Bandicoot is back, with a Crash, bang and a wallop
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time (PlayStation, Xbox)
Verdict: Madcap masterpiece
Fifa 21 (PlayStation, Xbox, PC)
Verdict: Score draw
A BANDICOOT, Sir David Attenborough will tell you, is a marsupial that looks like a rat with a long nose.
Crash Bandicoot is a particularly flamboyant example — orange, leering, sporting shorts and sneakers — who has been bouncing across our screens, madder and louder than Super Mario, since the days of the first PlayStation.
It’s been 22 years (and many underwhelming spin-offs) since Crash Bandicoot 3. Now we have Crash Bandicoot 4 and it harks back to the early classics by being extremely challenging. You’ll watch Crash die a thousand times — thankfully, in cartoon style.
But Crash Bandicoot 4 makes this process addictive rather than infuriating, with fresh delights around every seemingly impossible-to-reach corner. Its time-hopping story sends Crash and his sister, Coco, from feudal Japan to the fluorescent future.
One level, a ghostly Mardi Gras, is among the most joyous gaming experiences I’ve ever had, full of music and colour.
Even the Quantum Masks our heroes chase are more than just plot devices; these mystical face coverings impart new powers and shake up the traditional gameplay. So, too, does the introduction of different playable characters and remixed levels. As Sir David might say, no bandicoot died in vain.
FOR years, the Fifa games were much like football kits: pointlessly and expensively updated every season. But recently, the designers have been trying harder, introducing new modes such as fast-paced street footballing and even a cinematic storyline.
The latest edition, FIFA 21, is hovering somewhere around mid-table. Its changes are more evolution than revolution (new ways to dribble the ball!), but it does retain many of the bigger innovations from its immediate predecessors.
Fifa 21 will be upgraded for the forthcoming generation of new consoles out next month, so perhaps there is more to come. An in-game version of dodgy VAR decisions, anyone? Both games out now; Crash Bandicoot is £59.99; FIFA 21 ranges from £59.99 to £89.99.