Screenshot from the found build.
Following the release of Mind Over Mutant, Radical Entertainment started working on their next game. 2009 went by without a mention of Crash's next big adventure, but the studio was secretly concocting a reboot known as Crash Landed, which was slated for a 2010 release. This title was cancelled before it had a chance to be officially revealed.
Unlike Crash of the Titans and Mind Over Mutant, development began on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, and the game was going to be ported to the Wii afterwards. This conversion process was allegedly being handled with unique attention to ensure that the Wii version suffered the least downgrades possible, but how much work was actually put into it before the game's cancellation is unknown, since the main versions themselves were fairly incomplete
A DS version was also being planned, and pitches were being accepted from studios that wished to develop it. One of these studios was Renegade Kid, which produced a playable demo with full 3D gameplay. WayForward was another contender, and fittingly enough, their pitch became the basis for Galactic Taz Ball after the game was cancelled. (The Renegade Kid demo has yet to be found).
The game was cancelled after 2 years in development. During the production of Mind Over Mutant, Activision acquired Sierra and all of its subsidiaries, which included Radical Entertainment. During a massive layoff spree in 2010, Activision shut down the Radical division in charge of Crash Landed. Activision's decision to not pass the project to a different studio suddenly halted its progress forever.
Crash Landed was an origin story, and it was going to be a fresh new start that retold how Crash came to be the bumbling hero we all know and love. After being mutated by Cortex, he would have gotten entangled with the task of rescuing his fellow bandicoots. Unlike Crash, these bandicoots weren't evolved by scientific contraptions, so they were still small, defenseless critters. They were internally referred to as "bandicutes", and they would often be trapped in dangerous areas until Crash freed them.
One of the main innovations in the game was an invention system. By finding items and combining them together, you would be able to craft some rudimentary yet imaginative and effective tools. For example, sticking a frog inside a plastic bottle (dubbed the Frogzooka) would let you use its tongue to eat enemies and reel in objects out of reach, or launch Crash with the use of catapults. If you had a couple of extra bottles, you could fill them with fireflies and tie them together with a rope and some sticks to create a Jetpack. Also planned were a hang glider and the ability to ride a wild warthog, just like in the very first game.
Like in the more recent games in the series, Crash was going to have an upgradable health bar. Judging by some screenshots, this was coupled with the humorous detail of Crash losing his pants after taking too much damage (ala Ghosts 'n Goblins). Along with some of Crash's iconic moves, he would have retained the ability to climb up certain walls from Mind Over Mutant.
SourceSource 2
Last edited by Xdqwerty,
