Crash Bandicoot was an unusual acquisition for me. When I
moved in with my girlfriend last year, she had a PlayStation 4 and Crash
Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy was one of the games she had for it. I’d played Crash
before, of course; when you’ve grown up in the 90s when everyone and their cat
had a PlayStation, it was almost impossible not to. But I’d never really
enjoyed it enough to make it a worthwhile purchase, even when I had a PlayStation.
But having come to the end of two quite heavy games, I decided to give it a go.
Please note, therefore, that these notes refer to the HD remake for the PlayStation
4 – not the original game.
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| More or less what I looked like after clearing the game. |
You play as the titular Crash Bandicoot, who has been mutated
into a sentient being by Doctor Neo Cortex, and having escaped, now must make
his way across the Wumpa islands to rescue his girlfriend Tawna. Along the way,
you jump platforms, dodge traps, spin-attack enemies and defeat bosses. It was
a video game typical of its time, with the exception that this was still in an
age where mascot platformers sold systems, and there’s an argument to be made
for the idea that Crash would do this for their PlayStation. It was also one of
the first times that a platform game had been made in 3D – though in practice,
the levels were rather linear, and most of the time you were moving up into the
environment rather than across it, which was more typical of 2D platformers.
Crash was made at a very special time of video game design
where – for the first time – consoles could run 3D software, and a lot of games
were made to accommodate that. Some were better than others, and often the
technology would run away the design which would fall flat on its face. Crash
Bandicoot is not without its issues, but it manages to strike a balance between
the creative necessity of the time and being well-designed enough to prevent these
teething problems from alienating its fan base. 3D platforming is always a
tricky business, because you require a certain amount of depth perception in order
to correctly make the jumps. I died a lot in Crash Bandicoot, but that was
mostly because I’d misjudged a jump, got caught in a trap or fallen down a pit –
the enemies were the least of my problems!
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| Achieving invulnerability is always fun... |
With that being said, it was a lot of fun. The levels are
short and snappy, and reasonably well-designed. The controls are tight enough,
although the design of the environment lends itself better to the directional
pad rather than the thumb stick as your principle method of movement. The lives
system is left over from previous-generation games, but since the only penalty
for losing all of them is that you have to start from the beginning of a level
rather than the last checkpoint, it doesn’t get in the way of the enjoyment of
the game. The graphics have received an overhaul for the HD remake, and they
look fine; they’re as good as they need to be. There was no need to aim for
hyper-realism in a game about a mutant bandicoot! The sounds are wonderful; 5th-generation
consoles were able to play CD-quality audio for the first time and developers
lost no time in taking advantage of that fact. It’s frustrating in places, but
the frustration never gets so bad as to stop you from playing if you’re
determined to clear the game. The save menu could have done with an overhaul –
under no circumstances is it acceptable to be able to save and load your game on
the same screen in this day and age – but that’s the only thing that ought to
have been changed for the remake.
Having got to the end of the game I’m now faced with the
task of unlocking all the paths, gems, ankhs and boxes, and while this is fine
for post-game content, it’s not something I’m particularly interested in doing.
All in all, Crash Bandicoot is a good game that anyone could enjoy – but the
old-school design means that some people will enjoy it more than others.
Final Score: 4/5: Great
game.
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