Developer Toys for Bob has just shared some new details about Catbat, Crash Team Rumble’s new mutant, who is making history as the first non-binary character in the Crash Bandicoot franchise. Two years after Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time brought the wacky platforming marsupial and his colorful cast back into the gaming landscape to great effect, Toys for Bob announced Crash Team Rumble, an online multiplayer spin-off that looks to draw in a new generation of Crash fans.
A frantic and action-packed Crash Team Rumble trailer was shown off during December’s Game Awards 2022 and featured plenty of familiar faces. Classic Crash Bandicoot characters like Crash, his sister Coco, and their longtime nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex were all facing off against each other in a race to collect Wompa Fruit across a variety of colorful maps. Crash Team Rumble also adds a new character in the mix, like a mysterious bat/cat hybrid creature named Catbat that appeared to be on Cortex’s side in the trailer.
In a recent interview with Kotaku, Toys for Bob Creative Director Dan Neil and co-studio head Paul Yan confirmed that Catbat will be the Crash Bandicoot franchise’s first non-binary character. Former Crash Team Rumble character designer Nicholas Kole has previously stated that he had envisioned Catbat as non-binary since the very beginning, but wasn’t sure if this would remain after he left the project in 2021. However, Yan and Neil said that changing Catbat’s gender was never considered.
Yan noted that Toys for Bob was drawn to David Bowie’s famously androgynous look while creating Crash Team Rumble's new character Catbat, and by the time the character’s model sheet was revealed, referring to Catbat with they/them pronouns just felt right. “It wasn’t a ‘Hey, guys, we need to get together and have a meeting about this,’” Yan said during the interview. “It was a very organic way of describing that character and that just sat with us throughout.” To further highlight Catbat’s gender identity, Toys for Bob cast Erika Ishii, a genderfluid actor known for playing Valkyrie in Apex Legends, as their voice in Crash Team Rumble.
David Bowie’s influence also carried over into Catbat's characterization. Contrary to what the original Crash Team Rumble trailer implied, Catbat is an enemy of Cortex and actually has a very similar backstory to Crash Bandicoot himself. Like Crash, Catbat was created by Cortex as part of his mutant army, but they soon escaped from his castle on N. Sanity Island. From there, they developed a love of rock and roll music and found a greater purpose in freeing other mutants from the evil scientist. This backstory will largely be told in tie-in material, as Crash Team Rumble doesn’t have a traditional single-player story mode.
Video games have made significant strides when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation, and Crash Team Rumble’s Catbat is the latest example as the first non-binary character in the long-running franchise. Players will finally be able to take flight as this punk rock-loving rebel when Crash Team Rumble launches later this month.
Crash Team Rumble launches June 20 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
Source: Kotaku
