Beenox
Background
Beenox is a game development studio founded in 2000 in Quebec, Canada. In 2005, Beenox became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Activision. However, in 2012, founder Dominique Brown left the company, putting the studio in a state of peril and reducing it to more or less a support team of Activision. Despite this, Beenox still releases games occasionally.
1st Logo (August 27, 2001-October 2, 2007)
Visuals: On a dark blue background made up of several revolving lines, many blue spheres come raining down the screen, starting out small and rapidly increasing in mass. One of these spheres drops down dead center to the screen and generates plasma inside it, all before dropping to a stable charge. Several metal parts then fly in and cling to the sphere as it spins around, concealing most of it in a blue gear shape. As it finishes up, it zooms out a bit and parts of the word "BeeNOX", set in the Eager/Earth font, come in under it and form as the background fades to black.
Variants:
- A short version exists, and is the most common variant of the normal logo.
- On some ports, a streak flies in below the text, forming "SHIFT DIVISION" on the bottom.
- A still version exists, with gradients on the logo instead and a simplified gear design, as well as a white outline surrounding it.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Several whooshes for the spheres falling, the sounds of electric crackling and metal clanging together, all before ending on a loud synth note that's held out until the logo fades out.
Availability: Outside of their first game, they were a publisher of PC ported games, so it can be seen on several titles ported by them, like the PC ports of The Incredibles, Madagascar, and Cars. However, others may replace it with the Aspyr Media logo.
2nd Logo (October 30, 2007-March 24, 2009)
Visuals: On a sky blue background, there is a man (officially named the Beenox Robot) sporting white robotic armor with blue traces, a large blue visor obscuring his eyes, and the gear attached to his chest. He then does various tricks that backfire, which vary depending on the game. At the end, the gear appears once more and the text flips in below.
Trivia: The Beenox Robot was added as an unlockable skin for Geary in Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled on March 26, 2020, along with the gear as a bonus unlockable kart.
Variants: Depending on the game:
- Bee Movie Game: The Beenox Robot rushes into the screen and raises his hand. He pushes the gear on his chest, causing a jet engine to come out of his back. He flies into the sky, but he then loses control, crashes into the screen and falls down. The gear remains on the screen and becomes the Beenox logo.
- Kung Fu Panda: There is some close-ups of the Beenox Robot (wearing a hachimaki), who then appears jumping and performing some kung-fu, including spinning a bo staff. After this, he makes a Chinese bow. Then, he creates a big blue ball of energy and gets blasted away by it. The logo appears on the screen.
- Quantum of Solace: The Beenox Robot walks in and poses like a spy over a beeping red device lying down the floor. He stumbles upon the device and then takes the gear from his chest and throws it to the device. Nothing happens, and the man presses the gear with his foot, leading to the device exploding, the Beenox Robot flying from the explosion, and the Beenox logo appearing.
- Monsters vs. Aliens: There is a blueprint city made of gray blocks. A gigantic Beenox Robot comes and pushes the gear on his chest. The gear starts emitting light, and the man tries to roar at us, but the gear breaks off and takes a flight. Finally, the gear abducts the Beenox Robot and flies to the screen, forming the complete logo.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: Depends on the game.
Availability: Appears on the games above for PC, as well as the PlayStation 2, Xbox 360 and Wii versions of Bee Movie Game and Monsters vs. Aliens.
3rd Logo (Guitar Hero: Smash Hits variant) (June 16, 2009)
Visuals: Five colored buttons (green, red, gold, blue and orange) come down the screen to form the fretboard interface, and many other colored pegs (notes) fall in five rows and eventually explode into cartoony flames. Then all buttons become cyan, as if the player activates the Star Power, and after that, they are replaced by five electric lines (sustained notes) ending on the five circles. The lines merge into one and we see it pulsing with energy, as if the player is using the Whammy Bar. The Beenox disc comes and burns on the line, then places itself on the screen.
Trivia: The logo's music appears as a hidden playable song in the game, which can only be played through the debug menu using a hacked Xbox 360.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A crowd cheering, a guitar solo becoming more dramatic for the rest of the logo, ending with a power chord, accompanied by other sound effects, like electricity zapping. According to the song version from the debug menu, composed by François Jalbert.
Availability: Seen on Guitar Hero: Smash Hits.
4th Logo (Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen variant) (June 23, 2009)
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Visuals: The metallic logo zooms in, collecting itself as a transformer. After transforming, the blue circle flashes, making the logo showing its regular colors.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: The sound of metallic clatter and then a blast.
Availability: Seen on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for PC.
5th Logo (Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions variant) (September 7, 2010)
Visuals: A ghostly blue Beenox logo is seen over dark floating mist. The word "BeeNOX" is in a different font, and the cog wheel has also changed, containing the full circle inside. As the mist flows, Spider-Man's face can be briefly seen inside the circle.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A mysterious-sounding synth note.
Availability: Seen on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
6th Logo (October 4, 2011-October 2023)
Visuals: The screen zooms through a bunch of working mechanics and cog wheels, until one of them appears inside the screen, and the name appears below with a kind of blue light around.
Technique: CGI.
Variants:
- On Skylanders: SuperChargers Racing, the still logo in white appears on a blue sky background with clouds.
- On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, the logo appears on a green radio wave and is shown alongside the Certain Affinity and High Moon Studios logos.
- On Call of Duty: Black Ops 4, the logo appears over some archive footage (gameplay in later updates) with "in association with" above it and the Raven Software logo next to it.
- On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019), the logo (this time the gear is situated to the left of the text) reveals itself on a blue radio wave alongside the High Moon, Raven and Sledgehammer Games logos.
- On Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2: Campaign Remastered, the logo zooms towards the camera and flashes as it stops against a smoky brown background. After a few seconds, the logo disintegrates.
- On Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2, the screen zooms out of a warehouse to reveal the logo in white.
- On Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, the still white logo fades in, followed by the Activision Shanghai Studio logo next to it.
- On Call of Duty: Black Ops: Cold War, the logo (alongside the High Moon logo) appears on a glass window with a red computer monitor behind it.
Audio: Sounds of working machinery with a whoosh, with a synthesized sound when the logo forms.
Availability: Seen on Spider-Man: Edge of Time, The Amazing Spider-Man, the Wii version of Skylanders: Swap Force and The Amazing Spider-Man 2, among others. A still version can be seen on other games, such as Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time.
7th Logo (Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled variant) (June 21, 2019)
Visuals: In space, there is a brown crate with a green light inside rotating while several green binary 1s and 0s suck into it. As the screen zooms into the crate, it closes and stops rotating as we see it has the gear from before in light blue on it, and "BeeNOX" in the same font as the last two logos underneath it, also in light blue. After a few seconds, something inside the crate beats it, and the screen zooms out slowly while the crate keeps getting beat. Finally, the crate opens, and Crash Bandicoot, Coco, Dr. Neo Cortex, Tiny Tiger, Polar, and Nitros Oxide all drop down out of the crate and race past the camera in their race karts, followed by Aku Aku, who flies towards the camera.
Technique: CGI.
Audio: A remixed and abridged version of the main theme of Crash Team Racing, with a male announcer saying "Fasten your seat belts for a Beenox recreation!", as well as the sounds of the numbers sucking in, the crate getting beat, and Crash (voiced by Jess Harnell) exclaiming his trademark "Woah!" and Coco (voiced by Debi Derryberry) shouting "Wheee!".
Availability: Seen on Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled.
8th Logo (October 12, 2023-)
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Visuals: Over a black background, the logo starts with many colorful pixels forming the letters "BX" with brackets around them. The brackets slide away from each other to form the words "BEENOX" a second later.
Technique: 2D CGI.
Audio: A sound of pixels forming the logo followed by the whoosh.
Availability: First seen on the website itself.
