• Video

ShackStream: Crash Bandicoot 25th Anniversary Special

Join Bryan for another extra special 25th anniversary celebration featuring the original PlayStation mascot, Crash Bandicoot and his inaugural adventure.

Bryan Lefler

September 9, 2021 9:15 AM

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Good day, Shackers, and welcome to another 25th anniversary celebration livestream. We're continuing our special anniversary coverage for games that premiered in 1996, just like Shacknews! Today we'll be highlighting an unlikely marsupial mascot that shook up the world of platformers by spinning and jumping into our new PlayStation consoles. The first Crash Bandicoot game smashes onto Shacknews Twitch later at 9:30 a.m. PT/ 12:30 p.m. ET.

Crash Bandicoot 25th Anniversary Special

Two and a half decades of influence in the gaming industry is certainly a milestone to be celebrated. The medium itself is still fairly young when compared to other forms of creative works and 25 years comprises an enormous portion of video game history. One of the most enduring ideas to come from video games are corporate mascots with huge franchises that define and help sell generations of hardware. When the Sony PlayStation entered the console wars in 1995, they were sorely missing the equivalent of Nintendo's Mario or Sega's Sonic.

Enter Crash Bandicoot, a new mascot with a new attitude for a new era of gaming. The story of this new 3D platforming franchise has been detailed in our retrospective on the game for its 25th anniversary, but you probably already knew that Crash quickly became the face of Sony's new console. The quirky platformer was a sales sensation for console owners looking for a familiar gameplay style with a new twist and became a multiple game franchise on the PlayStation, becoming one of its defining series.

We'll be playing through the beginning of Crash Bandicoot as part of our 25th anniversary coverage, so if you're a fan of the franchise, you won't want to miss our livestream event! The embedded viewer above should be enough to get you into our Crash bash but joining us at Shacknews Twitch is the best way to enjoy all the festivities.

As always, we'd like to thank everyone for supporting Shacknews Twitch. Viewers like you are instrumental in helping us bring you the best in live Twitch programming every week. Please consider a monthly subscription to our channel in order to take that support to the next level. With a monthly sub to Shacknews Twitch, you'll never see an ad when you pop in, you'll gain access to the greatest emotes on any Twitch channel, and you'll earn extra Shack Points for interactive channel rewards! To do it for Shacknews, our guide on Prime Gaming has all the details on how to get started.

Bryan Lefler

Contributing Editor

From the test launch of the NES in New York to 4K gaming in his living room, Bryan Lefler has been immersed in video games his entire life. Battle tested in the arena shooters of the turn of the century yet kind to all animals that may cross him, Bryan enjoys a breadth of games but strives to be the best in any contest of digital skill. He is a former esports competitor and has been part of the Shacknews community for over 15 years. You can also catch him on skankcore64 streams on the Shacknews Twitch channel where he plays through the N64 library and follow him on Twitter @skankcore.