YouTuber Modern Vintage Gamer has uncovered an unreleasedCrashvs.SpyroRacing game for the original Xbox. Developed by Argonaut in 2003/2004, this crossover never saw the light of day as the studio, unfortunately, closed down. However, 20 years later, we now have a glimpse at gameplay, an intro cinematic featuring the two platforming mascots, and the title screen.

When digging through a hard drive from a development kit featuring two Eutechnyx games, MVG found a mysterious third title called “LT Demo”. This would end up being Crash vs. Spyro Racing, which you can play right now on an emulator as MVG has shared all of the files. It’s barebones and clearly unfinished, given that it’s a cancelled game, and you don’t even play as Crash or Spyro in the build, just two generic racers.

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There are crates scattered along the track which are clearly from Crash Bandicoot, even making the same sound effect when smashed. Digging into the directory, MVG also found a folder called “video” which had a movie file. This would be the intro cinematic, which you’re able to watch by skipping ahead to 3:49. We see several Crash Bandicoot and Spyro the Dragon characters revving at the starting line, ready to begin racing. Once they’re driving and competing for the number one spot, the emphasis shifts tothe rivalry between the titular two.

Before this crossover, Naughty Dog launched its ownMario Kart-like game in 1999,Crash Team Racing. Spyro didn’t get a racing game, but when CTR was remade in 2019,the Spyro and Friends DLC was released, bringing to life this unknown cancelled crossover after 20 years. Looking back at that expansion now, it suddenly holds much more historical weight, realising an obscure, mostly unknown vision that had only been unearthed on forums with dubious evidence most shrugged off, MVG included.

In 2021, on an Italian website, a user called Dink claimed that there was an Argonaut project called Crash vs. Spyro Racing, using evidence taken from an Xbox Debug Kit. However, a lot of the crucial data had been lost due to reuse. Luckily, he shared one of the few remaining assets, the title screen, which has helped MVG to prove the claims to be true.

As for why it’s called LT Demo, on the title screen, we see that it’s developed by LT Studios. MVG corroborated this when they found a start-up video featuring LT’s logo. But where does Argonaut fit in? As MVG discovered, LT Studios was formed in 1999 and became operational in 2000. It would eventually become a subsidiary of Argonaut Games in August 2002. Now, these two-year-old claims hold weight, as the dev kit MVG found backs up who developed this cancelled racer.

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