I felt like I had to eventually play this, seeing as I've played 2 and 3 and it feels awkward to just not round out the trilogy. It's definitely rough to come back to this after its sequels, seeing as the jump and weight in general were vastly improved in the sequel. It's not something I couldn't adjust to, but it was a lot of instances of "well, I probably would have made that jump in the next game". Hitboxes are also kind of weird, a lot of instances of not being able to tell how I was hit or from where, which I feel like is a problem that also exists in the later games but not to this extent.
Comparing this game to what came after it, it definitely comes off as kind of a rough start, but there are some neat aspects here that I think this game has over the other two Crash PS1 games. The way the levels progress in theming and location as you go deeper into the world map is really cool, and something that's not present in the next games. The music is more sparse and atmospheric for the most part, and I actually really like that choice. I also kind of like the slower, more careful style of platforming present in these levels, once I got a hold of the weird-feeling jump. I always appreciated the way Crash brings 2D precision platforming into 3D, and there's some good instances of that here. I'm the kind of freak who plays the bridge levels and goes "damn, these are some of my favorite levels in the game". Also, looks crazy good for an early PS1 game.
The biggest detriment to this game is how it handles gems and saving. The only way to get a gem from a stage is by breaking all the crates without losing a single life, and the only way to save is by getting a gem or completing one of the bonus stages. There are some levels to where not dying and completing the whole thing feels fairly reasonable, like the hog riding levels and some other levels, but there are also so many that feel way too long to feel "worth it". The reward for getting all the gems is basically nothing, so the only reason you would get them all is if it was fun to do so, and it doesn't sound fun to me at all. I praised the levels to some extent, but they are also full of some brutal stuff, and that combined with some of their length just makes me go "oh, well I'm not fucking doing that". The worst of it is the bonus stages, which you only get one shot at. Many times they're the kind of stages that you need to look at and get a couple tries at before really knowing what to do, so it feels especially cruel to demand the player just do the whole level again in order to finally learn it enough times.
The later games are also pretty brutal, but being able to try as many times as you like makes it so much more encouraging. The death routes in 2 and 3 basically feel like an actually well thought out version of what this game was getting at. I wish I liked this game enough to want to get all the gems, because I honestly just gave up on getting all the boxes.
I mentioned the saving before, but the really dumb thing about it is it doesn't even work the way you expect it to! So if you got a gem at the end of a level, you expect the game to save you beating that level and collecting the gem, right? But no, this game saves you collecting the gem, but not beating the level! You have to beat the level again if you load that save! I'm using exclamation points because I don't understand why you would do this! Even if you complete a level, go back to an earlier level, and get that level's gem, the game won't save you beating the level, it's absolutely fucked.
I may have gone a little too long about the gem situation with this game, but its honestly something that kind of ruined part of it for me. It's just very discouraging, because this game does really cool stuff, and playing through it without collecting anything is fine enough, but its very frustrating to my sensibilities. I feel like this game would easily be a 7 (it might still be honestly, the more I think about some of the levels the more it grows on me a little) with that one thing changed. I might play the N. Sane Trilogy version since it does exactly what I'm asking, but it also looks kind of doo-doo art wise, so probably not. At that point I might as well play Crash 4, which I will get to, some day in the far off future.
Comparing this game to what came after it, it definitely comes off as kind of a rough start, but there are some neat aspects here that I think this game has over the other two Crash PS1 games. The way the levels progress in theming and location as you go deeper into the world map is really cool, and something that's not present in the next games. The music is more sparse and atmospheric for the most part, and I actually really like that choice. I also kind of like the slower, more careful style of platforming present in these levels, once I got a hold of the weird-feeling jump. I always appreciated the way Crash brings 2D precision platforming into 3D, and there's some good instances of that here. I'm the kind of freak who plays the bridge levels and goes "damn, these are some of my favorite levels in the game". Also, looks crazy good for an early PS1 game.
The biggest detriment to this game is how it handles gems and saving. The only way to get a gem from a stage is by breaking all the crates without losing a single life, and the only way to save is by getting a gem or completing one of the bonus stages. There are some levels to where not dying and completing the whole thing feels fairly reasonable, like the hog riding levels and some other levels, but there are also so many that feel way too long to feel "worth it". The reward for getting all the gems is basically nothing, so the only reason you would get them all is if it was fun to do so, and it doesn't sound fun to me at all. I praised the levels to some extent, but they are also full of some brutal stuff, and that combined with some of their length just makes me go "oh, well I'm not fucking doing that". The worst of it is the bonus stages, which you only get one shot at. Many times they're the kind of stages that you need to look at and get a couple tries at before really knowing what to do, so it feels especially cruel to demand the player just do the whole level again in order to finally learn it enough times.
The later games are also pretty brutal, but being able to try as many times as you like makes it so much more encouraging. The death routes in 2 and 3 basically feel like an actually well thought out version of what this game was getting at. I wish I liked this game enough to want to get all the gems, because I honestly just gave up on getting all the boxes.
I mentioned the saving before, but the really dumb thing about it is it doesn't even work the way you expect it to! So if you got a gem at the end of a level, you expect the game to save you beating that level and collecting the gem, right? But no, this game saves you collecting the gem, but not beating the level! You have to beat the level again if you load that save! I'm using exclamation points because I don't understand why you would do this! Even if you complete a level, go back to an earlier level, and get that level's gem, the game won't save you beating the level, it's absolutely fucked.
I may have gone a little too long about the gem situation with this game, but its honestly something that kind of ruined part of it for me. It's just very discouraging, because this game does really cool stuff, and playing through it without collecting anything is fine enough, but its very frustrating to my sensibilities. I feel like this game would easily be a 7 (it might still be honestly, the more I think about some of the levels the more it grows on me a little) with that one thing changed. I might play the N. Sane Trilogy version since it does exactly what I'm asking, but it also looks kind of doo-doo art wise, so probably not. At that point I might as well play Crash 4, which I will get to, some day in the far off future.