Crash Bandicoot, once PlayStation’s biggest mascot during the original PlayStation days, disappeared from the radar. Its developer, Naughty Dog, seemed too occupied with the Uncharted franchise to even care about their beloved Bandicoot. Years later, Vicarious Visions did what fans have been asking for, they brought the Bandicoot back home. The N. Sane Trilogy brings the first three games in the franchise to PlayStation 4 but was it worth waiting for?
A true remaster
Unlike what a lot of fans were hoping for, the N. Sane Trilogy isn’t a new Crash Bandicoot game. Instead, it’s a remaster of the first one, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped, a lot of content to discover in other words! The three games really are remastered to fit the PlayStation 4 library perfectly. All three of them look like modern games and are filled with great details and secrets to discover. If you’ve played them before, you’ll be amazed by the number of details that can be found this time around, especially the backgrounds look impressive. You’ll really feel part of the jungle or the other environments throughout your adventures.
Since this is a remaster however, it does also come with a downside. Everything stayed exactly the same. That’s right, Vicarious Visions kept everything like it was before. Enemies follow the same path as before, traps are located at the exact same spot and the bosses still fight like they fought years ago. If you’re a hardcore Crash Bandicoot fan, this might be a little disappointing since the game itself hasn’t changed. Of course, this is no issue for the new gamers who are discovering the crazy Bandicoot for the first time.
Not an easy game
To my surprise, the games are a lot harder than I remembered. The first Crash Bandicoot game really is unforgiving so the added checkpoints in the version certainly are a welcomed bonus. Crash Bandicoot plays like a 3D platforming game with a twist, you can take this quite literally. Crash jumps and spins around in his quest to stop the evil Cortex. Before you reach your nemesis, you’ll travel to different levels using a map that could have been in a Super Mario game instead. Once in the level, you’ll move from bottom to the top of your screen most of the times. There are some side-scrolling sections but those are rather rare, Crash Bandicoot is a different kind of platformer.
As said before, the gameplay is easy to learn but hard to master. The enemies are placed on various spots where you have to jump on top of them to avoid the ledge behind them. You’ll really need to learn the placement of the enemies and best ways to avoid them. Crash only has one chance, if he gets hit, you’re forced to restart the level (from a checkpoint if you’ve reached one). To make things a little easier, Crash can break crates containing apples. These apples give you an extra life if you collected enough of them. Besides that, the Aku Aku masks also make a return. If you collect such a mask, it will take the hit for you, enabling Crash to move on. If you collect three masks, you’ll even become invincible. A mechanism you can certainly use in the first game of the three remasters.
It gets easier
If you’re afraid of a challenge, don’t worry, the second and third Crash Bandicoot games are a lot more forgiving. In fact, the original Crash Bandicoot game isn’t the best of this collection at all. The second one adds some more variation to the scene but especially the third one (Warped) is the most fun to play in this bundle. Warped looks extremely sharp and the details are definitely from another level. This game also offers most variation thanks to the several vehicles Crash can use. It’s great to have it in this bundle and it only makes everything better.
Besides this, this remaster also comes with an ability to save manually next to the autosaving. A great tool if you want to stop playing without having to start over afterward. There are also more checkpoints so you’ll rarely need to restart large segments of levels. These changes were made to make the trilogy a little more accessible for newcomers but it’s something everybody will enjoy for sure. The last fun bonus they added is Coco Bandicoot, who is playable for most of the time. A fun extra but she doesn’t really play differently.
Conclusion:
Crash Bandicoot finally returns home thanks to the N. Sane Trilogy. The games are remastered with a lot of care and love for the franchise. Everything looks extremely sharp and the classic gameplay hasn’t changed a bit. Perhaps this is also the biggest downside of the product. Everything stayed exactly the same while we are used to face smarter enemies and have a faster pacing in modern games. This certainly is a product for the fans of the Bandicoot while newcomers might wonder why there’s so much hype for this trilogy. It’s definitely a lot of fun to play but keep in mind that modern games offer the same type of gameplay and often even better. That being said, it’s great to have our favorite Bandicoot back in action, hopefully, we’ll see him in a true sequel one day.
