not a complete trainwreck as i had worried but it's still a downgrade from the original trilogy. the biggest issue is the overabundance of vehicle/gimmick based levels. this was an issue with Warped (and it's why that was my least favorite in the original trilogy) but that game was better than this one almost universally. the absolute desperation to innovate or shift the gameplay in this series will always be baffling to me when the core gameplay was so solid.

when the game let's you do some actual platforming it's not too bad. sometimes the awful aesthetics get in the way with hitboxes/ledges being unclear in terms of placement but it isn't too prevalent of an issue. i appreciate the gesture of giving us Coco levels that aren't tied exclusively to vehicle or autorunner levels even if i would've rather they just gave us the same gameplay as Crash like in the later games. as it is Coco's moveset leads to some truly diabolical moments with precision platforming but stiff movement.

looking forward to getting to Twinsanity eventually. not expecting a ton from that in terms of gameplay and level design but i remember the dialogue and music having so much character.