My thoughts on the Crash Bandicoot N-sane trilogy

[BrawlMan]

I just recently played through the Crash Bandicoot Trilogy on PS4. I'd beaten 2 & 3 and I am going through one right now. And my God, I forgot how hard the first game was. In Crash Bandicoot 1, Crash is really sluggish, and I don't know if anybody else knows this, but there seems to be a frame delay and the first game at least. Sometimes it was noticeable in the second crash game and barely happen when I played three.

The trilogy itself is worth a great price; especially for $40. That's three games and all that content. Because after you beat it you'll probably go for a hundred percent completion. I did a hundred percent completion for crash 2 and 3 back in the day on the PS1. The first game, not so much.

If there is any gripe I have with the game is that all three titles run at 30 frames per second. While this is not a huge deal breaker, it is slightly disappointing. If I remember correctly, the titles in the past ran at 60 frames per second. Also some of the load times can be a little lengthy. Do not worry it is not blood-borne levels of bad, but I do find it odd that these three games back on the PS1 loaded quicker than a modern console. Otherwise it is a great buy if you want to play through the trilogy again, or if you're new to the Crash series.

Let me know if you guys and gals have any questions.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I was never a big fan of the first game, it felt pretty plain and linear, and 100% completion was a *****. Two and three are still pretty linear but at least they threw in some new gimmickry now and then like animal buddies, rail-shooter sections and some fun hidden stuff. The bosses were pretty cool too. But overall I think the games boasted more charm and personality than they did good gameplay.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It was a fun nostalgia trip, but also one that reminded me how ball bustingly frustrating these early 3D games were. Not hard, frustrating. Because hard would require something that is overcome by skill and not by luck.

Crash 1 is just a torture device by now, with its crummy, wooden controls. They should've really fixed some of this, and maybe they did, but it's hardly noticeable. As soon as I got to Road to Nowhere I was fucking done and moved over to Crash 2. Speaking of... Those jetpack levels have aged HORRIBLY control-wise. Again, why couldn't they fix this? I mean, moving forward and backward with R2 and L2, REALLY?! Crash 3 was overall pretty fun, but there's still the racing levels.

And those fucking loadscreens, holy shit! Not even an attempt to make them visually interesting or anything.

The game looks nice, and there's obviously a lot of work that went into making it look fancy, but that's really all there is to it; a fancy sheen. Stylistically it's pretty bland, and I actually found the Skylanders version of Crash more visually interesting. Also the fur texture doesn't handle shading very well at all. They should've gone for something simpler, like the fur/feather texture on the enemies in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

 

[BrawlMan]

It was a fun nostalgia trip, but also one that reminded me how ball bustingly frustrating these early 3D games were. Not hard, frustrating. Because hard would require something that is overcome by skill and not by luck.

Crash 1 is just a torture device by now, with its crummy, wooden controls. They should've really fixed some of this, and maybe they did, but it's hardly noticeable. As soon as I got to Road to Nowhere I was fucking done and moved over to Crash 2. Speaking of... Those jetpack levels have aged HORRIBLY control-wise. Again, why couldn't they fix this? I mean, moving forward and backward with R2 and L2, REALLY?! Crash 3 was overall pretty fun, but there's still the racing levels.

And those fucking loadscreens, holy shit! Not even an attempt to make them visually interesting or anything.

The game looks nice, and there's obviously a lot of work that went into making it look fancy, but that's really all there is to it; a fancy sheen. Stylistically it's pretty bland, and I actually found the Skylanders version of Crash more visually interesting. Also the fur texture doesn't handle shading very well at all. They should've gone for something simpler, like the fur/feather texture on the enemies in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

Agreed. The Trilogy definitely could have benefited from revamped controls. Crash 1 most definitely could have used crash 2 or 3 controls, and they could at least added in the slide. Right now I'm stuck on the second bridge stage. I had to quit cuz I almost started to break my controller. I'll probably not touch Crash 1 for a while.

I do find it funny and ironic that's a Wii U game has better fur textures than a PS4 game.

BTW, fuck the racing levels and the jet ski levels.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Apparently the jumping has been changed in the first game. You now need momentum to make full jumps, where in the old game, Crash could do it just by standing still. This is something that was implemented in Crash 2, but the levels in the original game are still geared toward the original jumping skills, which is why Road to Nowhere is apparently a nightmare for so many people now. Because you now have to nail all the jumps in one go, instead of taking a breather and doing a safety jump to calm your nerves.

I just beat the first boss in the first game and I have yet to come across any of these rage-inducing issues that so many others have come up against, but I fully understand that it is because I'm still at the start of the game.

If anything, my only complaint so far is not remembering how to get all the gems right away, or where the hidden icons are. I had this stuff down when I was a kid, but it's been so long I'm going to have to look them up now...

 

[ChupathingyX]

While they did feel more difficult than the originals due to the slight jumping physic changes, I didn't really have much trouble with the bridge levels. Getting the gold relics was a bit of a pain because you're rushing and are basically forced to use the rope trick (which can be a bit finicky at times) but I still managed to finish them.

Most of my grievances so far (haven't played 2 and 3 yet) are related to the sound and visual design. Most of it looks nice, and while they did fix some of the colour issues that were present in the earlier builds, some levels, notably Jaws of Darkness and Slippery Climb, look way too bright and pale in some areas. Which also brings out the issue of sound design. Jaws of darkness and Slippery Climb both have much less 'sinister' and intense sounding music, and many other tracks follow a similar pattern (though Cortex's theme and Toxic Waste sound good). Also, most of the laughs in this game are largely worse than the original, particularly Ripper Roo, Pinstripe, and both of Pinstripe's minions. These issues don't impact the game, but they did bother me.

Oh well, on to Crash 2! Hopefully they don't spoil all the cool little secrets in that game...

 

[Mcgeezaks]

Crash Bandicoot 1 Remake is just pure shit, the controllers are inprecise, there's input lag AND you can glide of edges which is the most annoying part. I really hope 2 and 3 are better.

 

[laggyteabag]

Having never played Crash before, looking at the remake, it just looks incredibly unfun.

The game is pretty, but the gameplay just looks simplistic, dated, and like it is playing more on the nostalgia of its older fans, moreso than a solid and fun foundation.

Im sure that the remake is faithful, but jeez, the game itself could've done with some work.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Agreed. The Trilogy definitely could have benefited from revamped controls. Crash 1 most definitely could have used crash 2 or 3 controls, and they could at least added in the slide. Right now I'm stuck on the second bridge stage. I had to quit cuz I almost started to break my controller. I'll probably not touch Crash 1 for a while.

I do find it funny and ironic that's a Wii U game has better fur textures than a PS4 game.

BTW, fuck the racing levels and the jet ski levels.

They should've just added the double jump from the outset in every game. The biggest problem is the ridgedness to your jumps, making it feel like you're maneuvering a trashcan around. The double jump could've given you some much needed control over your jumps.

And yeah, those racing levels... On the first one I got kicked back to the warp room if I didn't finish first, meaning I had to sit through two loadscreens everytime I failed. The following ones gave me a retry, but for some reason that first one didn't. Maybe it was because I got the the all-boxes gem on that first one, I don't know.

 

[Yoshi178]

voice acting is shit. for example they completely ruined N Brios character in Crash 2 who used to come across as the intelligent one of the 2 mad scientists, with cortex being the buffoon of the two. in the remaster they've made N Brio sound like a total retard though and made him come across as just as stupid as Cortex.

aside from the shitty voice acting the N-Sane Trilogy looks like a pretty good remake of the games though.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I think it was a cheap, lazy nostalgia cash grab with only surface level improvements by Activision, developed by a team only experienced in DS porting. I don't agree with how they chose to do this, it's cynical and far better examples of modernising classics with love and care exist out there. What's with the low frame rate too?? It's not exactly asking a lot from the hardware.

[small]Not as shameless as the Micro machines release that came out last few days, people are not too happy with codemasters for that'n![/small]

 

[Yoshi178]

Having never played Crash before, looking at the remake, it just looks incredibly unfun.

Having never played Crash before it just looks incredibly unfun.

Crash looks incredibly unfun.

Get out.

Crash is amazing. (and this praise is coming from this forums unofficial Nintendo fanboy club president too so you know it's gotta be good then )

 

[gsilver]

I missed Crash Bandicoot back in the day (I was way late for the PS1 party...) so I was waiting for this.
...Maybe it isn't such a bad thing that I missed Crash.

 

[Mcgeezaks]

The old Crash games are still good but they fucked it up with the remasters.

 

[BrawlMan]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-tech-analysis

30fps in the originals too, but that was the main gripe with the remakes. Once the series moved to PS2 they hit 60fps. They should've really sacrificed some visual polish for the better playability though.

It's pretty ironic how the PS2 was considered so weak for its time but so many games seemed to have been 60fps on it.

 

[Chewster]

It was a fun nostalgia trip, but also one that reminded me how ball bustingly frustrating these early 3D games were. Not hard, frustrating. Because hard would require something that is overcome by skill and not by luck.

Crash 1 is just a torture device by now, with its crummy, wooden controls. They should've really fixed some of this, and maybe they did, but it's hardly noticeable. As soon as I got to Road to Nowhere I was fucking done and moved over to Crash 2. Speaking of... Those jetpack levels have aged HORRIBLY control-wise. Again, why couldn't they fix this? I mean, moving forward and backward with R2 and L2, REALLY?! Crash 3 was overall pretty fun, but there's still the racing levels.

And those fucking loadscreens, holy shit! Not even an attempt to make them visually interesting or anything.

The game looks nice, and there's obviously a lot of work that went into making it look fancy, but that's really all there is to it; a fancy sheen. Stylistically it's pretty bland, and I actually found the Skylanders version of Crash more visually interesting. Also the fur texture doesn't handle shading very well at all. They should've gone for something simpler, like the fur/feather texture on the enemies in Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze.

I've noticed this as well. I recently DLed the Jak and Daxter trilogy for Vita since I never played them and the first game is oddly unintuitive at times. Maybe I've just been spoiled by modern games but it's annoying trying to figure out where to go and the controls feel really clunky.

I'm kind of annoyed by remasters generally. Sure, it's nice to get to play old games that maybe I missed or want to try again but shit like this stinks of simple cash grabs, especially since it seems like they did nothing to try and improve the now obvious flaws.

 

[BrawlMan]

snip

If Laggeyteabag does not like it;it's not worth making a big fuss about. I like the trilogy, and even I admitted that his has problems or could have used gameplay revamps for the first and second game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-tech-analysis

30fps in the originals too, but that was the main gripe with the remakes. Once the series moved to PS2 they hit 60fps. They should've really sacrificed some visual polish for the better playability though.

It's pretty ironic how the PS2 was considered so weak for its time but so many games seemed to have been 60fps on it.

Because back then, most developers were making games, and not glorified walk-a-thon scripted events or movies. There is so much irony in how many games from the 6th generation has aged better than the 7th generation.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Because back then, most developers were making games, and not glorified walk-a-thon scripted events or movies. There is so much irony in how many games from the 6th generation has aged better than the 7th generation.

Really though, because I remember games like Abe's Oddysee, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and many other pre-7th generation games that focused on giving a cinematic, movie-like experience first and gameplay second. I know people like to throw out terms like 'walk-a-thon' and 'walk 'n talk', but how many developers actually do that now apart from Naughty Dog?

The dreaded cinematic, walk-a-thon genre of games makes up but a tiny fraction of the current gaming landscape.

 

[BrawlMan]

Because back then, most developers were making games, and not glorified walk-a-thon scripted events or movies. There is so much irony in how many games from the 6th generation has aged better than the 7th generation.

Really though, because I remember games like Abe's Oddysee, Silent Hill, Resident Evil, Metal Gear Solid, and many other pre-7th generation games that focused on giving a cinematic, movie-like experience first and gameplay second. I know people like to throw out terms like 'walk-a-thon' and 'walk 'n talk', but how many developers actually do that now apart from Naughty Dog?

The dreaded cinematic, walk-a-thon genre of games makes up but a tiny fraction of the current gaming landscape.

While it's true alot games tried to emulate movies and cinema pre-7th gen, most developers remembered to make a game first. And at least most cut-scenes could be skipped.

Second, there were a lot of games during the 7th generation that did forced walking segments outside of Naughty Dog. Many third person cover shooter were guilty of this, and post Modern Warfare 1.

Gears of War
Ninja Gaiden 3
Metal Gear Rising
Metroid: Other M
Killer Is Dead
DmC (2013)

I'll let Gaming Brit cover the rest.

<spoiler=Walking Segments are the new Unskippable Cut-scenes>

 

[Casual Shinji]

While it's true alot games tried to emulate movies and cinema pre-7th gen, most developers remembered to make a game first. And at least most cut-scenes could be skipped.

Second, there were a lot of games during the 7th generation that did forced walking segments outside of Naughty Dog. Many third person cover shooter were guilty of this, and post Modern Warfare 1.

Gears of War
Ninja Gaiden 3
Metal Gear Rising
Metroid: Other M
Killer Is Dead
DmC (2013)

I'll let Gaming Brit cover the rest.

<spoiler=Walking Segments are the new Unskippable Cut-scenes>

Yeah, in a game that's primarily fast-paced and focused on action I can understand that, since you're not playing those to slowly walk around. In that list though only Gears is going for slower action with a cinematic feel -- the rest is going for the polar opposite of that, with the exception maybe of DmC. Those are games lauded by the anti-cinematic crowd as being all about the gameplay and being "true" games, ironically.

But complaining about walking around in a game like The Last of Us (which GamingBrit can't seem to stop banging on about) is a bit silly, since that title's about you backpacking across the U.S.

And cutscenes in current games can be skipped just as easily.