Crash Bandicoot N sane trilogy was developed by Vicarious Visions a popular studio that has been making games since 1996. The studio worked on plenty of projects such as guitar hero, Spiderman, skylanders and plenty
of others. Crash bandicoot is an iconic mascot that was and still is extremely popular. The N.sane Trilogy was released in June 2017. The game was made Vicarious Visions and it is based on the original Crash Bandicoot
trilogy developed by Naughty Dog. These games were:
Crash Bandicoot(1996)
Crash Bandicoot:Cortex Strikes Back(1997)
Crash Bandicoot:Warped (1998)
The N.Sane trilogy was first released for the playstation 4 console as a time Exclusive. The rest of the consoles(Pc,XBox & Switch), received their version one year later in June 2018. The game has a Deluxe Edition that is available
for both the Switch and the Playstation. With the Playstation Deluxe Edition the players get exclusive Crash bandicoot socks and with the Switch version, the players get an exclusive Crash Bandicoot Controller. It should be noded that
the price between the deluxe editions differ with the switch version beiing more expensive. Upon it's release the game was heavily praised for beeing a faitfull remaster and succesfully earned various nominations and awards on it;s year of
release. Needless to say, the game was a huge success selling over 10 million of copies within 2 years.
Since it's release the game has been in plenty of bundles. These are :
The first game introduces the players to a mad Scientist called Doctor Neo Cortex who was experimenting on the wildlife. In the oppening cutscene Cortex was using his Evolo-Ray to change the DNA of the animals into blood
thirsty soldiers to help him Conquer the world. One day Cortex was experimenting on a bandicoot who would have been his army's Leader. The experiments kept going and going with what it seemed to be a success ,however, on the day that Cortex was
gonna use his brainwashing machine Cortex Vortex Crash the badincoot was rejected. Crash lost and confused tried to escape from Cortex and his minions and jumped of the window. Cortex requested for his minions to prepare the second
bandicoot Tawna. Crash washes up in the shores of a small island and commits on saving his friends from Cortex. He is joined by a witch spirit called Aku- Aku. Crash ventures around in various of islands in order to reach the
mad doctors lab. Cortex becomes aware of Crash and sends his minions in order to prevent his missions. Eventually Crash reaches the top of the laboratory and faces of with Cortex second hand and finally Cortex himslef. With the last fight taking
place on top of the blimp, Crash emrges victorious and saves Tawna who seems very happy to be rescued.
Crash Bandicoot: Cortex Strikes Back
The second game Cortex Strikes Back takes place right after the first game with Dr. Cortex falling from the blimp. After he pick himself up he sees some pink Crystals which he seems to recognised and believes they have alot of power. A year
later Cortex makes a new base outside of the planet with his new assistand Dr n Gin.Dr Gin claims that in order to power the new and improve Cortex Vortex they need 25 more crystals which they do not seem to have. Cortex is aware of it and thus claims
that in order to gain these crystals they ll have to use their enemies in order to claim the rest. Crash was enjoying peacefull times with his young sister Coco who wakes him up to bring her some batteries for her laptop. Crash sets to collect them but
finds himself in an ancient Warp room with access to various worlds. Cortex appears as a holographic projection and tells Crash a fake story about a natural phenomenom that threatens to destroy their world. He asks for Crash's aid in order to build a weapon
capable of dealling with this narutal dissaster. He explains how he has a plan already in the making and he is only missing 25 crystals. Crash simply accepts as he does not wish the loss of his planet. Crash sets on his journey to collect the crystals. Along
the way he comes across plenty of enemies from the past. At the same time Dr Brio(Cortex right Hand on the prior game) asks for Crash to also collect some colorful diamonds that act as an alternative source of energy in case that Cortex's plans failed. Unbeknoenst
to Cortex, his former ally is building a machine that will be capable of destroying Cortex's weapon. Whilst on his mission, his sister Coco hacks Cortex hologram and discovers his evil plans. She proceeds to reveal Cortex plans to Crash who did not seemed to
be happy with Cortex. Crash chases Cortex who tries to escape but it was pointless as Crash chases him around the planets atmosphere with a jetback. With the defeat of Cortex, Dr Brio contacts Crash and informs him that he build a laser machine capable of dealling with
Cortex flying lab and he is only missing the gems he had requested. The three of them (Crash, Coco, Dr Brio) unleash a beam and destroy the flying laboratory .
Crash Bandicoot : Warped
Similar to the sequel the third installment follows the fall of the parts from Cortex's laboratory from space. A piece had fallen on an ancient temple and a spirit escapes claimming he is now free. The daylight dissappears as an evil atmosphere appears on the world.
Aku-Aku claims that Uka-Uka has been freed and a terrible Evil should fall in the land. Uka Uka's first act is to approach Cortex and punish him for failling him twice. Cortex begs him for forgiveness. Uka-Uka feeling generous for his
freedom spares Cortex and introduces him a new ally. Aku Aku explains how Uka Uka will abuse time to see his plans through and thus he teleports Coco and Crash on a time machine so that they will gather the crystals prior to Uka-Uka. the trio venture around and succesfully
prevents Uka-Uka's plan. They defeat their enemy's minions including the newly regrouped Dr Tropy . Crash and Aku-Aku clash with Cortex and Uka-Uka for one last epic battle. With the victory of the heroes they succesfully trapped Uka-Uka in a timeless time and space.
GamePlay
Crash Bandicoot games are notoriously known for beeing extremely difficult and punishing. Everything out there is made with the cause of killing poor little Crash. Crash is always placed in the hub world and walks around choosing levels for him to play. Each of the games has it's own
number of levels. Crash Bandicoot has 34 levels, Crash Bandicoot: Cortex Strikes Back has 35 levels and finally Crash Bandicoot: Warped has a total 38 levels. Crash selects the level of preference and then drops to the gameplay. The levels are filled with Various enemies that are capable
of one shoting Crash. At the same time all of the maps have various of items that can also kill the player with one hit.To elaborate some levels have Spikes, fire, electricity, crushing pillars, toxic waters and plenty of others. Last but not least in almost every map there are never ending holes
that drop the players down to their demise.
At the same time there are items that help (in a way) Crash on his missions. All the maps have Wumpa fruits. Collecting 100 of Wumpa fruits rewards Crash with one extra life (1-Up) and generally increases Crash's overall score. The wumpa fruits can be found out in the wild or within crates.
There's various of crates:
Crates with a Quesion mark (?) That hold more than one fruit
Crates that look like wooden cells. Crash can bounce on them to get more fruits until they break. Breaking them for shorcut won't reward any fruis
Crates with Crash Face, represent 1-Up.
Crates with Aku-Aku mask, will allow Aku to escort him
Crates with exclamation mark (!) Will trigger something somewhere within the map
Crates with the Word TNT, jumping up sets a 3 second timer that will cause an explotion. Smashing it it's an insta kill on Crash
Crates painted Green, are imidietly explode upon interacting with bigger blast.
Other than the crates and wumpa fruits, Crash 2 and 3 have thr crystals and the gems that are neseccary for the story mode.
The players get control of Crash or Coco in the latter two entries. Crash moves around in a 3D environment with L3 or the keypad depending on the players preference. Crash is capable of jumping with the usage of X. There is no double jump though, so repressing X wont help.Nevertheless taping and holding X
indicates the jumping height. Jumping on a crate and pressing X at the timing right before smashing the box will allow Crash to reach higher height. Square is the famous spin attack that Crash is very popular with. Triangle on the other hand is simply used to bring the status in the display. These are the
ammounts of wumpa fruits currently possesed, total lives, timer etc. These are the main mechanicks introdused in Crash Bandicoot. The sequel and third game, have a few more abilities such as sliding. Spirnting and pressing circle allows crash to slide. Enemies hit during a slide will be knocked out.
Moreover jumping and pressing circle, will cause crash to grap his leg and belly flop the ground stomping on every enemy. Running sliding jumping and O will allow crash to reach higher height based on their speed. The last available ability the bandicoots share are a Wumba bazooka. The player can aim with
L2 and shoot with R2Aku-Aku as mentioned earlier appear to help Crash. Whether obtained from a crate or simply obtaining him from dying multiple times. He appears next to the hero and acts as a second chance. For example, being hit while equiped with Aku will cause him to leave and spare the player.
Aku-Aku has three forms.
Single:Allows for one extra hit
Double:Allows for two extra hits. Obtained when the player gets Aku-Aku when already equiped with one. Represented with a shiny version of Aku.
Triple: makes Crash invicible for a short period of time. Any enemy hit whilst invicible will die and the traps wont damage Crash. The only way of dying is cliffs. Represented with shiny Crash.
Time trials and Gems.
Gems are obtain in various ways. In the first game the way to collect gems is by crushing every single box within a level. Ending a level will have Crash crashed by all the missing crates that the player missed, but if they got them all will have a gem instead. IN the latter games, the player will come across cros-paths
that are more challenging and when completed will give the player a free gem as a reward. The relics challenges are available once a level is cleared. Selecting the level again will have a crate with a clock on top of it that upon breaking will set of a timer. the players are tasked to finish the level within a certain time
limit. The crates found in the level remain the same, however some of them instead of beeing one of those mentioned above have a certain number of them. These crates will freeze the timer for as many seconds as the crates depictioned.
Sum-Up
Overall Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy is a faithfull remaster to the original Trilogy of the nineties.(1996-1998). The games seems to have aged well and as mentioned the remaster was well received from across the globe. The characters look polish and clean in comparison to their older counter parts. The level design is
really good and very tricky. Everything is out to get Crash and that can be seen everywhere within a level. There's plenty of funny animations triggered with the death of Crash for every possible death(fire,electicity,spikes). The level themelves are different from each other introducing new mechanicks. Some of them are normal
3D Platforming levels, some of them have Crash running towards the screen while a giant rock/bear/dinosaur is chasing him, some have the player to choose path A or B, some use special items such as jetpack,jetski and so on so on. Every level keeps the game fresh and new. The buttons respond to the players input without any issue
or delay. The game is as hard as the players experience. Some will find it difficult,some will find it challenging and others will find it easy. It really depends on the player.
Showcases of the game
This is a video showcasing and reviewing the game, with my personal opinion.
