RUNNING WILD IN HANG EIGHT
The new Time Trial mode will change how you play Crash Bandicoot
walk and run with a soft or hard push on the stick. It’s a small, new addition but it works. We soon find we’re swapping between controls mid-game too, because while the 3D gameplay is best handled on the sticks, switching to the D-pad helps in the timing of the precarious Bonus stages.
Reaching the end of Hang Eight, we’re met with the sight of Crash being crushed under a barrage of crates, as every wumpa fruit we failed to find smashes onto our marsupial’s head. He’s being punished for our poor play. We feel sad as Crash is pancaked into the ground… but we chuckle at it all the same.
“Crash is a funny game,” laughs Tanguay. “He’s this living cartoon in this world, and it’s a humour we don’t see as much of these days, whether in games or cartoons. It’s kind of absurd and zany, he has this charm to him, but also he had a little bit of danger to him as well.”
Playing Crash now, refined by Vicarious Visions’ animators, we can see a lot of the influences that Naughty Dog took in – it’s Looney Tunes, Animaniacs and Who Framed Roger Rabbit rolled up. When Crash falls to his death he plummets like Wile E Coyote, his little red trainers hanging in the air in one last gesture of defiance. The joke is sold well that losing at Crash can be as rewarding as a clean wumpa run. The so detail and power of PS4 means these death throes have never looked better. Watching our furry friend burn to a powdered heap, his eyeballs blinking in an ash pile, we can’t help but smile.
“They really kind of distilled those influences into this game world,” continues Tanguay. “It’s important for us, when we’re working on Crash, that we recapture the humour of the original game and look at the inspirations behind it and use that humour to push the tone and the feeling that Naughty Dog was originally going for.”
There’s also a purpose to the slapstick jokes. Seeing Crash crushed by missed crates forces us to face our failures and replay the level. This time we’ll find every single wumpa fruit and hit that hallowed 100% target.
The Crash series demands you retread, repeat and explore. Hitting a ‘!’ crate turns previously transparent (and ignored) crates solid, and there’s a secret route to unlock that’s littered with extra wumpa fruit to hoover up.
FRUIT LOOP
After countless repeats of the same levels we also begin to hone our play style. We’re no longer patient; now
“WATCHING OUR FURRY FRIEND BURN TO A POWDERED HEAP, WE CAN’T HELP BUT SMILE.”
we’re mixing an u slide into a jump (holding q adds more power) to scoot across platform gaps. The slide pushes Crash across the first gap and jump makes him leap the next. We’re cutting corners on platform leaps and ignoring the safe routes. We’re speed-running Crash Bandicoot.
It’s no surprise to learn a key new mode added by Vicarious Visions is the Time Trial, which makes the most of Crash’s new, tighter controls. Every game in the trilogy can now be played in Time Trial mode. In total there are 84 levels of competitive freerunning wumpa collection. It’s a small addition, but one that will reinvigorate the series for old and new fans.
When it comes to sharing more new additions to the games, Tanguay is not exactly forthcoming. We ask if the levels Naughty Dog created but left out of the original games, such as Stormy Ascent, will make it back into the remakes? “We can’t reveal much on that just yet,” he says hesitantly, but with just enough of an awkward pause for us to hope he means something is on the way.
Returning to specifics, and what is in the N. Sane Trilogy, it’s clear this is a remake full of heart by a team who love Crash Bandicoot. The game plays with a smooth fluidity that reminds us where Naughty Dog came from and why after 20 years the original game, albeit with a dusting of refinements, still stands the test of time. Have no fear, Crash is in safe hands.
“For some team members these games were defining for their childhoods,” Tanguay tells us as we push restart for one final run at Heavy Machinery. “These games were games that got them into gaming, they played them obsessively and some still play them to this day. They know these games by heart.”