Improving on the ‘Crash Bandicoot’ classics
YOU can’t beat the classics, but you can improve them.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy presents three classic, cartoony platforming games: 1996’s Crash Bandicoot, 1997’s
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, and 1998’s Crash Bandicoot:
Warped. While there’s some mild violence — Crash does a spin move that sends his enemies flying — the game’s cartoonish look and tone mean there’s no blood or gore. Crash can also be a little flirty, but otherwise there’s no inappropriate content.
What’s it about?
As a collection of three games, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy has three stories. In Crash
Bandicoot, our hero has to stop the evil Dr Neo Cortex from taking over the world, while also rescuing his girlfriend. Then, in Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back, Dr Cortex coerces Crash to do his bidding. Finally, in Crash Bandicoot: Warped, our favourite Australian marsupial travels through time to, what else, save the world from Dr Cortex. Some people never learn.
Is it any good?
Though it presents three classics from the late1990s, the action games on this compilation are as fresh and challenging as they were when they came out on the first PlayStation. Much like the
recent WipEout Omega Collection, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane
Trilogy presents aurally and visually remastered versions of the three classic ’90s games. All three platformers, in the vein of Mario’s greatest adventures, have you running, jumping, and spinning your way through sadistic obstacle courses full of traps, explosive boxes, surly monkeys, and other hazards.
But while the three games in this collection are as good as we remember them, these versions add a few small things that make them even better. Most notably, you can now play them as Crash’s similarly skilled sister, Coco. The game also automatically saves after every level. And if you do well at the Time Trials, in which you replay a level with the added challenge of having to beat the clock, it will upload your best time to online leaderboards so you can brag on a worldwide scale.
Regardless of how you play them, though, the three games in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy are as perplexing and engaging as they were when they first came out over, exactly, and nearly 20 years ago. — TCA