I’m not the world’s best platformer player, but back in the day I really enjoyed the Crash Bandicoot games, so I was both excited and suspicious to hear that Vicarious Visions had done a remake. Excited, because they were great games and suspicious, because sometimes remakes are disappointing.
I’m happy to say, this remake is not disappointing. It’s almost everything you want from a compilation of this kind. The graphics are redone in a cartoon style that looks fantastic on the PS4. The graphics are so smooth and fun to look it at it really adds to gameplay.
The audio has also been updated to improve the overall experience of the game. Crash Bandicoot fans from before will be delighted with this redo. If you’ve never played the Crash games, you’re in for a treat.
If however, you were hoping for some new Crash Bandicoot content, you’re not going to find that here. This is a remake of the three original games: Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back, and Warped. They play exactly like those games because it’s a remaster of those three games.
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Remember how hard it was to control Crash underwater when you’re trying to collect everything? It’s still just as hard. Remember how sometimes you couldn’t quite tell where to jump because the depth perception was slightly off, so you just had to keep trying. That’s still an issue. On the other hand, platform players love grinding through that kind of thing, so fear not, there is plenty of grinding left to do.
For those of us who would rather stick pins in our eyes than play that water level one more time, well, this will feel familiar. I’ve come to terms with the reality that I will never platinum on a platformer. I can live with this.
I know this is three full games beautifully remastered, but I thought the price was kind of steep for a game set without any new content. After all, these games aren’t that long, so I took away a star on value. Hardcore platform players might disagree with me on that though.
In short, hardcore platform players and nostalgia players should go buy this trilogy right now. Those of you who are less hardcore or who have tighter purse strings might want to wait for a sale. Either way, you won’t be disappointed. This is great gaming no matter when you decide to play.