Crash and Coco Say G'Day to Skylanders

Netflix series Skylanders Academy welcomes Crash Bandicoot back for season 3. Not only does the new season reunite Crash with his Activision pal, Spyro the Dragon, it also introduces a new audience to Crash's sister and tech whiz, Coco.

Crash smashed into the skylands back in 2016 as both a playable sensei character and with the Thumpin' Wumpa Islands level pack. Back then, his nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex also joined him for super fun gameplay, but has since been missing from the Skylanders universe. Not to worry, if Crash continues returning to the TV series, then I'm sure it won't be long before Cortex rears his ugly head.

Following the last Skylanders game, Skylanders: Imaginators, Crash has appeared in the TV series in Season 1, Episode 11: Crash Landing. It's truthfully quite a fun episode, although Crash acts nothing like you'd expect him to. In fact, it's safe to say that the Skylanders Academy version of Crash is his own thing, full of energy and talking at every chance he gets. That's right, he's talks, complete with feux Australian accent provided by Eric Rogers.

Season 3 sees Crash return in Episode 9: Days of Future Crash. It's worth giving a watch, although don't expect it to be particularly intelligent writing. Expect time travel for the sake of time travel and for nothing to make any sense. Oh, and of course, Crash shouting that things are "extreme" all the time. It's not as fun as Crash Landing, but it's always great seeing Crash in anything, even if it's an alternate version of the guy we know and love. This time, he is voiced by Rhys Darby, who plays the role virtually the same as Eric did, just with an ever so slightly deeper intonation.

Crash also leaps back into action in Episode 13: Raiders of the Lost Arkus, Part 2. His role is mostly downplayed compared to the previous two episodes, but the main reason is to play up the introduction of his sister, Coco. Coco, like Crash, is not quite the game version of herself, spouting pseudo Australian lingo and firing techo-rangs like Ty the Tasmanian Tiger's distant relative. Whilst she does look very, um, creepy (it's the eyes and mouth, I tells ya), she is quite a bit of fun, so it's not all bad. Although, despite how great Tara Strong is as Coco, it's no replacement for representation of Debi Derryberry in every western voiced role since 2001's The Wrath of Cortex.

What I find a little baffling is her visual design. Her look has clearly been inspired by her 2008 appearance in Mind Over Mutant. Granted, I've always liked her design in that game (one of my favourites, actually), but I do wonder why the decision to go for that one and not her new, cuter N.Sane Trilogy look. Ah well, it's not too bad.

But her eyes and mouth will keep me up at night.

If you want, check out the three episodes on Netflix and get to grips with the Bandicoot family. They're worth their cringe factor just to see how the characters have been handled (Spyro included, actually). I may be late to the party on this one, but I wanted to watch them and give a bit of a verdict on them first.