The mutant marsupial comes crashing back
PS4, XBOX ONE (PEGI: 12)
C★★★★
ALL me a nerd – and you wouldn’t be the first – but I do love a good play on words. That’s why I was smitten with the new Crash Bandicoot game before I’d even put it in the console.
It’s About Time is literally a game about time, but as a direct sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped – released in 1998 – it’s also about time it was released.
This may be the eighth main instalment in the Crash Bandicoot series, but it’s the fourth game chronologically and in that way it wipes out some of the series’ more dubious releases.
The game’s story follows Crash Bandicoot and his sister Coco, who have joined forces with former enemy Dingodile and an alternatedimension counterpart of Crash’s old girlfriend Tawna, to recover the all-powerful Quantum Masks. Still with me?
If they fail in their quest, then the evil Doctors Neo Cortex, and Nefarious Tropy will be able to enslave the multiverse.
It’s a fine line to tread, bringing back a beloved game of this age. It needs to be familiar enough to appeal to long-standing fans, but also be fresh enough to not feel like your nostalgic bone is being exploited.
But this is a stellar return for the mutant marsupial, successfully reviving all that was joyous about the 90s classics, with up-to-date gameplay and mechanics that really enhance the experience.
Graphically, it’s beautiful – environments bursting with colours, depth and texture, especially the Day of the Dead Mardi Gras world, which sees you hoping over neon flames, and terrifying jack-in-theboxes – the night sky alive with fireworks and ghostly trumpet players. Another favourite is the Draggin’ On level, a China-themed world which sees you avoiding flying, neon dragons, fire-breathing totems and lunging guardian lions.
This is easily one of the best platformers I’ve played this year, the main story playing out in a linear progression, reverting back to the overworld map used in the first Crash outing, which I loved.
The main campaign is not particularly long, with the more adept of you probably able to polish it off in seven or eight hours. The thing there is that, when you cross the finish line you’ll find you’ve only completed around 30% of the game – for the rest of those points you’ll have to start completing the game’s not insignificant challenges.
As you recover the aforementioned Quantum Masks, your gateway to another dimension, which introduces new mechanics to the game like the ability to bend gravity, and slow time. As someone who has to switch off inverted controls, I struggled to get my head around the concept of Crash ‘falling’ upwards, and as you can imagine, found myself dying a number of times.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from playing this game is that the old reflexes are not what they once
Old friends and enemies abound
were, with the fast-paced platformer requiring you to react quickly and precisely in order to get through levels.
The beauty of the Crash series is that there’s so much to do on your way through the levels – collecting wampa fruit, unlocking crates and finding gems.
And once you’ve played the game through, you can go back and play it with the aim of unlocking certain achievements, or picking up rare items you may have missed in your first run through.
For the real masochists there’s N.Sanely Perfect Relics to collect. There are 38 in total, and can only be achieved by collecting all the gems in a level ... without dying.
With an injection of modern ideas Crash Bandicoot feels invigorated. Expanding on the series in a meaningful way, it not only makes up for some of the lacklustre games which have gone before, but leaves you excited for the prospect of what’s yet to come. BUY IT: £49.95, thegamecollection.net