So, about Crash Bandicoot 4...

[Tronky.it]

This is my personal opinion, not perfect and certainly not absolute.
I would be happy to know yours in the comments.​

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After the last edition of the GOTY Awards, I wrote on the forum that it was impossible to see Astro Bot awarded and not games like Mario Galaxy or Crash Bandicoot 4 that were clearly superior and fun.
The problem is that I said it having ONLY watched gameplay of Crash Bandicoot 4, having only played the first 2 levels and then seeing my PS Plus expired immediately after. A mistake that I don't usually make, but we're talking about Crash Bandicoot, a game that when treated as a PLATFORM is a great game that hardly makes mistakes - the Titans and the Mutants are games that don't exist.

I thought that game would have meant the rebirth of the franchise and... instead, it seems to have only complicated things.

Now, Activision and Toys for Bob (which I honestly only knew for the Madagascar tie-in for PS2 that I loved so much as a child and that I completed several times in my life), had a great opportunity, to make the myth known to a new generation of gamers, re-proposing those colors and that style and that gameplay that made us fall in love with the orange bandicoot. An opportunity that they wasted, however, not only by releasing a team-based 4v4 game like Crash Team Rumble after this title, but also by canceling Crash Bandicoot 5 which basically had an interesting plot idea and which above all included the entry of Spyro the Dragon after their first meeting on the GBA in 2004...

There are a lot of things to say about this game, and I could dwell on many things.
Not only can I not understand how they came up with the idea of unlocking 6 gems per level - destroy all the boxes, die less than 3 times, find the secret gem - and how they came up with the N.Sane relics - unlock all the gems in one game WITHOUT DYING... Not only do I not understand why they added the VHS tapes, which are also cute and interesting levels... Not only do I not understand why they added the different timelines to figure out how Crash and Coco end up in certain situations...
As for how I can't understand why they made it so uselessly and annoyingly difficult.

If a child heard us "old" 20-30 year olds talking about Crash Bandicoot, and decided to play the most modern one, after the third level they would throw the joypad away and call us "masochistic assholes", because they would think that all the previous games were like that. And it's a shame, because in the end over time this saga has been compared IN A SENSELESS WAY to Dark Souls. Never a big mistake was made, because between the two games there is not a river but an ocean.
Yes, the games were always challenging, but precisely, CHALLENGING. They didn't tell you "go, take this road, take the star, oops, you win, bye" like in the Mario games (which I love anyway). They treated you like a gamer and gave you a fair challenge, and with less than 5 deaths you could finish the level if you wanted to. It was perfect for all categories of gamers.

CB4 instead was designed based on these damn Dark Souls rumors, making it difficult because "hey, the Internet said so :D", developing it precisely to please long-time players and hardcore gamers. And so here are the masks, the 6 gems per level, the N.Sane relics, the video cassettes, and... as if that wasn't enough... THE most absurd PLATINUM TROPHY in history, unlockable (among other things) only if you manage to get not 1, not 2, not 3, but

32 PLATINUM RELICS!!!

In the original trilogy, I managed to get more or less 15-20 platinum relics IN 3 GAMES.
Now, okay, I'm not a pro player and so it sounds like I'm complaining, but doesn't it still seem strange to you that the original trilogy didn't require you to unlock the platinum relics in order to platinum the game, while the fourth one does?
There may be a different gameplay choice perhaps to rejuvenate the game, they tried to do it at the time with Crash Twinsanity making it """open world""" and not tied to the Warp Rooms, but the huge difference between the first 3 games and the 4th you can easily notice by playing them with a joypad in hand.

And it's not a question about the platinum trophy, not everyone may be interested in unlocking it because maybe they don't care to do it or because they are not historical players and therefore want something to pass the time... too bad that even here there are problems with some levels, especially introducing the quantum masks that make objects disappear or make you spin until you blow up etc.
In conclusion, it's a shame that the hype that Crash had regained after years of darkness (and Skylanders... brrr...) with the remake of the trilogy and CTR has been dissolved because of this title. Which in the end is not even a bad game, because the design in general is beautiful and cartoonish as it should be, and the levels can still be completed relatively quickly if you don't focus on deaths and boxes...

But Crash Bandicoot, for me, has never been this. And it should never be.

 

[ciro64]

Yeah, I'm not 100% that game ever. Although I barely played Crash 4 anyway.

I've beaten Crash 1 100% with no save states. I'm okay with the difficult stopping there lol.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I'm 100% with you on this one.

I enjoyed playing 4 through once, and I even enjoyed some of the optional hardcore challenges in the Retro VHS Tapes, mostly because they felt a bit like those super hard bonus stages in Crash 1.

That said, I literally never go back to Crash 4 now. I hate the amount of crap they filled the game with for the sake of making it feel like a bigger game. It has some of the best modern platforming I've seen in a game, yet it's all for nothing if you feel like getting the most out of this game is going to make you feel like dying.

Personally, think that the devs and publisher way over-stepped, and would have got a game that was juts as successful if they had dropped like 50-80% of the filler they used to extend the gameplay.

Modern crash killed the franchise again because it just stopped feeling like Crash at some point.

Honestly, while we're at it, I hate the addition of Relics in Crash and Crash 2 for the N.Sane trilogy. They're really not made to be rushed like that and it honestly just pissed me off more than made me feel like they'd made a fun addition. Playing as Coco in those games was a fun addition. Even that super hard new level was a fun addition. "make orange boy go fast" was bloody-well not.

 

[ciro64]

I'm 100% with you on this one.

I enjoyed playing 4 through once, and I even enjoyed some of the optional hardcore challenges in the Retro VHS Tapes, mostly because they felt a bit like those super hard bonus stages in Crash 1.

That said, I literally never go back to Crash 4 now. I hate the amount of crap they filled the game with for the sake of making it feel like a bigger game. It has some of the best modern platforming I've seen in a game, yet it's all for nothing if you feel like getting the most out of this game is going to make you feel like dying.

Personally, think that the devs and publisher way over-stepped, and would have got a game that was juts as successful if they had dropped like 50-80% of the filler they used to extend the gameplay.

Modern crash killed the franchise again because it just stopped feeling like Crash at some point.

Honestly, while we're at it, I hate the addition of Relics in Crash and Crash 2 for the N.Sane trilogy. They're really not made to be rushed like that and it honestly just pissed me off more than made me feel like they'd made a fun addition. Playing as Coco in those games was a fun addition. Even that super hard new level was a fun addition. "make orange boy go fast" was bloody-well not.

I'd have preferred if they kept it simpler too. Also imo the game's art direction doesn't do justice to classic Crash and the music is really disappointing.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I'd have preferred if they kept it simpler too. Also imo the game's art direction doesn't do justice to classic Crash and the music is really disappointing.

I liked some of the choices of level theming, though I think it was a major disappointment that they grouped the themes together so tightly.

One of the strengths of the original series was that, although there were a few different level themes and they were vaguely grouped (space level only started appearing later on, fewer jungle stages by the end of the game, etc), you got to experience different themes in the same warp areas/islands.

The only lore/design change in 4 that I like is the inclusion of Dingodile as a hero/playable character. He's my favourite little guy from the franchise, and getting him on the good side was nice.

 

[Yousef]

Crash topic. Gotta ping the ol and reliable @Skeetos
Personally not a big fan of crash 4. I loved the physics but it’s a shame they’re wasted on such lousy level design.

 

[DrunkGecko]

my feelings on crash 4 is the same as whats stated in the caddicarus review
its an extremely good platformer thats an absolute nightmare to complete

 

[Frickinfrik]

Crash 4: It’s About Time is probably the hardest game to 100%. And people say Mario Sunshine is “hard to 100%” (its not, it’s very easy. I never had a problem 100%ing that game, they just have a skill issue). I played Crash 4, and it fucking pissed me off so badly. I never beat it, I uninstalled the game after missing boxes and dying so much. Who was the sadistic asshole who decided to make the game a huge nightmare to 100%? And it’s not even worth 100%ing the game. All you get is a shitty cliffhanger ending that might as well be a giant middle finger and will likely never be resolved thanks to Activision poorly treating the franchise.

 

[Tronky.it]

lo completerò giusto per lo sfizio di dire che ho completato tutta la saga numerata (mi mancano da completare Crash Bash, Tag Team Racing, i titoli per GBA e Crash Twinsanity), dopodichè basta. Stop.

Activision come l'ho schifata negli anni per colpa dei giochi sui Mutanti e sui Titani, continuo a schifarla tuttora per questo: per aver dato ascolto a gente che di Crash Bandicoot non sa una cippa di nulla.

Un pò come Bethesda ha fatto con Wolfenstein Youngblood e Fallout 76 dando ascolto a chi voleva dei giochi online...

Buon per chi invece lo ama e si diverte a giocarlo, però.

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I'll complete it just for the fun of saying that I've completed the entire numbered saga (I still have Crash Bash, Tag Team Racing, the GBA titles and Crash Twinsanity to complete), after which that's it. Stop.

As much as I've despised Activision over the years because of the games about Mutants and Titans, I still despise them for this: for listening to people who don't know a damn thing about Crash Bandicoot.

A bit like what Bethesda did with Wolfenstein Youngblood and Fallout 76 by listening to those who wanted online games...

Good for those who love it and enjoy playing it, though.

 

[carb0n0x]

Oh, but it does get worse my friend, let me tell you about N.Verted levels...

 

[KaiserMk7]

unlock all the gems in one game WITHOUT DYING...​

I have one big question as someone who hasn't played. Does this prevent you from collecting a completion mark for the life of the save if you ever once meet an extremely easy, simple, not at all out of the way failure condition?

 

[Tronky.it]

I have one big question as someone who hasn't played. Does this prevent you from collecting a completion mark for the life of the save if you ever once meet an extremely easy, simple, not at all out of the way failure condition?

Let me explain (I've wrote that part in a wrong way): each level has an N.Sane relic to unlock in that specific case.
In a single level you must not die and you must simultaneously break all the boxes / find the secret gem / take as many wumpa fruits as possible. If you die even once but unlock all the gems, you still do not get the relic. So you have to redo the level from zero.

This is madness.

 

[KaiserMk7]

Let me explain (I've wrote that part in a wrong way): each level has an N.Sane relic to unlock in that specific case.
In a single level you must not die and you must simultaneously break all the boxes / find the secret gem / take as many wumpa fruits as possible. If you die even once but unlock all the gems, you still do not get the relic. So you have to redo the level from zero.

This is madness.

So gems respawn now, like transparent blue power stars replacing already-collected yellow ones in the mission-based collectathon-ish 3D mario games, rather than existing as something that you grab once and never consider interacting with again?

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I don't get the number 4 when Wrath of Cortex is technically the fourth game and that one would be the eighth.

They should've just named it "It's About Time" without the number like they did with Warped.

 

[ThatOneLum]

I don't get the number 4 when Wrath of Cortex is technically the fourth game and that one would be the eighth.

They should've just named it "It's About Time" without the number like they did with Warped.

I believe the idea was to retcon the storyline back to just the original trilogy so they could do new stuff with it.

Personally I wouldn't have cared about any of their continuity or title crap if the game had been less dissapointing. As it is I'm more likely to ignore this 4 instead of TT's 4

 

[Ikagura Ikagura]

I believe the idea was to retcon the storyline back to just the original trilogy so they could do new stuff with it.

Personally I wouldn't have cared about any of their continuity or title crap if the game had been less dissapointing. As it is I'm more likely to ignore this 4 instead of TT's 4

While I guess that N-Sane may have given a blank slate for the franchise why should there be a continuity to begin with?

Even Mario doesn't bother itself too much with that and even Sonic games post-Unleashed kinda stopped aside from one or two references until Frontiers.


I think that platforming franchises aren't RPGs so they don't need to follow closely the events of the previous entries.