After playing Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time a bit, I’m convinced it’s the sequel to Crash I’ve been waiting for decades.
Crash Bandicoot 4 releases for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on October 2 (no news on next-gen releases yet). The Toys for Bob developer gave me a preview of a few levels of the platformer, then sent me a demo for PlayStation 4, so I could play those same three levels.
It’s About Time, historically, has a lot against it. For most fans of the series, we haven’t had a Crash fortune since the third game, Warped, released on the original PlayStation in 1998. After that – not to mention a short detour into the world of kart racing. – developer Naughty Dog was made with the franchise. Activision Blizzard has since transferred the franchise to studios such as Traveller’s Tales and Radical Entertainment. But nothing has ever reached the heights of these Naughty Dog originals. After the release of Mind over Mutant in 2008, Activision Blizzard appeared to abandon the franchise.
However, a set of remakes of the first three games saved the franchise. The N. Sane Trilogy was released in 2017 and turned these Naughty Dog classics into beautiful modern platform games. It’s a huge success, selling over 10 million copies. This success is the reason Crash Bandicoot 4 exists. It also explains why this new game stays close to the themes and mechanics of the originals.
Above: Slowing down time can help you hit those crates before they disappear.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
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Intensive course
Like this first trilogy, It’s About Time is a linear platform game. Some sections focus on hallways, allowing you to move around cramped 3D environments, while other areas turn perspective into 2D view. The basic mechanics are built on the essential fundamentals of all platform players: jumping and dodging.
The first level of the demo is an ice fishing village… and the villagers are zombies. As you can imagine, this stage has some icy areas that make the maneuvers a bit slippery. But it also shows the creativity of Toys for Bob. We have seen ice levels on platforms hundreds of times. I can’t say I’ve seen a zombie fishing village before.
While the gameplay is familiar to anyone who’s played the N. Sane Trilogy, you have some new abilities that add some variety. These come from new masks that temporarily unlock new reality-altering powers. At the fishing village level, one of the masks allows you to slow down the time for a few seconds by pressing the R2 button. You can then run on fast platforms that would be impossible to navigate under normal conditions. You can also safely jump on crates of nitro – which usually explode immediately on contact.
Another level takes place in prehistoric times, full of dinosaurs and man-eating plants. Here another mask is used to move objects in and out of existence. During a rail grinding segment, pressing the R2 button clears an obstacle from my path, preventing me from hitting it.
None of these ideas are new to the platforming world, but they give Crash Bandicoot the variety it needs. It allows Toys for Bob to stay close to the original games while providing players with new tools.
Above: This dinosaur has spotted his next meal.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
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Deadlines
But the variety comes in other surprising ways. The third part of the demo goes back to the village of zombies. This time, I’m playing Neo Cortex, the mad scientist and nemesis of Crash. Neo has a unique set of abilities. He can fly through the air and shoot his beam gun to turn enemies into platforms. Pulling on this new platform again will turn it into an inflatable platform. So instead of depending on double jumps and slides to get around, like you would as Crash or Coco, you have a whole different playstyle with Neo.
When I first played this level, Crash came across a big ship that was frozen in an iceberg. When I approached it, the ship mysteriously exploded. Playing as Neo, I now get to a point where I see why this happened, with a cutscene showing Cortex explosives blowing up the ship. After that it comes back to Crash, but this time it’s like a hard mode version of the scene. Toys for Bob calls these timeline levels. They are optional from the main stages, but they offer new challenges and characters to play.
Outside of the demo, Toys for Bob shared other details about Crash 4. You’ll explore the levels in a linear fashion, more similar to what you did in the first Crash Bandicoot than in its two sequels. This is so that Toys for Bob can help players learn new mechanics, like these masks. And if you’re a fan of Crash’s sister Coco, you’ll be happy to know that you can play the whole game like her.
Above: Cortex has a ray gun that turns enemies into platforms.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
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Optionally hardcore
Crash Bandicoot 4 has two main difficulty modes. Retro mode plays like the original Crash games. You have a set number of lives. If you die, you lose a life and return to the last checkpoint. If you run out of lives, you have to restart the level from the beginning. Modern fashion is killing lives. Dying will always bring you back to the last checkpoint.
You might be wondering why modern mode players would always want to collect wumpa fruit. Normally, getting 100 gives you an extra life. For modern players, getting all the wumpa fruits in a level is like an extra goal, similar to how each crate in each stage was opened in the series.
Additionally, Crash 4 will have some sort of multiplayer mode, but it won’t be a co-op game. Toys for Bob describes it as a couch multiplayer, so expect something more like mini-games.
Above: Dino heads make great rigs.
Image Credit: GamesBeat
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It’s time
The best thing I can say about Crash 4 is that it sounds like Crash Bandicoot. If you liked the originals or the remakes, you’ll be happy to find a faithful experience in It’s About Time. It also offers a good challenge. The levels I played weren’t as hard as some of the cruelest stages in the first Crash, but they felt comparable to the overall difficulty of Crash 2 and Warped. The developer is making efforts to please longtime fans.
But Toys for Bob deserves to be commended for finding fun ways to develop your creativity. The scenes that I have seen are beautiful, fun and vibrant. I love the character animations, especially the big heavy T-rex chase at the prehistoric level. And the mask’s capabilities and the Neo Cortex sections provide the variety needed.
It took over two decades, but this demo can show that we’re finally getting that Crash Bandicoot: Warped sequel that franchise fans have been dreaming of.
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