Sierra Announces Return Of Crash, Spyro

Publisher Sierra has announced the return of two long-standing franchises with the Radical-developed Crash Bandicoot: Mind Over Mutant, and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 premiere of Spyro with Legend of Spyro: Dawn of the Dragon, developed by France based Etranges Libellules. Mind Over Mutant is expected to ship this fall on PlayStation 2, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS and PSP, and will feature a "free-romping" interconnected world, playable cooperative characters, and new combat, digging, and climbing abilities. Sierra's first next-gen outing -- and final trilogy chapter -- for Spyro will feature a number of celebrity voices, including Elijah Wood, Gary Oldman, Christina Ricci, Blair Underwood, Wayne Brady and Mark Hamill, and is also expected to be released this fall on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, PlayStation 2 and Nintendo DS. The title will introduce two new elements into the franchise -- the ability for Spyro to fly at any time, and a new drop-in/drop-out cooperative feature that lets players complete the game as either Spyro or Cynder. The game is in development by Etranges Libellules, the studio best known for its Asterix franchise titles, most recently Asterix at the Olympics, and for working with Luc Besson on the video game for his Arthur and the Invisibles movie.