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First Bandicoot

I have to say that I waited this game like forever. I wanted to go back in time and be that little kid again in 1998. I have such a memories of this game saga and I remember how my friends and I used to play it at least 99% completed.
So Crash Bandicoot was made to PS4 as a remaster and it includes Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
I have played all those before on PlayStation 1 and I don’t recall them being overly difficult.
I grew up when NES, SNES, PSOne and Nintendo 64 were popular and platform games are what I am good at… at least so I thought. The last time I played the original Crash Bandicoot was when Uncharted 4 came out and there was a little eastern egg in it; you could play one level of original Crash.

Let say that I didn’t finish this Crash Bandicoot remaster simply because I couldn’t and that is first time ever that happened to me in my whole gaming history.
So this review is my personal experience with this piece and I know it will divide opinions a lot.

My first impression was good when I heard that familiar tune in the beginning/loading screen — I was excited!!
I started with the first Crash Bandicoot game and it was FUN. I love how they have captured exactly the same atmosphere and backgrounds as in the original but it was brought to 2017 graphically.

The fun didn’t last all the way to the end since I never make it there. There was impossible levels and I just gave up.
This still is review of how far I managed to play it.

 

 

Controls

When the game began it took little while to get used to the controls and how precise everything has to be or else you’ll get hit by an enemy or fall in to the death pit or get to be killed by some other way.
In the beginning the game seems to be fairly easy and not that difficult but soon I discovered that even a millimeter away and you’re dead. No, even an atom away then you’re dead. The game is not forgiving at all!!
Crash can jump, spin, slide, crawl, do a body slam and of course there are other moves that you’ll get in Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped like double jump, powerful body slam etc.

Overall the controls feels very outdated and difficult to maneuver. I honestly don’t think the original game was this hard. I really don’t know what happened there. Did they make it more difficult than it already is?
Whatever the reason is this game does not play around.

It comes clear that they have stayed true to the original games but I still claim that these games weren’t this difficult when they first came out. I don’t know if I have lost the touch of platforming but I have hard to believe that since I play all kinds of games everyday since I was like 7.

 

 

Story

Even though the game saga is platforming it still possesses story of some sort. The story is not that intense. It is more like a side story why you are jumping and spinning your way to the end. In first Crash Bandicoot game the evil Dr. Cortex turns island’s animals/habitants in to monsters/weird creatures. Crash was also a test subject but manages escape from Cortex’s grasp. In second instalment Crash need to collect crystals to Dr. Cortex and in the third game you need to collect crystals before Dr. Cortex and evil Uka Uka (who is Aku Aku’s evil brother) manage to do so.

So the plot is not that crazy it is more like some reason to start you platforming.

 

Sound

I frikkin’ love the music in this game. It stays true to the original and I think it is exactly  the same but remastered. All the sound effects are like in the original so I didn’t find anything bad to say about this matter.
There is voice acting but only of some characters like the bosses, Dr. Cortex and his crazy professor friend and of course the Crash’s sister, Coco, who is on and off character in this whole trilogy.

 

 

Grapchics

This game is gorgeous. Graphics are nice and colours are vivid. I didn’t experienced lagging or framerate drops at all. The game looks exactly like the originals but with just million times better. The whole art style has its own charm in it and it looks amazing.
One little minus is how some things like crystals might get lost in the colourful world, I did miss gems/crystals couple of times just because I couldn’t see it.
I love the level design. There are tons of little details what there wasn’t in the original one. All these little tricks makes everything look brilliant.

 

Gameplay

I got mixed feelings about this game’s gameplay. Memorizing my childhood and how we used to play this on PlayStation 1 I don’t have any negative or bad memories about it. I don’t recall of loosing my nerves over some stages or any part of that game. My memories are golden and pure from that.

But now 20 years later in this remaster version I almost ended up in a mental asylum because of it. I didn’t manage to beat this game through since it was nearly impossible to do so. There are levels that are beyond what is humanly possible and even though I went to the first stages and collected as many lives as possible — it still wasn’t enough. I could loose 90 lives on a single stage and didn’t manage to get even to the first checkpoint so I quickly realized that this would take weeks to complete if I play every day. It is truly not OK.

I know that games shouldn’t be too easy but this goes far beyond that. And like I have said this many times before about cheap things. Like cheap horror is to put jump scares everywhere or in this case, making game difficult by making controls awkward and pixel perfect landing or you’ll die.
NO!!
Difficultiness should and have to be made by ingenuity. Create something that tricks your mind and levels that is variable and something innovative. I understand this is remaster but if they remastered the graphics why they didn’t remaster the controls or other things? It is not 1998 anymore where only difficulty in games was pixel perfect jump and landing in 2D game. I have played Super Mario Bros. on NES 100% and even that was easy. I have no idea what is going on in this game, other that it just doesn’t work.

 

I was super excited to get to play this masterpiece again but seems like I have to get used to the fact that I’ll never go further than what I did: Crash Bandicoot 1 made level 23 (3rd island and 6th stage). Crash Bandicoot 2 I made 6th level and 1st stage. In Crash Bandicoot 3 I made level 14 which is 3rd level and 14th stage.
I am actually very good at gaming and I possess 12 platinum trophy from games such as Resident evil 5 and 6, Uncharted 1, 2 and 3 and Assassin’s creed games. So I can’t be bad player and besides I grew up with NES, SNES and Nintendo 64 so platforming is my jam.

One of the best things in Crash Bandicoot series are the bosses. They usually take just few hits to be done with but the variety of how you’ll need to defeat them makes every boss fight unique. And all these weird characters and their ridicilous names makes the game feel little bit weirder than it already is.

Crash also has a sister called Coco Bandicoot. You have to play with her certain levels since she is only who can, for an example, ride a tiger.
There isn’t much differences about these two and you can play either one of them.

I also noticed other little negative things in this saga, for an example I can say that in Crash Bandicoot 3 you HAVE TO collect all the certain crystals to make progress in the game. That is super, duper bad. I got stuck in the second motorcycle level and I needed to come 1st to earn that crystal so I could continue my game. Why they didn’t make it so that all it counts is to get to the goal. Why the hell you need to be perfect in super awkward controls (and sometimes bad level design?) That I don’t understand.
There is also ton of loading screens. What there even is to be loaded? I have PS4 Pro and it takes 30 seconds to load a title screen?
And there is no restart level —button anywhere. If I fuck up something I need to hit quit, let it load, choose the level again and load again. In this kind of fast phased game everything should load and work in less than 2 seconds.

 

 

 

Last spin

My feelings of this game is totally mixed with a blender. For sure this game ain’t easy and I surely don’t blame my gaming skills since I always play games in hard mode. The difficultiness in this piece is not made with ingenuity — it is made cheaply by making the movements difficult, outdated and every landing/hit needs to be precisely hit. Even an atom away and you’re done.
Let say I haven’t played the first Bandicoots and this would be my very first time; it would leave super bad taste in my mouth and when kids play this I don’t know do they have enough patience to collect 100 lives and try one level and do it all over again until they make it.
If I be honest there should’ve been classic and updated controls. So if someone wants to play it as cranky as 1998 PS1 controller with only using directional buttons then they should’ve made it so. But not everyone wants that kind of cheap difficultiness.
This game overall eats your good feelings and the interest to play it.
I am 100% sure that many people haven’t beaten this game. They have only played it as far as they humanly could and then sold or thrown the game to the bottom of the pin.

I paid 40€ of this and I think it is good price since the Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy contains 3 remastered games. I think remasters should always cost less than full priced game.

But even though I didn’t enjoy that much of this overly difficult game I’m not saying it’s aful. It is just badly remastered which affects certain levels. So please don’t make me play this anymore.

 

 

This game is gorgeous. Graphics are nice
and colours are vivid. I didn’t experienced
lagging or framerate drops at all. The game looks
exactly like the originals but with just million times better.

 

 

Release Date: Out Now
Genre: Platformer
Publisher: Activision
Developer: Vicarious Visions

 

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