostalgia for flaming sheep grow! Will we ever make it to Dragon Shores? *waits anxiously*