And so, with a funny sounding yet triumphant trumpet, my little marathon of the Crash Banticoot series comes to an end. That's right, there are no more games everybody, absolutely no other games that I need to playPLEASE OH GOD DON'T MAKE ME PLAY THEM I WISH TO BE FREED FROM THIS MARSUPIAL REALM.
''Tell me, Crash, is this all there is, forever?’’
To be completely honest, I got Crash 4 shortly after it released on switch, even tho I didn't play ANY of the games at that point, but I figured that I shouldn't pass on the opportunity in playing a seemingly very fun 3D platformer, and so, I started playing... and shortly after I noticed my joy-cons had drift. Suffices to say I wasn't all that excited to keep playing a game that demands precision with, well, a controller that can't really give me that precision. Ando so, I postponed it, even well after I managed to grab myself a Pro Controller, and it ended up being the best involuntary decision I could have made, as it ended up serving as the final footnote in my dive of the Bandicoot's most well-known adventures, and it made its subtitle have the full weigh it fully deserves.
Indeed, my friend, it's about time, a game that strives to be the definitive sequel to a game that came out 22 years prior to this one, and let me tell, aside from what I think of the trilogy as a whole, those are some damn big shoes to fill.
Let's see if it has the foot to do it.
The Bandicoot at matter
As the ''fourth'' entry to a fairly continuist franchise, and one that had been subjected to some decisions questioned by many, AND with the remakes of the original trilogy coming out just three years prior, Crash 4 had all going for it to take the easy route: just make another Crash game, one that follows the beats of the OG's and you are set and done, you make some fans happy and make a fairly easy buck, simple! But as everyone has said, and as for many things one could say about Crash 4 (as I will certainly do), being not original is not one of them.
The game hits you with its presentation like if it was a punch to the eye, what Toys for Bob managed to do with the visual style is honestly jaw-dropping. Everyone has gotten a small re-design here, and nor only the new art-style does wonder to these old faces, but makes every animation a sight to behold. Every movement of every character, in both cinematics and gameplay, feels like watching an awesome animated movie, so many details and small things that make everything just so alive, and I think each time I'll think about this characters it will be in THIS look THIS style. Just look at Crash, Coco or Dingodile for crying out loud, they ooze so much personality that it makes me MAD, I'm angry at how amazing they look.
And the levels... DEAR CRUST THE LEVELS. Are these perhaps the most detailed, good looking and creative levels I've seen in a 3D platformer? 'cause they are up there for sure. Long gone are the days of level themes that repeat the same structure and in a messy order, instead, It's about time takes the original Crash Bandicoot world-map way of distributing levels and goes bonkers with it: each world a new theme, each level a new idea inside that theme. This game grabs your hand and takes you through unimaginable lands, from a prehistoric dying world to a Mad Max-esque wasteland, to even just filthy swamps, and it always manages to look beyond good and detailed, with set pieces that expand far beyond any other past game had ever done, and it truly feels like Warped on steroids. It's a blast going though these lands, you never know what crazy new thing the game it's gonna throw at you, but you know damn well it's going to be fun.
It also does a very smart thing: instead of collecting new power-ups to your move set every time you beat a boss, you start right of the bat with your double jump, and as you advance in the story, you rescue new masks that, at designated points, appear and give you powers that are designed specifically to be used in the level they are, like slowing time, give you a super spin that makes you practically fly,… and this may not feel as rewarding as a permanent upgrade at first, but it truly does wonders to help make incredibly more interesting level design, and thanks to it goes crazy with these ideas, and just adds so, SO much to the base crash formula that I couldn’t decide on my favorite one, they all just work so well.
Nonetheless, a lot of people would make the understandable assumption that even if the levels had a visual and design upgrade, the difficulty and challenge that was present in the first games would be lost, and to that I say... you poor, WRETCHED, FOOLS. There have been some changes that some could think make the game easier, like the fact that the recommended mode is the one without lives or that there are checkpoints through the bosses, but saying that this game is easy would a lie, it's incredibly challenging and offer some of the hardest platforming sections in the entire franchise , and while this is pretty welcomed, as it gives some really memorable and fun to overcome challenges, and there's really nothing wrong with any of this itself, but... well, we will get to that...
Only N'Tropy comes easy
I really wanted to start this review with the net positives, because this game has a few of them as you may have noticed, and make no mistake, when this game is good, is GOOD, in all caps, and I really want to make that clear. There are things I didn’t even talks about for the shake of not making this review longer than it already is like the music and boss fights, ‘cause both are absolute home runs, the bosses probably being the best in the series by far.
However, there are aspects the game which the game does fault a bit, like the story and the other playable characters. The game’s story honestly feels like a pretty decent take from where Warped left all, and putting the spotlight on N.Tropy as the true antagonist was a great decision… and then you beat N.Tropy (both of them) and the game decides to take the characters to little trip, but then it remembers the story needs a climax and so Cortex is the main bad again and it’s all just very jarring. I wouldn’t be as bad if other elements were also weirdly paced, a lot of interesting things like the return of Nitrus Oxide or Tawna not wanting to lose Crash and Coco after the versions of her dimension were killed are just glossed over very quickly. I know this is a Crash game, and that the story doesn’t want to be that complex in the first place, but still, it just feels they wanted to do a lot of things, so they threw them on the script with no consideration if they would feel half-baked or poorly made… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
And as for the other playable characters, those being Tawna, Cortex and Dingodile, they are… fine????? I guess they are but none of them felt better that the base Crash and Coco. Twana just felt to restrictive and not having the slide severely limits her movement, Dingodile is very fun and it introduces some interesting elements, but aiming the TNT can be a pain on the ass sometimes, and Cortex… is probably the best, it is the lest mobile of them all, but it makes it up with the genuine interesting mechanic of turning the enemies into platforms, which if expanded upon could be the mechanic for an entirely new game! But what all these three have in common, is that… you barely see them. Yeah, for some reason most of the levels where you play as them you only do it for a small part of it, and half-way through you are back playing a level you already have beaten as Crash or Coco, the one difference being box placement, which just feel tacked on, repetitive and boring… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
If these where the only bad things the game did, I wouldn’t complain even a bit, but keep in mind, these are the aspects that are a bit mixed… now it’s time dip the hands into the bullshit.
A faulty N.Gin
Hey, Vicarius Visions called, they want their whacky hitboxes back!
Ok, that may be a little to mean, Crash 4’s hitboxes and collision are nowhere near as bad as the ones in the N’sane Trilogy, but I did had a few moments where something silly happened, but luckily those where only counted instances… unlike some other shit. I was constantly raising my eyebrow to constant minor inconveniences, ‘cause Crash base movement may feel good, and the level design may be incredible, but that does not do much when the game decides to pull some silly trick or bug, specially in the enemies’ department.
And again, I can praise all these levels all day, but doesn’t change the matter that they just. Don’t. END. Levels lasts more than 15 minutes AT LEAST, and that’s not considering if you get stuck in some hard parts or the now infuriating bonus screens, and that would not be that much of a problem if it that didn’t meant that there are more boxes to break here that in any Crash game, 100 something boxes at minimum, and these number can reach to 300 in the Crash levels, and in the most outrageous case 5 FUCKING HUNDRED for one Dingodile level. So if you miss a box, and believe you me, you WILL miss a box, you have to start all over again the whole 15 minute level to get the box gem. And you may think ‘’oh well, just don’t pay attention to the boxes’’ but here’s the thing: not paying attention to the boxes just makes the game much less interesting, it eliminates some of the most interesting challenges out of the equation and it just doesn’t feel right. But at the same time, going for all the boxes isn’t worth at all ‘cause pretty much all the time it’s going to result in you missing some that you couldn’t find and as such you just end up feeling frustrated or demotivated! It’s the ouroboros of fucking it up, there’s no escaping here! And true, it’s not like I got all the boxes in any of the past games, but the difference it’s that in those I didn’t feel as frustrated ‘cause levels weren’t as long, there weren’t as many boxes, and so I still tried to break them in any new level, and I did got a lot of gems! Here tho? It’s just painful and if you are going for completion, it’s just time wasted… AND THAT’S ONLY ONE OUT OF THE SIX GEMS FOR EACH LEVEL.
There are 6 gems in total in each level, tho I’ll admit, some are fun to collect, like the wumpa fruit gems or the hidden one, and they are welcomed additions for sure… oh wait, did I say in a aggravating way that there were six of them? Oh, silly me, I meant 12… YEAH. After boss two, you unlock the N.verted versions of levels, which are.. the same levels you played… but with a nice filter on them! There are cool themes here and there, but in general, the changes are minimal, and in some cases make the level even more of a pain to see and traverse through, and also THEY ARE JUST THE SAME LEVEL AGAIN. I can’t call it padding ‘cause it isn’t necessary to beat the game, but it’s content that adds nothing to the overall experience and it just hinders it but making you go through it over, and over, and over, and over again; and that doesn’t even include the flashback tapes, the perfect runs, the unlockable skins, the time relic challenges and the N.verted versions of bosses. I know it may sound silly to criticize in this way what is basically side content, but is side content that just keeps recycling the base game, and it’s a big, BIG chuck of the game, and not playing it means not ‘’enjoying’’ all of the game, tho for me it ended up not even necessary to go though to get tired of the game, because even tho is just 10 hours long it just felt so looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Something something, pun with Dingodile in it
If I had to describe Crash 4, it would be by saying is both the best of what the series has to offer, while at the same time being some of the most repetitive and by design frustrating 3D platformer I’ve played, and I really don’t know if it was because of it’s nature as a Crash game or because of Toys for Bob insistence of making this experience last as it did.
If you asked me if I had fun, I’d say that only truly at the first half, and the rest of them I just praying for the end at some points, and it hurt me to feel that way so fucking bad, ‘cause again, what’s it’s good here, is freacking great, but I just can’t shake the feeling off that if it was more focused, more restrained with its content and, this would have been the best linear 3D platformer I ever played, but instead… it’s still a pretty good game!
I did overall enjoy it, but… I think I’m done with Crash for now. It was very fun, and I’m so glad that I ended up going all the way through this marathon, but, I had enough, I am too tired and my head hurts. I will be back to this series, don’t get me wrong, I really want to play Twinsanity but, for now, I’m happy with this little crazy voyage, and it was interesting to see the ups and downs of this marsupial, but it’s time for us to part ways…
Peace at last…
''Tell me, Crash, is this all there is, forever?’’
To be completely honest, I got Crash 4 shortly after it released on switch, even tho I didn't play ANY of the games at that point, but I figured that I shouldn't pass on the opportunity in playing a seemingly very fun 3D platformer, and so, I started playing... and shortly after I noticed my joy-cons had drift. Suffices to say I wasn't all that excited to keep playing a game that demands precision with, well, a controller that can't really give me that precision. Ando so, I postponed it, even well after I managed to grab myself a Pro Controller, and it ended up being the best involuntary decision I could have made, as it ended up serving as the final footnote in my dive of the Bandicoot's most well-known adventures, and it made its subtitle have the full weigh it fully deserves.
Indeed, my friend, it's about time, a game that strives to be the definitive sequel to a game that came out 22 years prior to this one, and let me tell, aside from what I think of the trilogy as a whole, those are some damn big shoes to fill.
Let's see if it has the foot to do it.
The Bandicoot at matter
As the ''fourth'' entry to a fairly continuist franchise, and one that had been subjected to some decisions questioned by many, AND with the remakes of the original trilogy coming out just three years prior, Crash 4 had all going for it to take the easy route: just make another Crash game, one that follows the beats of the OG's and you are set and done, you make some fans happy and make a fairly easy buck, simple! But as everyone has said, and as for many things one could say about Crash 4 (as I will certainly do), being not original is not one of them.
The game hits you with its presentation like if it was a punch to the eye, what Toys for Bob managed to do with the visual style is honestly jaw-dropping. Everyone has gotten a small re-design here, and nor only the new art-style does wonder to these old faces, but makes every animation a sight to behold. Every movement of every character, in both cinematics and gameplay, feels like watching an awesome animated movie, so many details and small things that make everything just so alive, and I think each time I'll think about this characters it will be in THIS look THIS style. Just look at Crash, Coco or Dingodile for crying out loud, they ooze so much personality that it makes me MAD, I'm angry at how amazing they look.
And the levels... DEAR CRUST THE LEVELS. Are these perhaps the most detailed, good looking and creative levels I've seen in a 3D platformer? 'cause they are up there for sure. Long gone are the days of level themes that repeat the same structure and in a messy order, instead, It's about time takes the original Crash Bandicoot world-map way of distributing levels and goes bonkers with it: each world a new theme, each level a new idea inside that theme. This game grabs your hand and takes you through unimaginable lands, from a prehistoric dying world to a Mad Max-esque wasteland, to even just filthy swamps, and it always manages to look beyond good and detailed, with set pieces that expand far beyond any other past game had ever done, and it truly feels like Warped on steroids. It's a blast going though these lands, you never know what crazy new thing the game it's gonna throw at you, but you know damn well it's going to be fun.
It also does a very smart thing: instead of collecting new power-ups to your move set every time you beat a boss, you start right of the bat with your double jump, and as you advance in the story, you rescue new masks that, at designated points, appear and give you powers that are designed specifically to be used in the level they are, like slowing time, give you a super spin that makes you practically fly,… and this may not feel as rewarding as a permanent upgrade at first, but it truly does wonders to help make incredibly more interesting level design, and thanks to it goes crazy with these ideas, and just adds so, SO much to the base crash formula that I couldn’t decide on my favorite one, they all just work so well.
Nonetheless, a lot of people would make the understandable assumption that even if the levels had a visual and design upgrade, the difficulty and challenge that was present in the first games would be lost, and to that I say... you poor, WRETCHED, FOOLS. There have been some changes that some could think make the game easier, like the fact that the recommended mode is the one without lives or that there are checkpoints through the bosses, but saying that this game is easy would a lie, it's incredibly challenging and offer some of the hardest platforming sections in the entire franchise , and while this is pretty welcomed, as it gives some really memorable and fun to overcome challenges, and there's really nothing wrong with any of this itself, but... well, we will get to that...
Only N'Tropy comes easy
I really wanted to start this review with the net positives, because this game has a few of them as you may have noticed, and make no mistake, when this game is good, is GOOD, in all caps, and I really want to make that clear. There are things I didn’t even talks about for the shake of not making this review longer than it already is like the music and boss fights, ‘cause both are absolute home runs, the bosses probably being the best in the series by far.
However, there are aspects the game which the game does fault a bit, like the story and the other playable characters. The game’s story honestly feels like a pretty decent take from where Warped left all, and putting the spotlight on N.Tropy as the true antagonist was a great decision… and then you beat N.Tropy (both of them) and the game decides to take the characters to little trip, but then it remembers the story needs a climax and so Cortex is the main bad again and it’s all just very jarring. I wouldn’t be as bad if other elements were also weirdly paced, a lot of interesting things like the return of Nitrus Oxide or Tawna not wanting to lose Crash and Coco after the versions of her dimension were killed are just glossed over very quickly. I know this is a Crash game, and that the story doesn’t want to be that complex in the first place, but still, it just feels they wanted to do a lot of things, so they threw them on the script with no consideration if they would feel half-baked or poorly made… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
And as for the other playable characters, those being Tawna, Cortex and Dingodile, they are… fine????? I guess they are but none of them felt better that the base Crash and Coco. Twana just felt to restrictive and not having the slide severely limits her movement, Dingodile is very fun and it introduces some interesting elements, but aiming the TNT can be a pain on the ass sometimes, and Cortex… is probably the best, it is the lest mobile of them all, but it makes it up with the genuine interesting mechanic of turning the enemies into platforms, which if expanded upon could be the mechanic for an entirely new game! But what all these three have in common, is that… you barely see them. Yeah, for some reason most of the levels where you play as them you only do it for a small part of it, and half-way through you are back playing a level you already have beaten as Crash or Coco, the one difference being box placement, which just feel tacked on, repetitive and boring… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
If these where the only bad things the game did, I wouldn’t complain even a bit, but keep in mind, these are the aspects that are a bit mixed… now it’s time dip the hands into the bullshit.
A faulty N.Gin
Hey, Vicarius Visions called, they want their whacky hitboxes back!
Ok, that may be a little to mean, Crash 4’s hitboxes and collision are nowhere near as bad as the ones in the N’sane Trilogy, but I did had a few moments where something silly happened, but luckily those where only counted instances… unlike some other shit. I was constantly raising my eyebrow to constant minor inconveniences, ‘cause Crash base movement may feel good, and the level design may be incredible, but that does not do much when the game decides to pull some silly trick or bug, specially in the enemies’ department.
And again, I can praise all these levels all day, but doesn’t change the matter that they just. Don’t. END. Levels lasts more than 15 minutes AT LEAST, and that’s not considering if you get stuck in some hard parts or the now infuriating bonus screens, and that would not be that much of a problem if it that didn’t meant that there are more boxes to break here that in any Crash game, 100 something boxes at minimum, and these number can reach to 300 in the Crash levels, and in the most outrageous case 5 FUCKING HUNDRED for one Dingodile level. So if you miss a box, and believe you me, you WILL miss a box, you have to start all over again the whole 15 minute level to get the box gem. And you may think ‘’oh well, just don’t pay attention to the boxes’’ but here’s the thing: not paying attention to the boxes just makes the game much less interesting, it eliminates some of the most interesting challenges out of the equation and it just doesn’t feel right. But at the same time, going for all the boxes isn’t worth at all ‘cause pretty much all the time it’s going to result in you missing some that you couldn’t find and as such you just end up feeling frustrated or demotivated! It’s the ouroboros of fucking it up, there’s no escaping here! And true, it’s not like I got all the boxes in any of the past games, but the difference it’s that in those I didn’t feel as frustrated ‘cause levels weren’t as long, there weren’t as many boxes, and so I still tried to break them in any new level, and I did got a lot of gems! Here tho? It’s just painful and if you are going for completion, it’s just time wasted… AND THAT’S ONLY ONE OUT OF THE SIX GEMS FOR EACH LEVEL.
There are 6 gems in total in each level, tho I’ll admit, some are fun to collect, like the wumpa fruit gems or the hidden one, and they are welcomed additions for sure… oh wait, did I say in a aggravating way that there were six of them? Oh, silly me, I meant 12… YEAH. After boss two, you unlock the N.verted versions of levels, which are.. the same levels you played… but with a nice filter on them! There are cool themes here and there, but in general, the changes are minimal, and in some cases make the level even more of a pain to see and traverse through, and also THEY ARE JUST THE SAME LEVEL AGAIN. I can’t call it padding ‘cause it isn’t necessary to beat the game, but it’s content that adds nothing to the overall experience and it just hinders it but making you go through it over, and over, and over, and over again; and that doesn’t even include the flashback tapes, the perfect runs, the unlockable skins, the time relic challenges and the N.verted versions of bosses. I know it may sound silly to criticize in this way what is basically side content, but is side content that just keeps recycling the base game, and it’s a big, BIG chuck of the game, and not playing it means not ‘’enjoying’’ all of the game, tho for me it ended up not even necessary to go though to get tired of the game, because even tho is just 10 hours long it just felt so looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Something something, pun with Dingodile in it
If I had to describe Crash 4, it would be by saying is both the best of what the series has to offer, while at the same time being some of the most repetitive and by design frustrating 3D platformer I’ve played, and I really don’t know if it was because of it’s nature as a Crash game or because of Toys for Bob insistence of making this experience last as it did.
If you asked me if I had fun, I’d say that only truly at the first half, and the rest of them I just praying for the end at some points, and it hurt me to feel that way so fucking bad, ‘cause again, what’s it’s good here, is freacking great, but I just can’t shake the feeling off that if it was more focused, more restrained with its content and, this would have been the best linear 3D platformer I ever played, but instead… it’s still a pretty good game!
I did overall enjoy it, but… I think I’m done with Crash for now. It was very fun, and I’m so glad that I ended up going all the way through this marathon, but, I had enough, I am too tired and my head hurts. I will be back to this series, don’t get me wrong, I really want to play Twinsanity but, for now, I’m happy with this little crazy voyage, and it was interesting to see the ups and downs of this marsupial, but it’s time for us to part ways…
Peace at last…
7 Comments
I'll be very excited to see what you have to say after you play it! This will be one of those games I'll be looking into what other people think about it, it left a lot of room for thought and discussion and it makes me happy that's the case. Even if we end up having similar opinions about it, it's a fun experience nonetheless.
Won't lie, reading these reviews makes me wanna try to play them sometime this year.
Really enjoyed the review.
Really enjoyed the review.
I have heard many a tale about how terrible the 100% completion was for Crash 4, but I just couldn't imagine it being more demanding than Crash 1. Boy howdy, that shit sounds less fun than a trip to the DMV and getting body slammed through a table while you're there.
@Angel_Arle Glad you enjoyed it, Arle! :DDD
I really recommend playing then, I may have found the first two not that great and this one and Warped with their fair share of problems, but they are still absolutely worth checking out and playing, so go for it when you can, it's at least good to try, and maybe you'll end up liking them more than I did!
@Vee I couldn't have put It into words better than that. As someone that didn't even go for all of it, it feels like a chore and the repetition really got to me. I really think that with the N.Verted levels out of the picture, the game would be a lot better to 100% and even for casual play, and even without them there would be still a LOT of repetition.
I really recommend playing then, I may have found the first two not that great and this one and Warped with their fair share of problems, but they are still absolutely worth checking out and playing, so go for it when you can, it's at least good to try, and maybe you'll end up liking them more than I did!
@Vee I couldn't have put It into words better than that. As someone that didn't even go for all of it, it feels like a chore and the repetition really got to me. I really think that with the N.Verted levels out of the picture, the game would be a lot better to 100% and even for casual play, and even without them there would be still a LOT of repetition.
Sorry about the Joycon drift. Another fine Nintendo product.
I again think I like this one more (I really liked playing as Tawna, too), but it does drag towards the end. The platinum for this is also a total nightmare, I can't believe anyone thought the requirements for that was acceptable.
I again think I like this one more (I really liked playing as Tawna, too), but it does drag towards the end. The platinum for this is also a total nightmare, I can't believe anyone thought the requirements for that was acceptable.
@Weatherby The worst part is that the warranty had just expired, it almost seemed like it was on purpose. Another classic Nintendo moment.
It's not a matter that I don't like Tawna's playstyle, is that for me it just feels like Crash or Coco but more restrictive, tho having a grappling hook was a plus for sure. But I totally understand why you like it, as well as the rest of the game, more than I did; it's fine-tuned and fun. The negatives really got to me, but I can totally see why many others really love this game.
And yeah, getting all the achievements has to be some kind of torture device, I still don't know why they packed this with so much repeated content that just makes the game artificially longer and just detracts from the experience.
It's not a matter that I don't like Tawna's playstyle, is that for me it just feels like Crash or Coco but more restrictive, tho having a grappling hook was a plus for sure. But I totally understand why you like it, as well as the rest of the game, more than I did; it's fine-tuned and fun. The negatives really got to me, but I can totally see why many others really love this game.
And yeah, getting all the achievements has to be some kind of torture device, I still don't know why they packed this with so much repeated content that just makes the game artificially longer and just detracts from the experience.
DeemonAndGames
1 year ago
These were all extremely fun to write and think about, this one in particular was the hardest I've written yet by far, I really want to do something special to the game that, while having my fair share of problems, was still pretty fun and the one that capped of the marathon.
I absolutely recommend it if you are curious about it and specially considering you like the past games, I know full well that for a lot of people this one is their favourite and I can totally see it. But yeah, some things just really got to me, specially the length of the levels, but again check it out if you have the chance! And yes, the amount of gems is a freacking n'sanity and I honestly fear for those that try to 100% this. May their poor souls find peace after that torture.