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(Note: I played this as part of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.)
Date of Review: 17 Apr 2021
Status: Lucky to have gotten to credits.
tl;dr: Crash 1 sucked, but each numbered Crash gets a lot better.
Those bridge levels can burn in the fiery pits of the landfill that holds all those ET games.
Overall Score: [~60/100]
Note: the overall score is not a sum of the parts of the other scores below. It is an overall score based on enjoyment, fun, impact, and sometimes nostalgia.
Recommendation: In hindsight, I felt like I should have just quit. But I didn't know it got better in Crash 2, so I'm glad I decided to move on to Crash 2. I would realistically only recommend this to people who wanted to relive Crash 1 for nostalgia reasons. If you're interetsed in getting into Crash (and I do recommend you do!), you should skip to Crash 2.
Graphics [85/100]
The remake graphics were great. I didn't play the original Crash much (just some at a friend's house), but for my memory, it felt authentic. I don't know if it's the graphics' fault that it was super hard to tell where you were and if you were gonna land on a platform or not, but I'm going to choose not to hold it against it.
Core Gameplay [66/100]
I liked each (numbered) Crash more than the one before it, so I think the Core Gameplay is definitely buried in there somewhere, but I did not like Crash 1. A lot of jumps were awkard and it was too often too hard to tell where you are, and I felt like I was guessing too much.
The level design was kind of sporadic, too. Some levels were super long, some were super short. Some levels had good checkpoints, some felt like there were no checkpoints. Most bosses felt janky and I felt like I was lucky if was able to dodge stuff.
Audio/Music [80/100]
Honestly don't remember too much... I generally do like the Crash music, tho, and the sounds are spot on.
Controls/Interface [55/100]
So yeah. I read somewhere that all the games in the remaster built on the same engine, which was a remade engine that closely resembled Crash 3, which was different than the physics of Crash 1. I read that this made the remaster harder than the original. I don't know if that was part of why I had such a hard time or what, but I spent a lot of time dying to seemingly basic jumps not being able to tell where the platform was or where I am and it looks like I'm landing on it, but I don't and I die and so I try something else and I keep dying.
Story [N/A]
Was there a story?
Extras [??/100]
I know later Crashes had secret gems and rewards for getting all crates. I honestly can't remember if this one did, because I tried to get through it as quickly as possible.
(Note: I played this as part of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.)
Date of Review: 17 Apr 2021
Status: Beat the game, enjoyed it, but wanted to move on to Crash 3. Didn't do any extras.
This one was so much better than Crash 1! The physics felt more appropriate to the game. It also seemed significantly easier, but I can't tell if it was supposed to be easier, or was just easier cuz I didn't have to deal with all the awkward jumps and misjudging positions stuff. It was maybe too easy, which made it less fun, but I beat the game, and considered doing some extra stuff, but wanted to move on to Crash 3.
Overall Score: [~75/100]
Note: the overall score is not a sum of the parts of the other scores below. It is an overall score based on enjoyment, fun, impact, and sometimes nostalgia.
Recommendation: I think Crash is a great platforming game. I think people who want to get into Crash and enjoy platformers, Crash 2 is a great place to start. Skip Crash 1.
Graphics [85/100]
The remake graphics were great. I didn't play the original Crash much (just some at a friend's house), but for my memory, it felt authentic.
Core Gameplay [78/100]
This is where the gameplay starts to shine through. I miss the overworld map, but that's pretty minor. Physics were the same as Crash 1, but they felt a lot better in this game. Crash 2 also added the slide (which was a major contribution, IMO) and slam.
The level design felt more consistent, and the boss fights felt better designed, but they were all kind of short and relatively easy. They felt a little less rewarding because of that, but it showed a lot more promise than Crash 1, that's for sure.
Audio/Music [80/100]
Honestly don't remember too much... I generally do like the Crash music, tho, and the sounds are spot on.
Controls/Interface [80/100]
The physics in Crash are pretty dang good. It feels like you can tackle things in different ways, and it has a floaty aspect to it, so you aren't overly punished by just barely missing a jump, etc. You kind of get a split second before you start falling.
Story [N/A]
Wait, we're working for Cortex now?
Extras [??/100]
I didn't really go too out of my wait for any extras, but not cuz I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I wanted to move on to Crash 3 rather than do anythink more in Crash 2.
(Note: I played this as part of the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy.)
Date of Review: 17 Apr 2021
Status: Beat the game and really enjoyed it. Took some effort to find hidden gems and to get 100% crates on a number of levels, but only unlocked one of the 5 bonus levels. I did the DLC level.
Crash just keeps getting better! The level design seemed more diversified, and even tho I didn't like the jet ski levels a whole lot, overall, it was fun and fresh. Great platforming and fun little mini game-esque vehicle levels.
Overall Score: [~82/100]
Note: the overall score is not a sum of the parts of the other scores below. It is an overall score based on enjoyment, fun, impact, and sometimes nostalgia.
Recommendation: I think Crash is a great platforming game series. I think fans of platformers will enjoy Crash 3 (taking into consideration how old it is), and it's better than Crash 2, so if you're on the fence about that one, definitely give Crash 3 a try.
Graphics [85/100]
The remake graphics were great. I didn't play the original Crash much (just some at a friend's house), but for my memory, it felt authentic.
Core Gameplay [85/100]
Still no overwold map (very minor issue), but not only do we get more mechanics that I think added a lot, but we got some fun vehicle levels. There were a few missteps, and it does feel like a game from the late 90s in a few places, but it is still a great game. Level design was varied in mechanics needed and layout, but felt consistent and fun. (I know I said they were "varied" and "consistent." I just meant they were consistent in terms of it felt like the team actually talked to each other when making these levels instead of a bunch Crash 1, where it felt like no level designer saw anyone else's work.)
Audio/Music [80/100]
Honestly don't remember too much... I generally do like the Crash music, tho, and the sounds are spot on.
Controls/Interface [90/100]
Every game is better for having double jump in it. Crash has double jump now (unlocked relatively early in the game)! And you can slide and jump higher and further than before. It made for some great challenges for getting all the crates, and made it flexible in how you approached different obstacles. They felt responsive, and double jump really opened up a lot of cool opportunities.
Story [N/A]
Where did all these bosses come from, and how did they have so much rapport with Crash? Did the remaster cut out some story?
Extras [??/100]
I went for all crates in a number of levels, but didn't try too hard if some levels had really hard to reach crates, and I usually didn't go back into the level to look for ones if I missed a couple. I thought about trying to unlock all 5 of the secret warp room levels, which required 5 time trial relics each to unlock. I didn't love doing the time trials and the first secret warp room level was a jet ski level, and it looked like a long one. I didn't really like the jet ski levels, so I decided it was time to move on to Crash 4!
(notes to transfer to games.queue: ~37 hours, finished same day as review)
Date of Review: 17 Apr 2021
Status: All skins and all Platinum Relics in the Flashback Tapes. Breakdown: 196/228 Normal gems, 174/228 N. Verted gems, all 4 colored gems, all 21 tapes with 100% crates in each one, all levels (Normal and N. Verted and optional "alternate" levels) completed. 93% total.
This game was amazing. Best Crash for sure, and I think it was an incredible platformer, and earns a spot in my hall of fame. You get double jump out of the gate. You get awesome masks that add a lot of fun gameplay. You get 3 extra characters to play with, each with their own mechanics. You get QoL additions and accessibility options (like to make the game more accessible by making it little easier if you're strugging). It had stuff to satisfy hardcore platformers and for people newer to the genre. The art was great and there were tons of cool skins to unlock. There were definitely some negatives, the vast majority of which revolve around the "completionist issue" that I'll discuss in Extras.
Overall Score: [~92/100]
Note: the overall score is not a sum of the parts of the other scores below. It is an overall score based on enjoyment, fun, impact, and sometimes nostalgia.
Recommendation: I think Crash is a great platforming game series. This one is definitely harder than the original trilogy (tho admittedly, I didn't try for too many 100% crates in that game, but I definitely think it's fair to say this was the hardest). I think Crash 4 takes the series up a couple levels, but has some options to make it more accessible for new people, which having enjoyable challenges for veterans of Crash/platformers. I get it may not be for everyone due to it's difficulty, but it's still relatively approachable, and I think everyone should give it a shot, and most will like it.
Graphics [98/100]
The art was colorful and cartoony, and there were a lot of cool environments. But what really elevated the graphics score were the N. Verted levels. They had a lot of insanely cool art styles for those, such as Comic Book style that made everything look like a comic book and when you hit stuff, it'd go POW and BAM, etc, in class comic-book style.
Another example was the Retro style, which had 16-bit graphics and sound effects, and even showed points for hitting stuff and tracked your high score! There was the Color Splash, and the Sonar, and the Neon. There were also the Flashback Tapes, that had a VHS style, complete with artifacts common in bad tapes
While most of them were great, a few of the N. Verted styles kinda lame, tho, like the very slightly Desaturated style or the better-but-still-relatively-lame Grainy Film style.
Then there was the Underwater style... it made the level be underwater and like 35% slower, and these levels were on a couple super long levels, and it just felt really bad.
Core Gameplay [93/100]
It's just really solid platforming. The 3D sections felt better than ever, with better camera angles (especially in the running-at-the-screen sections) and an amazing quality of life option that made a yellow circle appear underneath the character, making it very clear where you were.
They also had excellent 2D sections (where you couldn't fall off the edge by going away or toward the camera), and I generally like 2D platformers over 3D, so it was great to see tons of 2D in this game, and I thought they were some of the best sections. I thought they did a great job of mixing up the two, and it would change between them frequently and seamlessly.
You also got to play as Dingo, Cortex and Tawna. Cortex didn't have a double jump, and for some reason, I had a really hard time adjusting, so his levels weren't as fun, but overall, it was really cool to change it up.
I enjoyed a lot of the extra challenges (more on that in Extras), and the last (non-boss) level, Cortex Castle, while very difficult, was extremely fun and rewarding. I know a lot of people got super frustrated with Cortex Castle and some even came to hate it, but it quickly become one of my favorite levels--if not my #1 favorite level. It was a great way to end the game in my opinion, but I know it made some people give up in frustration after 100+ deaths.
Audio/Music [88/100]
Great music, great sounds, great voices! I got a few songs stuck in my head (like the alien bear song, lol). Not every song was a banger, but I don't really remember being annoyed by any music, and there were definitely a number I liked. I loved all the voice lines and the chatter going on in levels, and overall thought the audio was well done.
Controls/Interface [93/100]
They felt soooo good. You could get some serious distance with a slide + double jump, and you could slide jump for extra height. And you got cool masks that felt great to control. It felt responsive and floaty at the same time. You often had time to adjust while already in the air, and you could recover from certain mistakes by having quick reflexes in really cool ways. The wide range of movement options allowed for some creative solutions to grabbing all the crates, and made it so a lot of sections/challenges could be solved multiple ways. I've seen a lot of people play who did sections a lot different than me, and both were legit and valid.
Story [88/100]
There's a lot more story here, but it's still over the top and ridiculous Crash. It wasn't really about the story, and they did a good job of keeping the cut scenes short and entertaining. There were lots of funny parts. It was kind of intentionally confusing at parts (like things happening for no particularly logical reason), but that seems to be a staple of Crash.
The score reflects expectations here. This is not a game you play for story, but the score doesn't reflect that. It reflects the fact that it's a great platformer with some well-executed story tidbits sprinkled in.
Extras [90/100] or [35/100] depending on who you are
Ok... so I tried not to talk about too much about this in my other parts, but it really needs to be talked about. And I have a ton to say here, so buckle up.
This game is a completionist's nightmare. There's 43 levels. Each has a mirrored version with a cool art style called an N. Verted level. Each non-boss level (both Normal and N. Verted each) has 6 gems: one each for getting 40%, 60% and 80% of the fruit (the fruit was different between Normal and N. Verted levels), one for getting 100% of the crates, one for dying 3 or fewer times in one run, and one for finding the hidden gem (which were in different places between the Normal and N. Verted version). There's also a number of optional "Alternate" levels, which have one of the side characters playing the first half, and showing how they affected something in the main level, and then the 2nd half is the Bandicoot playing the 2nd half of the normal level with slightly differences, like different crate locations. So if you didn't like the 2nd half of a level and it ends up having an alternate version... that's 4 times you get to play it since each has an N. Verted version.
That's a lot by itself, but you can get the gems are separate runs (e.g. you could die 30 times getting all crates, and then get the < 3 deaths). It would have been manageable if not for the fact that the levels are pretty dang long, and many of them have super hidden (I'd even say cruelly hidden) crates. Levels have ~120-400 crates, and to search thoroughly for over half an hour and die a ton taking random jumps to try and find crates and still come up 1-2 short it just awful. You have to get all the crates in one run. It's pure torture to do this 86 times without a guide (tho it's really only 43 times, cuz once you got the level down, it's basically the same for the inverted).
It just feels kind of cheap, and I think for virtually everyone--even people who really like completionist stuff--it really starts to cross the line into tedium and frustration. But maybe with a guide on (more than) a few levels, it's still in the realm of doable and an overall net positive on the fun scale.
There's also the Flashback Tapes. There are 21 of these. To get a Flashback Tape you have to obtain them in one of 21 levels where they are located. They are all pretty easy to find, but you have to get there without dying! I actually really enjoyed going for these. It was a fun challenge. The latest levels are pretty hard, and the tape is pretty much at the end. In Castle Cortex, it's super close to the end. That one was a doozy, but it was fun and rewarding to get.
Each Flashback Tape unlocks a level, each one being a puzzle-like 2D level, and they were pretty challenging, and got more challenging as it went on. I spent nearly 5 hours on the last two tapes! Each one typically revolved around a particular gimmick, and the last two gimmicks were weirdly hard for me (the penultimate being about timing TNT and flame boxes, the last one being about jumping on springs and getting around explosive to get above them, which was apparently basically impossible for me). Those last couple were definitely a bit frustrating, but overall, I really liked the Flashback Tapes--both earning them and playing those levels.
To get 100%, you need to beat all levels (1% for each for 86%), getting half (228) gems (boss levels don't have gems) gets you 5%, all 456 gets you another 5%, all 228 N. Verted gems gets you 2%. The Flashback Tapes awarded a Silver Relic for completing the level, a Gold Relic for getting 90% of the boxes, and a Platinum Relic for 100% of the boxes. Platinum Relics in all 21 Flashback Tapes gets you 2%.
But wait, there's more! You can get 2% additional completion (taking you above 100%) for getting Gold Relic (or better) in Time Trials in every level, Platinum Relics (or Better) in Time Trials in every level. There's another level above that: Purple Relic. Those are the best dev times and some of them were very, very hard (apparently--I didn't actually do any Time Trials). Purple Relics do not increase your %.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE! In every Normal non-boss level (there are 38 of these), if you get all crates (and technically at least 80% fruit, but that's all but guaranteed with all crates) and don't die even once... you get an N. Sanely Perfect Relic. If you get all 38 of these, you get another 2%.
I laid all of that out for dramatic purposes, but you can get any combination you want to get to 100%, and everything gets you a total max of 106%.
The N. Sanely Perfect Relics are extremely challenging, and beyond tediuos. There are some really hard and really long levels, and it takes serious gumption to try and get all those. Levels are even longer taking time to get all the crates.
I think all this stuff together went way too far. You can beat the game on a casual first playthrough in like 8 hours. Do the N. Verted levels and get 86% in like 12-14 hours. Then spend another 90 hours getting the last 20%, and probably end up with a broken controller or two.
If you're someone that feels like they need/want to fully complete a game, either stay away from this one, or at least fully prepare yourself. I would highly recommend just setting a lower goal. My goal was all skins and all tapes, and it took me about 37 hours. I super duper loved this game, and I think that was a pretty good balance where I was still enjoying myself the vast majority of the time, with just a few tedious or frustrating parts (e.g. the blue gem, or the Underwater levels, especially Rush Hour), but ending up with feeling accomplished and going out with positive feelings.
Each level had a skin, and they required 6 gems (combined from both Normal and N. Verted) to unlock at the beginning, increasing to 12 for the last two levels to unlock. You also needed Platinum in all the tapes (which was fortunate since I wanted to do those anyway!). It was a good amount of content, and I had fun. I probably wouldn't hate doing most levels all 12 gems, but there'd be a few that would drive me crazy. It would probably destroy me to have to try and go for N. Sanely Perfect Relics, cuz the game is hard, and taking ~15 minutes to collect all the boxes and let my nerves get to me to die to something stupid at the end 5 times in a row just isn't fun.
I know some people have done 106% and enjoyed it... but I just don't think it's for the vast majority of people, and honestly, not even for many completionists that normally enjoy this genre.
So yeah... end rant, I guess.
tl;dr: it takes completionist content too far, IMO, and while there's a ton of extra content, and a ton of it is fun, it's asking too much for most people to try and do it all, and I feel for people who get trapped in the completionsit pit of despair this game can bring on (the 35 score). The content I chose to do, was very fun for me, and the right amount of content, and I'm happy with it (the 90 score).
