Review: CRASH BANDICOOT 4: IT'S ABOUT TIME He Got A Good Sequel
It’s been 22 years since we’ve had a legitimate sequel to the Crash Bandicoot series. There’s a number of spinoffs, but none of them lived up to the original three’s strong platforming and style. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a great sequel that we’ve been waiting for that adds a lot of new mechanics while still falling victim to some of the old problems.
The first major thing to address is the return to the world of Crash. Each environment is vibrant, full of life. and surprisingly creative. It’s not that I didn’t expect cool creatures or interesting animation, I was just blown away by the quality. From Crash and Coco to every minion and boss, I was really impressed with how much detail, life, and energy was put into every bit of animation and character design. The graphics themselves are totally fine, something that you would expect from a PlayStation 4 era game, but I still would’ve liked some more smoothness and higher quality textures for being this late in the PlayStation 4’s lifetime and being a sequel to a 22-year-old game.
Another aspect to address is the actual platforming and gameplay. The game feels exactly like the original three with some improvements in shadows to know where your character is and tighter controls. The game is still unique in how the characters move, float, and fall. This can be difficult for those approaching the game after playing things like Mega Man, Mario, Cuphead, and other great platformers. It’s nice from the get-go that we have the option to play traditional mode where we have three lives per level or a modern, more relaxed, mode where there is just a counter keeping track of the number of lives lost. I do feel that 75% of the deaths were my fault, but the other 25% feel like slightly odd or unfair level designs with enemies or environmental hazards pop up without notice. It’s fine, we have unlimited lives, but players basically have to memorize where every enemy and platform is in order to get through the level.
Our story follows Crash and his friends hopping through different dimensions to hunt down a number of his classic villains. All the voice acting and energetic animation of the characters tell a fun story without ever pulling away from the action too long. The additions of the four new masks and their personalities add a lot to the comedy and balance of the game’s narrative.
The last thing that Crash offers is its surprising amount of different modes to play. Players can play through the main story mode like normal or can switch to pass-and-play co-op at any moment in the game. Also, players can bring up multiplayer mode from the main menu and pass-and-play through basically any level or play through various different challenges. Along with these multiplayer options, through the story mode players can also hop off to the side to play retro levels, challenges, and take control of other specific characters (including bad guys) and play through levels specifically designed for their unique move sets and abilities. It’s really quite impressive how much there is in this normally single-player franchise.
In our world of remakes, reboots and sequels, I’m happy that Crash Bandicoot 4 is a very pleasant experience. It’s too bad that it still suffers from a couple of the old platforming issues that it always has. But the various other modes and inclusions of earnable skins, other characters, and a plethora of challengers make it a worthy sequel and offers some of the best Crash Bandicoot gameplay ever.
