crash bandicoot 5 – Video Game News, Reviews, Walkthroughs And Guides | GamingBolt https://gamingbolt.com Get a Bolt of Gaming Now! Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:43:21 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 Crash Bandicoot 5 Concept Art Leaked Showcasing New Characters, Levels – Rumour https://gamingbolt.com/crash-bandicoot-5-concept-art-leaked-showcasing-new-characters-levels-rumour Thu, 17 Jul 2025 15:10:23 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=624219 While things have been quiet when it comes to the Crash Bandicoot franchise since the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, rumours have been around of a Crash Bandicoot 5 that was reportedly cancelled. Now, some concept art has popped up that was seemingly for the development of Crash Bandicoot 5. As caught by Hector Lizard, the concept art has been credited as belonging to Microsoft, developer Toys for Bob, and artist Nicholas Kole, and was dug up thanks to an investigation by Liam Robertson.

Rumoured to have been titled Crash Bandicoot 5: The Academy of Evil, the concept art shows us plenty of things about the cancelled game, including new locations, levels, and characters. The entire game would have seemingly taken place in the titular Academy of Evil, with one piece of concept art being that of the hub level, which in turn could lead into other levels throughout the game. Judging by the concept art behind some of the new characters and their names, it looks like the title would have explored the past and family life of long-time Crash Bandicoot antagonist Dr. Neo Cortex.

Among the characters that were seemingly going to be present in the game are Mama Cortex, sister Cerebella Cortex, elder brother Hugh G Cortex, and nephew ID. Another new character with concept art is Madame Amberly. However, how she is related to the Cortex family isn’t quite clear from the art itself.

When it comes to some of the locations, we get to see art of Tiny Tiger’s mindscape castle, his lair, his mindscape tower, his treasure room, and the location where the Tiny Tiger boss fight would have taken place. Where Tiny Tiger’s levels would have seemingly taken on the aesthetics of a castle, Pinstripe, on the other hand, seemingly took cues from noir and mob films for his levels. The final piece of concept art indicates that Crash Bandicoot 5 would have involved a young Neo Cortex becoming friends in some way, as it has Crash and Neo trying to escape from a circus mindscape.

It is worth noting that, since this is presumed to be concept art for a game that was ultimately cancelled, all of this is worth taking with a grain of salt.

Rumours of Crash Bandicoot 5 being in development, and ultimately cancelled, came about last year. According to a report from July 2024, the game would have featured art work by illustrator and character artist Nicholas Kole, who took to social media to announce that their project was cancelled. The game was internally codenamed Project Dragon. However, when asked on social media about whether this was a new Spyro game, Kole responded by saying that it wasn’t.

There were also rumours that indicated that the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro universes may have collided in the cancelled game. According to a report from August 2024, there were internal concepts and pitches for Crash Bandicoot 5 to also feature Spyro the Dragon, who would be a second playable character.

For more details about the last Crash Bandicoot game–Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time–check out our review.

]]> 624219 Cancelled Crash Bandicoot 5 Could Have Featured a Playable Spyro – Rumour https://gamingbolt.com/cancelled-crash-bandicoot-5-could-have-featured-a-playable-spyro-rumour Mon, 26 Aug 2024 05:40:32 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=597165 It was claimed in reports earlier this year that Activision had, at one point, quietly cancelled Crash Bandicoot 5, which had been in the works at Toys for Bob, and more details have now seemingly emerged on the shelved platformer. 

In a recently published video, YouTube channel DidYouKnowGaming has claimed that following the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, a small team within developer Toys for Bob started working on ideas for the series’ next mainline single-player instalment.

Allegedly, work was only done on the game for a handful of months, before Activision decided to shelve the project and instead refocusing the studio’s efforts on live service titles. It’s claimed that less-than-stellar sales for Crash 4 were also responsible for this decision. Official sales for the game have never been announced, though reports claimed earlier this year that it had sold over 5 million units.

The video further claims that one of the concepts that was proposed for Crash Bandicoot 5 would have seen Spyro the Dragon serving as the second main playable character in the game. Toys for Bob previously developed 2018’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy, and this alleged pitch would have seen the character’s world colliding with Crash’s, with the two teaming up to fight against an interdimensional threat.

Other ideas in those early stages of pre-production also included a school setting for young villains, the return of antagonists from past instalments, and more. Concept art for the cancelled project is also shown in the video. You can view it in full below. 

Toys for Bob separated from Activision and new parent company Microsoft this year, but though the studio has gone independent, it was confirmed in May that Xbox would still serve as the publisher for its next game. Reports have claimed that the game in question is Spyro 4, which has allegedly only entered active development in January.

]]> 597165 Crash Bandicoot 5 Was Quietly Cancelled – Rumour https://gamingbolt.com/crash-bandicoot-5-was-quietly-cancelled-rumour Mon, 15 Jul 2024 03:22:08 +0000 https://gamingbolt.com/?p=593335 It’s been four years since the launch of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time, leading many series fans to wonder how much longer the wait for the next instalment is going to stretch on. It turns out, however, that the next Crash game may have been quietly cancelled behind the scenes, as per someone who may have worked on it in some form.

Nicholas Kole – an illustrator and character artist who worked with Toys for Bob on both Spyro Reignited Trilogy and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time – recently took to Twitter to speak about Project Dragon, an unannounced title that had been in development at an unknown studio that Kole had been working on for three years, until its recent cancellation.

While discussing the same, in response to a fan wondering whether Project Dragon was a new Spyro title, Kole reassured that that wasn’t the case, but went on to mention “the Crash 5 that never was”, adding that it’s “gonna break hearts” if and when people were to find out about it.

Presumably, Crash Bandicoot 5 was in development at Toys for Bob, prior to being quietly cancelled. Kole clarified in subsequent tweets that Crash 5 and the Project Dragon he mentioned previously were two different projects at different studios.

2024 has been an eventful year for Toys for Bob. Under new parent company Microsoft, the studio was hit with significant layoffs in February, but soon afterward, it was announced that Toys for Bob had acquired itself from Activision and Microsoft and was set to go independent.

In spite of going independent, Toys for Bob’s next game is still going to be published by Microsoft, as officially announced in May. Reports have claimed that the title in question is Spyro 4, which has been in the works since January this year.

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