Crash Bandicoot is inarguably Sony's platforming mascot from the original PlayStation era, rivaling Sega's Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Mario. This made him one of the icons of the '90s, even if he was a bit late to the party. However, he's now receiving a crossover with one of the previous decade's most annoying marketing mascots: The Noid.
Fiendishly plotting to ruin someone's hard-earned and delicious Domino's pizza, the Noid was a rabbit-eared trickster who, sadly, inspired a real-life criminal event. Though this supposedly caused the company to retire the character, the Noid has returned this year, gracing commercials and a Crash Bandicoot game of all things. Here's the somewhat tragic history of the Noid and how his return to Domino's marketing brings him into Crash Bandicoot: On the Run.
Avoid the Noid
The Noid was part of the wave of '80s and '90s marketing machines creating colorful, if sometimes insipid, mascots to promote their products. He resembled a bizarre man in a loose-fitting rabbit costume with the letter N on his chest, with his bulbous nose, loopy eyes and buckteeth fitting his mischievous nature. Always scheming to keep Domino's pizzas from being delivered on time, this maniacal villain was a cartoony representation of the various pitfalls which would potentially keep a pizza from being delivered in 30 minutes or less.
Despite his unorthodox nature and little (if any) real connection to the brand outside of his desire to destroy pizzas, the Noid proved to be fairly popular as far as mascots go. This resulted into two video games featuring the character, with the first of these being a computer game titled Avoid the Noid. It involved the player trying to safely deliver pizzas to an apartment that was abuzz with the Noid and his cohorts, all of who were armed to the teeth with weapons to keep them from completing their task. Then, Capcom localized Kamen no Ninja Hanamaru, changing the graphics and characters to turn it into Yo! Noid. In this platformer, players actually control the Noid, who, in a rare fit of heroism, has to defeat his even more evil rival for a tasty pizza reward.
Unfortunately, it wasn't all fun and games for the floppy-eared mascot. In 1989, there was an incident involving a mentally unstable man named Kenneth Lamar Noid, who saw the zany creature as an affront to himself. Noid held a Domino's location at gunpoint, requesting $100,000 in ransom and a getaway car. After forcing them to make him a pizza, the employees were, thankfully, able to escape unharmed while he ate with his gun in his lap. Noid was eventually taken into custody. Shortly after the incident, Domino's retired the Noid, though it denied that this was the reason for doing so.
Return of the Noid
The Noid fell into obscurity, simply becoming part of a growing trend of one-note marketing mascots. However, starting in 2009, Domino's began using him intermittently for brief bouts of nostalgia, releasing T-shirts and smaller games. It would take until this year for the character to truly make his full-fledged triumphant return.
The anti-villain has recently shown up again in commercials where tries to stop Domino's automated cars from delivering pizzas. The Noid has also been included in social media posts for coupon deals. As for video games, the Noid has been added to Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, an endless-runner mobile game that featured Crash and Coco facing off once again against the machinations of Neo Cortex. In it, the Noid is a mini-boss that Crash has to take on, and this update also adds several pizza-related costumes. This is hopefully the beginning of a new era for the Noid, who's now harder to avoid than ever.