13 Infamous Mis-Steps That Ruined Iconic Gaming Characters

13. Leaving Naughty Dog - Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot was for a long time the mascot for the Playstation, and he was up there with Sonic and Mario. The developers who created him are also the guys who make the excellent Uncharted series so it's annoying to know that his downfall is simply because of who owns his copyright. If Crash was still with Naughty Dog who created him, he'd surely still be giving the plumber a run for his money. Unfortunately Crash was created by Naughty Dog, but they didn't fund the game and although Sony paid for him to be an exclusive for his first five games, they couldn't keep him forever. The crash for Crash came as soon as he left Naughty Dog Productions loving arms, although his demise was a slow and drawn out process. Each of his first three platforming games on the PS One was a good game, and they got better with every sequel, and both Crash Team Racing and Crash Bash even gave Mario Kart and Mario Party a run for their money. But then his return to the platforming world saw him head over to the GameCube and Xbox as well as the PS2, but the game wasn't as good as any of his PS One games and the load times are legendarily long. Things stayed okay for a while with both Crash Nitro Kart and Crash Tag Team Racing being acceptable kart racers, though neither was as good as the original Crash Team Racing. On the platforming front his games were likewise reasonable efforts but the series just lost its momentum with Crash Of The Titans and 2008's Crash Mind Over Mutant, which felt oddly soulless. As a mark of his fall, Crash didn't even make an appearance in the Playstation All Stars Battle Royale franchise mash up despite being the face of Playstation for so many years.