Monday, October 30, 2017

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.

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