Quick Thoughts: Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy (PS4)

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where we always make time for obscure mammals that are primarily extant to Oceania. Today, I'll be heading downunda to discuss everyone’s' favorite Playstation Mascot, Crash Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot was easily one of the best games conceived for the Sony Playstation way back in 1996, and its duo of sequels for the PS1 are not too far behind it. The trilogy took 3D platforming to new heights and helped put the PS1 on the map as the premier console of the late 90s. Over twenty years later the Crash franchise has somewhat fizzled out, but it managed to make a big comeback earlier this year with the release of the PS4-exclusive N. Sane Trilogy, which combines the first three Crash games into one massive package. Having recently acquired a PS4 and being a huge fan of the original Crash games myself, this game was a must-have for me. Now that I've played through all three of the remastered games, I have a few lingering thoughts to get out.

First things first, all three of these games are just timeless. I was entertained just as much as the first time I played through any of them on the original Playstation. 

I was a bit intrigued when I heard how people were playing it and becoming unbelievably frustrated with how difficult it was. I never really thought the original games were all that hard, so I was interested to see if there really was a massive spike in difficulty. The result is...well, mixed. It's hard to explain, but I feel like it actually became easier in some aspects and more difficult than the originals in others. 

As an example of something made easier, in the original Crash, players had to break all the boxes in a level AND complete the level without dying in order to acquire gems. In the remake, this is only required of the levels with five colored gems and does not apply to the other 20 clear gem levels. However, I do feel that the controls for the original game did not translate all that well in the remake. 2 and 3 were fine, but for some reason I had a lot of difficulty on certain levels (namely, "The Road to Nowhere" and "The High Road") with the PS4 controller, which definitely did get frustrating after a while. However, this only happened on a few select levels and for the most part I did well enough with the controls.

In the way of new content, there's not a whole lot going on there. There's a few minor things- for example, you now how the option to play as Crashs' sister Coco in all three games on almost any level; however, she controls exactly the same as Crash and doesn't have any extra abilities or anything. Also, the time trials that were first introduced in Crash 3 were added to both 1 and 2, so players can now speed run any level in order to acquire relics (which don't really do anything for you besides fulfilling your sense of completionism).

The time trials work well enough for Crash 2, but in 1 I found that they are quite difficult to finish. I think it's because Crash 1 was not really built for speedrunning; its' levels were made in the early days of 3D platforming, which tasked players with progressing through levels slowly and deliberately. The levels are really hard to get through quickly AND without dying, especially the longer ones like "Native Fortress" and "Sunset Vista." Crash 2 was also a bit difficult in this regard, but a lot more forgiving and easier to cope with than Crash 1. Also, for some reason the developers added the "running" powerup to Crash 2 (which was originally granted in Crash 3 upon beating the game and allows Crash to run faster, making time trials way easier), but not to Crash 1.

 Due to the nature of early 3D platforming games, Crash 1 is not a very easy game to speed run.

The graphics and music are both updated pretty well. Even though both were (and still are!) wonderful examples of what the PS1 could do in the originals, the developers managed to keep that spirit intact for the remakes. 

In all, N. Sane Trilogy is both a nostalgic treat for fans of the originals, as well as an introduction to the franchise for a new generation of gamers. It might not necessarily justify the purchase of a PS4 on its' own, but is definitely worth the price tag if you already have one and are looking for some classic quality platforming action. Thanks for reading.

Quick Thoughts- Devil's Crush (TurboGrafx-16)

Hello dear readers and welcome back to the game room, where I like my pinball games coated in a delicious mixture of skeletons, satantic imagery, and thrash-metal chiptunes. That sounds a bit specific, doesn't it?

Well, I am talking about a quite a specific and distinct game here, that being Devil's Crush for the NEC TurboGrafx-16.

From what I've gathered about life and the universe in my 29 years on the planet, pinball games and video games exist in two fundamentally different realms. They intersect at a number of points, but the bottom line is that pinball machines always involve some sort of physical manipulation as a measurement of skill, while video games can only simulate such manipulations at best. In current times that line is becoming a bit more blurred, what with things like VR, the Wii-motes, the Xbox Kinect, the Playstation Move and so on, which do involve some fundamentally physical movement in order to interact with a simulation. However, I'm talking about the early 90s here, where pinball and video games were just two different things, full stop. What does this have to do with Devil's Crush? Not much, I'm just kinda thinking out loud (or, in text).

But where I was going to segue there is that the two have been combined in the interesting specimen of pinball video games, which have existed as far back as the age of Atari in the 80's. That's been a concept that's always interested and perplexed me at the same time. How does one go about meshing the mechanical manipulation of a silver ball with a simulated experience? Why not just go play an actual pinball machine, if one desires an authentic experience? What's the point of getting a high score if you and your friends and siblings are the only ones who will ever see it?

For that reason I've never really gotten into pinball-themed video games (minus that one that came with Windows XP that every millenial knows well), but I'm willing to give them a try if a good one comes along. Devil's Crush is one such good one.

I've already mentioned ad nuaseum in previous entries that the TurboGrafx-16 really fascinates me, and I've mentioned Devil's Crush's cousin Alien Crush in a previous entry as well. So when I received my tax return recently and went straight to my local retro gaming store with a bag of cash, I walked out with a boatload of TurboGrafx games I'd never played before and a newfound appreciation for some obscure and rare games.

The first on my list to try out was Devil's Crush, and I was not disappointed by it in the least. The first thing I noticed was the music. Holy crap. Ever wondered what Slayer would sound like if you fed one of their albums into an 8-bit processor? If you play Devil's Crush, you'll get an idea. It's awesome, probably the best I've come across on the TG-16 thus far.

The graphics are quite nice. The movement of the ball is quite smooth, and unlike its predecessor Alien Crush, the screen moves seamlessly between the upper and lower portions of the pinball arena instead of cutting back and forth between the two, which can be pretty jarring. The arena looks like something Danzig would come up with if he made a pinball machine- there's skulls everywhere, medieval knights, a disembodied female head which slowly transforms into a reptilian monster, and a pentgram with robed figures circling around it. In a word, it's fuckin' awesome.

There's a number of little mini-games interspersed throughout to mix things up a little bit, but they mostly just consist of launching your ball at skeletons, demons, or other monsters to rack up points. I've never actually been able to beat any of these mini-games, but they're a fun change of pace.

I think the most fun I get out of the game is just rocking out to the tunes and enjoying the graphics while trying to keep my ball in play. Which, I suppose, is the entire point of pinball, but I digress. There's not a whole lot to say about it otherwise, but it's definitely a game that will keep you entertained for quite a while and probably one of the most noteworthy titles for the TG-16 that I've encountered thus far. So if you like pinball, metal, the occult, and you've always wanted to see all of those things in pixelated video game format, Devil's Crush is for you. It's a must-have for TurboGrafx-16 fans, as far as I'm concerned. Thanks for reading.