Imagine you're at a buffet and then you eat what you want and you have a really great time and then someone walks in saying that they're gonna eat every single thing thats available there and then they have a terrible time at it because obviously not everything was meant for them on the buffet and then they say that the entire restaurant and their buffet system was poorly designed because of it and then they leave disappointed, wyd?
My god, what a success. I've never played a franchise revival that gets so much right. Toys For Bob have proven that they understand much of the original Crash trilogy's appeal and that the series still has plenty of wriggle room for growth that the subsequent Crash outings weren't inspired enough to capitalise on.
Linear corridor-pushing platforming is back to Crash again with a base moveset as shrunken down as it was in 2 more specifically. What ensues are levels that are meticulously and appropriately balanced towards tight and challenging platforming around your more limited toolset. The devs have said "When we think about hazards and enemies and how they’re distributed, they stream across in almost a rhythmic way, so we’ve been really focused on how do we maximize that and use that differentiation to really push Crash gameplay", and that much is demonstrated in how the game retains the core trilogy tenets while also being more momentum-based than before.
For variance, new masks are thrown into the mix with controlled segments that require you to make use of their unique abilities - as well as entire characters that control very differently from the heroes. This is about as welcome as this kind of shakeup could be, these levels being immediately more cognisantly put together than the more extraneous-feeling vehicle segments in Crash 3. It's so nice that they're rarely ever necessary for completion, too, if the player doesn't happen to be keen on the way any given side character's levels play out.
I'd be remiss not to mention how gorgeous the game is. Toys For Bob seemed like the right choice for Crash after their art team's stellar work on the Spyro Reignited trilogy - proving that they are essentially the masters of stage and character design, adding details and changes to the base work that make the world feel effervescent.
I LOVE what they've done with the character redesigns here, taking their old shapes and making them as stylised and expressive as the GPU can handle. Coco's new style is a particular standout; she's never looked this good. Cortex's taller design is quite enlightened too. It suits his character so perfectly for him to try and look as big as he thinks he is, only for him to be a wee rodent when anyone else in the cast enters the frame.
It feels almost cruel and unfair to compare 4 to the remake trilogy that came out just a few years prior, but it's worth noting how incredibly dated that game already looks. A remake mired in bizarre visual choices that, while all minor in the grand scheme of things, illustrates a full image of a team that doesn't know what to do with the paints provided. I wish I could embed images for comparison's sake, but please believe me when you can pinpoint any minute detail from 4 (the water, fire effects, character shadows, foliage, animation, the list goes on) to their direct counterpart in the remake to see it almost completely botched. It all sounds like nitpicking, and it is, but art is an art babye.
https://twitter.com/BeachEpisode/status/1382872345321291785
Where things get particularly interesting with Crash 4 is sadly also where my problems begin. If you were to go into 4 with the same completionist ethos as you would in the OG trilogy, you'd get chewed up and spat out by some senselessly cruel design choices that are actually quite baffling. Crash 4 should act as a case study for how much goodwill can be diminished by level after level of "fuck you", bosshi-like cruelty. Where 100%'ing a given Crash game used to simply add about five or so hours onto the total playtime as you aim for optional collectables, 4 is quite literally padded front and back, forcing you to play through each given level (twice), with an "N.verted" visual filter. Doubling the level count in the laziest way conceivable. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that the levels in Crash 4 are considerably longer and more densely packed with crates than ever before. I have to specify; it's not so much the difficulty being the problem; the content surrounding the difficulty is so disproportionately bloated. Racking up tens of minutes in a single level as you try to break every crate you can as you scan every nook and cranny with a fine-tooth comb, only for you to come to the end of a level, one crate short, it's enough to knock a star off a total score (and it did).
One of Crash 4's best elements is how unpredictable it is from a pacing standpoint. There are numerous points where you think you're in the final runup to the end only for the trapdoor beneath you to fall out, revealing a whole new slew of levels. This would normally be quite exciting, if not for how easily you could get burnt out at any point by the game's padded nature, making it hard to savour how much of a rambling journey the game takes you on. Sure, you could ignore these side things and sprint to the ending. You'd definitely finish the game with a more positive take away than me! But I am a simple man who wants those unlockable skins.
While I'm effortposting far too much about this orange marsupial game, I might as well add that I love the interdimensional story this game is trying to tell. Its sense of humour gets me to a tee and is filled with very subtle winks to even the prior games that are now rendered "not canon". Cutscenes with incredible squash n stretch tex avery loony tunes esque animation that conveys character better than any game I've ever played. I love it to death.
Crash 4 is a fleshed out, wonderfully well-studied sequel. Built with a uniquely high grade of technical skill that is often diminished by design choices that can feel a little misguided. This is one of the most concrete building blocks I have ever played, and is one iteration away from complete perfection to my eyes. (Like... just make it so the checkpoint boxes tell you how many crates you missed. That would help SO MUCH). I'm hoping Toys For Bob continue pumping out wall to wall bangers now that Skylanders seems to have bitten the dust; they're more qualified than most to make gorgeous, satisfying and engaging platformers that are absolutely drenched in personality.
Linear corridor-pushing platforming is back to Crash again with a base moveset as shrunken down as it was in 2 more specifically. What ensues are levels that are meticulously and appropriately balanced towards tight and challenging platforming around your more limited toolset. The devs have said "When we think about hazards and enemies and how they’re distributed, they stream across in almost a rhythmic way, so we’ve been really focused on how do we maximize that and use that differentiation to really push Crash gameplay", and that much is demonstrated in how the game retains the core trilogy tenets while also being more momentum-based than before.
For variance, new masks are thrown into the mix with controlled segments that require you to make use of their unique abilities - as well as entire characters that control very differently from the heroes. This is about as welcome as this kind of shakeup could be, these levels being immediately more cognisantly put together than the more extraneous-feeling vehicle segments in Crash 3. It's so nice that they're rarely ever necessary for completion, too, if the player doesn't happen to be keen on the way any given side character's levels play out.
I'd be remiss not to mention how gorgeous the game is. Toys For Bob seemed like the right choice for Crash after their art team's stellar work on the Spyro Reignited trilogy - proving that they are essentially the masters of stage and character design, adding details and changes to the base work that make the world feel effervescent.
I LOVE what they've done with the character redesigns here, taking their old shapes and making them as stylised and expressive as the GPU can handle. Coco's new style is a particular standout; she's never looked this good. Cortex's taller design is quite enlightened too. It suits his character so perfectly for him to try and look as big as he thinks he is, only for him to be a wee rodent when anyone else in the cast enters the frame.
It feels almost cruel and unfair to compare 4 to the remake trilogy that came out just a few years prior, but it's worth noting how incredibly dated that game already looks. A remake mired in bizarre visual choices that, while all minor in the grand scheme of things, illustrates a full image of a team that doesn't know what to do with the paints provided. I wish I could embed images for comparison's sake, but please believe me when you can pinpoint any minute detail from 4 (the water, fire effects, character shadows, foliage, animation, the list goes on) to their direct counterpart in the remake to see it almost completely botched. It all sounds like nitpicking, and it is, but art is an art babye.
https://twitter.com/BeachEpisode/status/1382872345321291785
Where things get particularly interesting with Crash 4 is sadly also where my problems begin. If you were to go into 4 with the same completionist ethos as you would in the OG trilogy, you'd get chewed up and spat out by some senselessly cruel design choices that are actually quite baffling. Crash 4 should act as a case study for how much goodwill can be diminished by level after level of "fuck you", bosshi-like cruelty. Where 100%'ing a given Crash game used to simply add about five or so hours onto the total playtime as you aim for optional collectables, 4 is quite literally padded front and back, forcing you to play through each given level (twice), with an "N.verted" visual filter. Doubling the level count in the laziest way conceivable. This wouldn't be so bad if not for the fact that the levels in Crash 4 are considerably longer and more densely packed with crates than ever before. I have to specify; it's not so much the difficulty being the problem; the content surrounding the difficulty is so disproportionately bloated. Racking up tens of minutes in a single level as you try to break every crate you can as you scan every nook and cranny with a fine-tooth comb, only for you to come to the end of a level, one crate short, it's enough to knock a star off a total score (and it did).
One of Crash 4's best elements is how unpredictable it is from a pacing standpoint. There are numerous points where you think you're in the final runup to the end only for the trapdoor beneath you to fall out, revealing a whole new slew of levels. This would normally be quite exciting, if not for how easily you could get burnt out at any point by the game's padded nature, making it hard to savour how much of a rambling journey the game takes you on. Sure, you could ignore these side things and sprint to the ending. You'd definitely finish the game with a more positive take away than me! But I am a simple man who wants those unlockable skins.
While I'm effortposting far too much about this orange marsupial game, I might as well add that I love the interdimensional story this game is trying to tell. Its sense of humour gets me to a tee and is filled with very subtle winks to even the prior games that are now rendered "not canon". Cutscenes with incredible squash n stretch tex avery loony tunes esque animation that conveys character better than any game I've ever played. I love it to death.
Crash 4 is a fleshed out, wonderfully well-studied sequel. Built with a uniquely high grade of technical skill that is often diminished by design choices that can feel a little misguided. This is one of the most concrete building blocks I have ever played, and is one iteration away from complete perfection to my eyes. (Like... just make it so the checkpoint boxes tell you how many crates you missed. That would help SO MUCH). I'm hoping Toys For Bob continue pumping out wall to wall bangers now that Skylanders seems to have bitten the dust; they're more qualified than most to make gorgeous, satisfying and engaging platformers that are absolutely drenched in personality.
Ari's Review (My 5 Year Old):
This is an awesome game. I think it's cool. I think it's funny. I think it's hard. It's fun. The hard part was the volcano because of lava, really hard levels. Very kind of easy. Some levels are easy and some levels are hard. Very fun. I laugh when he jumps and then boom, he hits his face. When he does cool levels he jumps really funny and sometimes it's like the old Crash games. It's like the old one because it's hard. The hardest part was the last levels with jumping across the boxes and the boss. When we beat the whole game, I was very happy and tired. My hands hurt. And sweaty. We are going to beat it again tomorrow.
Beaten: 01/01/2021
Time: 12 Hours
This is an awesome game. I think it's cool. I think it's funny. I think it's hard. It's fun. The hard part was the volcano because of lava, really hard levels. Very kind of easy. Some levels are easy and some levels are hard. Very fun. I laugh when he jumps and then boom, he hits his face. When he does cool levels he jumps really funny and sometimes it's like the old Crash games. It's like the old one because it's hard. The hardest part was the last levels with jumping across the boxes and the boss. When we beat the whole game, I was very happy and tired. My hands hurt. And sweaty. We are going to beat it again tomorrow.
Beaten: 01/01/2021
Time: 12 Hours
This is what happens when the entire Internet makes one too many "Crash Bandicoot has become Dark Souls" jokes. Some developers will take that as a challenge.
However, despite the balls to the wall level of difficulty here, this might be my new favorite Crash game. Everything just feels so finely crafted and purposeful - from the environment and creature designs to the way the characters respond to your inputs - that I'll forgive a little feature bloat in the form of the N. Verted levels. The way I see it, 100% completion is optional and something to be chipped away at gradually over time, because, yes, I can see how this game would quickly drive someone insane.
However, despite the balls to the wall level of difficulty here, this might be my new favorite Crash game. Everything just feels so finely crafted and purposeful - from the environment and creature designs to the way the characters respond to your inputs - that I'll forgive a little feature bloat in the form of the N. Verted levels. The way I see it, 100% completion is optional and something to be chipped away at gradually over time, because, yes, I can see how this game would quickly drive someone insane.
the N Sane Trilogy gaslit people into thinking Crash Bandicoot was this super hard teeth clenching franchise so when the true sequel to the trilogy came out they filled it with level design on par with a Kaizo hack and that is not a compliment
What collecting 456 clear gems does to a mf
O melhor: Belos gráficos e estrutura de jogo fiel aos clássicos
O pior: As fases desnecessariamente longas e o level design mais frustrante do que desafiador
Pior nova adição: A caixa que solta fogo (sério mesmo? essa foi a melhor ideia que vocês tiveram?)
Depois de um excelente trabalho de remake/remaster da trilogia original, a Activision resolve lançar uma sequência "canônica" de uma das minhas séries favoritas. Infelizmente, a sensação que fica depois de ver os créditos é de decepção, por mais força que eu fizesse pra gostar do jogo.
Crash Bandicoot 4 segue exatamente de onde o 3 (Warped) acabou, o que funciona bem, porque já tem a desculpa de viagem no tempo na história para apresentar todo tipo de cenário. O aspecto visual do jogo é ótimo, os personagens são todos muito bem animados, as fases são cheias de detalhes que podem ser vistos de longe, e há várias cutscenes para explorar melhor a personalidade dos personagens. O humor não funcionou muito comigo, acho todo mundo exageradamente caricato, mas entendo ele ser assim. O que definitivamente passou batido foi a trilha sonora, muito longe do trabalho memorável da Mutato Muzika nos jogos de PS1.
Conceitualmente falando, o game design de Crash 4 é exatamente o que eu gostaria de um novo jogo da série. Fases lineares com foco em desafio de plataforma de precisão. A ideia é ótima, porém sinto que a execução ficou devendo. O maior problema aqui é a decisão de fazer levels muito longos, que na maioria das vezes só repetem um mesmo desafio apenas aumentando a dificuldade até o ponto da frustração. O sentimento ao chegar ao final de uma fase quase sempre era de "nunca mais quero repetir isso", o que é insano considerando que, para fazer 100% no jogo, é necessário justamente repetir a fase várias vezes com condições diferentes. Há alguns momentos memoráveis, como a descida nas plataformas flutuantes em Crash Landed e a parte do "WOAH YEAH!", mas é triste como a maior parte dos níveis se estendem tanto ao ponto de tornar tudo muito desinteressante.
Há também a questão do controle dos personagens. Eu até joguei novamente um pouco de Crash 2 do PS1, pois a sensação é de que os controles no Crash 4 tem uma sensibilidade muito alta. Um chão de gelo com caixas de Nitro espalhados é um desafio "ok" no jogo de PS1, aqui a mesma situação tem potencial de virar algo bem mais irritante, visto que o personagem desliza consideravelmente mais rápido. E isso é só um cenário onde eu sinto que os controles estão piores. Algumas mecânicas também não parecem ter um nível de precisão ideal, como pontos de wall running, o gancho da Tawna e os controle do Neo Cortex em geral (felizmente são bem poucas fases com ele). As máscaras que dão diferentes habilidades são bacanas, mas talvez seria mais interessante algo como no Crash 3, podendo usar essas habilidades no jogo todo ao invés de apenas em partes específicas de algumas fases.
A sensação que tenho com Crash Bandicoot 4 é que o pessoal da Toys for Bob viu uma oportunidade única, que talvez nunca mais se repita, de fazer um jogo de uma franquia que pouco tempo antes estava praticamente morta, e decidiram colocar o máximo de conteúdo possível, só que em algum ponto nesse processo eles perderam a mão. É um jogo que me deixa feliz por sua existência, mesmo eu não tendo gostado dele do jeito que imaginava (e sou uma exceção também, já que ele foi muito bem avaliado). Mas como um grande fã da trilogia original, sinto que aquela sequência que sempre quis que existisse ainda não está aqui.
O pior: As fases desnecessariamente longas e o level design mais frustrante do que desafiador
Pior nova adição: A caixa que solta fogo (sério mesmo? essa foi a melhor ideia que vocês tiveram?)
Depois de um excelente trabalho de remake/remaster da trilogia original, a Activision resolve lançar uma sequência "canônica" de uma das minhas séries favoritas. Infelizmente, a sensação que fica depois de ver os créditos é de decepção, por mais força que eu fizesse pra gostar do jogo.
Crash Bandicoot 4 segue exatamente de onde o 3 (Warped) acabou, o que funciona bem, porque já tem a desculpa de viagem no tempo na história para apresentar todo tipo de cenário. O aspecto visual do jogo é ótimo, os personagens são todos muito bem animados, as fases são cheias de detalhes que podem ser vistos de longe, e há várias cutscenes para explorar melhor a personalidade dos personagens. O humor não funcionou muito comigo, acho todo mundo exageradamente caricato, mas entendo ele ser assim. O que definitivamente passou batido foi a trilha sonora, muito longe do trabalho memorável da Mutato Muzika nos jogos de PS1.
Conceitualmente falando, o game design de Crash 4 é exatamente o que eu gostaria de um novo jogo da série. Fases lineares com foco em desafio de plataforma de precisão. A ideia é ótima, porém sinto que a execução ficou devendo. O maior problema aqui é a decisão de fazer levels muito longos, que na maioria das vezes só repetem um mesmo desafio apenas aumentando a dificuldade até o ponto da frustração. O sentimento ao chegar ao final de uma fase quase sempre era de "nunca mais quero repetir isso", o que é insano considerando que, para fazer 100% no jogo, é necessário justamente repetir a fase várias vezes com condições diferentes. Há alguns momentos memoráveis, como a descida nas plataformas flutuantes em Crash Landed e a parte do "WOAH YEAH!", mas é triste como a maior parte dos níveis se estendem tanto ao ponto de tornar tudo muito desinteressante.
Há também a questão do controle dos personagens. Eu até joguei novamente um pouco de Crash 2 do PS1, pois a sensação é de que os controles no Crash 4 tem uma sensibilidade muito alta. Um chão de gelo com caixas de Nitro espalhados é um desafio "ok" no jogo de PS1, aqui a mesma situação tem potencial de virar algo bem mais irritante, visto que o personagem desliza consideravelmente mais rápido. E isso é só um cenário onde eu sinto que os controles estão piores. Algumas mecânicas também não parecem ter um nível de precisão ideal, como pontos de wall running, o gancho da Tawna e os controle do Neo Cortex em geral (felizmente são bem poucas fases com ele). As máscaras que dão diferentes habilidades são bacanas, mas talvez seria mais interessante algo como no Crash 3, podendo usar essas habilidades no jogo todo ao invés de apenas em partes específicas de algumas fases.
A sensação que tenho com Crash Bandicoot 4 é que o pessoal da Toys for Bob viu uma oportunidade única, que talvez nunca mais se repita, de fazer um jogo de uma franquia que pouco tempo antes estava praticamente morta, e decidiram colocar o máximo de conteúdo possível, só que em algum ponto nesse processo eles perderam a mão. É um jogo que me deixa feliz por sua existência, mesmo eu não tendo gostado dele do jeito que imaginava (e sou uma exceção também, já que ele foi muito bem avaliado). Mas como um grande fã da trilogia original, sinto que aquela sequência que sempre quis que existisse ainda não está aqui.
how did this game come out in 2020???? It feels like something i missed that came out on the ps2. To reward such a good game coming out we will now never see a new game from toys for bob again
Sendo bem honesto, esse é o meu jogo favorito de Crash. Sem duvidas uma carta de amor á franquia, depois de anos finalmente um jogo que entende o que fez da trilogia original tão icônica, e na minha humilde opinião, fez até melhor. Trazendo tudo de bom dos jogos antigos e adicionando com novas mecânicas e dando mais carisma aos personagens, um level design absurdamente bem feito, e uma ótima precisão nos controles que tornou a experiência ainda mais divertida. Acredito que o jogo só não é tão bom na trilha sonora, não tem nenhuma música marcante como os anteriores, e as fases com o Cortex são um saco. Bem, não sou nenhum perito quando se trata de jogos de plataforma, mas esse é até então o meu favorito.
Fun 5 hour casual game or absurdly padded out grindfest 70 hour completionist game? choose wisely, mortal
Crash Bandicoot 4 is probably the best game in the entire series and one of the highest-quality platformers ever made.
It’s gorgeous, stylish, challenging, clever, and surprisingly varied. It feels incredible to play. The surprises just kept coming, and the care taken with the mechanics and level gimmicks were reminiscent of the modern Rayman games (that’s high praise.) I highly recommend giving this a shot if you enjoyed the older games and felt like the franchise died two decades ago.
The original Crash Bandicoot was my first video game ever (talk about getting thrown in the deep end), so there’s some level of sentimental attachment, but I also recently went through the merciless gauntlet of 100% completing the N-Sane Trilogy, and found this to be a more than worthy follow-up.
I hope this isn’t the end, but even if there’s only gonna be one modern Crash game, I’m glad it’s this.
It’s gorgeous, stylish, challenging, clever, and surprisingly varied. It feels incredible to play. The surprises just kept coming, and the care taken with the mechanics and level gimmicks were reminiscent of the modern Rayman games (that’s high praise.) I highly recommend giving this a shot if you enjoyed the older games and felt like the franchise died two decades ago.
The original Crash Bandicoot was my first video game ever (talk about getting thrown in the deep end), so there’s some level of sentimental attachment, but I also recently went through the merciless gauntlet of 100% completing the N-Sane Trilogy, and found this to be a more than worthy follow-up.
I hope this isn’t the end, but even if there’s only gonna be one modern Crash game, I’m glad it’s this.
Amazing game if you don't try to 100% it.
well i'm finally free. i've had enough brain worms from this game so i'm not going to scrap together anything cohesive. will just leave scattered thoughts.
- somewhat approaches passable if just mainlined through the game but i and i assume a lot of other series fans who have enjoyed going for gems in the past know that leaves a bit of an empty experience.
- the visuals across the board are well done even if things sometimes get very busy on screen making it hard to read what's happening. as with literally every other Crash game, depth perception is difficult even with the drop shadow.
- excess is a problem for a large amount of contemporary games but i didn't expect it to show up here or even if it did for it to be so fucking bad. you've got three gems for getting X amount of wumpa fruit, one for all the crates, a hidden gem, and one for less than three deaths. this isn't even getting into the perfect relics which make things like the less than 3 deaths gem redundant. all i could find myself asking is just "why?". it feels like those stupid meme images people make mocking the busy UI in games but spread across everything down to its core.
- the levels in this game are too fucking LONG. 90% of them could've been broken in half or in egregious cases thirds and nothing would've been lost. i mean they were so clearly concerned with having Content™ that could've been a way to boast a larger level count.
- tying into the above, the long levels make everything in the game whether it's time trials, getting all the crates with most of the wumpa fruit, or all of the crates while not dying for a perfect relic a miserable slog. nothing like getting to the end of a 5+ minute level only to find out you missed a crate in the most diabolical of locations that you probably won't find without looking it up.
- the extra character gameplay types range from mediocre to dumpster fire tier. Tawna gets the best of it whereas Dingodile has finicky vacuum mechanics and Cortex gets shit laser gun aiming (which will end up getting stuck on invisible level geometry all the time) with the worst movement in the game.
- for something that felt like it was making a statement with the title of Crash 4, it's like they learned literally nothing from Wrath of Cortex or the other poorly received sequels. so much of the complaints that could be brought up for the conventional platforming ones apply here, sometimes even worse.
---
i want to come back to this many years down the line with some time away and less baggage. hopefully when viewing it as just something to get through (even though i still stand by that not being the ideal way to play a Crash game and it sure as hell doesn't absolve any of the shit i said) i might be able to enjoy it a bit more.
- somewhat approaches passable if just mainlined through the game but i and i assume a lot of other series fans who have enjoyed going for gems in the past know that leaves a bit of an empty experience.
- the visuals across the board are well done even if things sometimes get very busy on screen making it hard to read what's happening. as with literally every other Crash game, depth perception is difficult even with the drop shadow.
- excess is a problem for a large amount of contemporary games but i didn't expect it to show up here or even if it did for it to be so fucking bad. you've got three gems for getting X amount of wumpa fruit, one for all the crates, a hidden gem, and one for less than three deaths. this isn't even getting into the perfect relics which make things like the less than 3 deaths gem redundant. all i could find myself asking is just "why?". it feels like those stupid meme images people make mocking the busy UI in games but spread across everything down to its core.
- the levels in this game are too fucking LONG. 90% of them could've been broken in half or in egregious cases thirds and nothing would've been lost. i mean they were so clearly concerned with having Content™ that could've been a way to boast a larger level count.
- tying into the above, the long levels make everything in the game whether it's time trials, getting all the crates with most of the wumpa fruit, or all of the crates while not dying for a perfect relic a miserable slog. nothing like getting to the end of a 5+ minute level only to find out you missed a crate in the most diabolical of locations that you probably won't find without looking it up.
- the extra character gameplay types range from mediocre to dumpster fire tier. Tawna gets the best of it whereas Dingodile has finicky vacuum mechanics and Cortex gets shit laser gun aiming (which will end up getting stuck on invisible level geometry all the time) with the worst movement in the game.
- for something that felt like it was making a statement with the title of Crash 4, it's like they learned literally nothing from Wrath of Cortex or the other poorly received sequels. so much of the complaints that could be brought up for the conventional platforming ones apply here, sometimes even worse.
---
i want to come back to this many years down the line with some time away and less baggage. hopefully when viewing it as just something to get through (even though i still stand by that not being the ideal way to play a Crash game and it sure as hell doesn't absolve any of the shit i said) i might be able to enjoy it a bit more.
De longe o melhor Crash que já joguei!
Me surpreendi bastante com o jogo. Crash nunca foi muito diversificado, pelo menos em termos de gameplay, mas neste jogo adicionaram diversos personagens diferentes e ainda mais mecânicas que tornam não só a dificuldade do jogo mais compreensível, mas o jogo bem mais divertido.
Além disso, Crash nunca foi tão fluido e bem animado. As animações e dublagens foram ótimas! Joguei-o inteiro em português e adorei.
Enfim, considero um ótimo passo para a franquia.
Obs. Quem fizer 100% é insano.
Me surpreendi bastante com o jogo. Crash nunca foi muito diversificado, pelo menos em termos de gameplay, mas neste jogo adicionaram diversos personagens diferentes e ainda mais mecânicas que tornam não só a dificuldade do jogo mais compreensível, mas o jogo bem mais divertido.
Além disso, Crash nunca foi tão fluido e bem animado. As animações e dublagens foram ótimas! Joguei-o inteiro em português e adorei.
Enfim, considero um ótimo passo para a franquia.
Obs. Quem fizer 100% é insano.
I did it. 106%. Was it worth it? In regards to in game rewards? No. In regards to a feeling of achievement and self satisfaction? Hell yes. 130 hours of the same levels over and over again until each was perfected and I had a blast. There were times when I wanted to just quit. I had an existential crisis after completing the Nsanely perfect relics and upon starting the first time trial, realised the time trials were no easier but I stuck at it. And it’s done.
Crash bandicoot returns in a 4th entry. He’s accompanied by Coco and masks. Each level can either be played as Crash or Coco. There is also the inclusion of 3 other playable character who each come with their own levels and game play styles. The platforming is tight and responsive. Thankfully some genius added a little yellow circle under our character so we know where we will land after a jump. The art style is fantastic with worlds varying wildly. We get new masks that completely change up the platforming. Certain sections of the game throw all the new masks at you in sequence and this can provide some seriously mind bending platform sections. There are 38 levels in the game not including boss fights and within each there’s little breaks in the formula such as rail grinding, animal riding and vehicle sections. It’s a set of well crafted levels and if it ended after the final boss this game would have been much better for it. But it doesn’t. If you beat the end boss, you’ve barely scratched the surface of this deceptively overly long game.
To get 106% like I did you have to do the following. Collect all 6 gems in each level. This entails collecting 40%, 60% and 80% of the levels wumpa fruit, finding the hidden gem, dying less than 3 times and breaking all boxes. You will also need the Nsanely perfect relics which require you beat all 38 levels whilst breaking all boxes and without dying. You will also need to secure a platinum time trial relic on each of the 38 levels. Not a gold relic like the other games, but a platinum. Only one relic worse than the developer times. You achieve all of the above and then the game wants you do all 38 levels again, collecting all 6 gems but this time. This time it’s in the Nverted versions of the levels. The same levels except they have been rotated and now have an extremely ugly filter slathered over the top. After this find the 6 secret gems and beat the games 21 flashback tapes. You will hours upon hours replaying the same content and it’s here the games flaws really stick out.
The game requires perfection from you for 106% completion. But it rarely gives perfection back. Hit box detection can sometimes be completely off resulting in infuriating unfair deaths. The game will teach you a mechanic where you spin a box under a TNT box. But sometimes despite the game telling you this is safe, the TNT will explode resulting in a death and a restart. Sometimes masks won’t activate when pressing the button resulting in death. The game is inconsistent with hazards. One laser grid is completely fine to stand on the edge of, but another exactly the same? Nah, that’s a death. All this led to some seriously infuriating moments. You unlock skins along the way but that’s the only worthwhile thing you get seeing as the secret endings are pretty naff.
But despite the game causing me to question my life choices I really enjoyed it. You have to get some enjoyment if your sitting there putting 130 hours into the thing. And I felt amazing afterwards. Some games now feel a little pointless because they don’t offer the same level of challenge. After completing this I eyed up Super Meat Boy. But I backed down. One super hard platformer is enough for this year. But next year, Super Meat Boy platinum is mine.
Crash bandicoot returns in a 4th entry. He’s accompanied by Coco and masks. Each level can either be played as Crash or Coco. There is also the inclusion of 3 other playable character who each come with their own levels and game play styles. The platforming is tight and responsive. Thankfully some genius added a little yellow circle under our character so we know where we will land after a jump. The art style is fantastic with worlds varying wildly. We get new masks that completely change up the platforming. Certain sections of the game throw all the new masks at you in sequence and this can provide some seriously mind bending platform sections. There are 38 levels in the game not including boss fights and within each there’s little breaks in the formula such as rail grinding, animal riding and vehicle sections. It’s a set of well crafted levels and if it ended after the final boss this game would have been much better for it. But it doesn’t. If you beat the end boss, you’ve barely scratched the surface of this deceptively overly long game.
To get 106% like I did you have to do the following. Collect all 6 gems in each level. This entails collecting 40%, 60% and 80% of the levels wumpa fruit, finding the hidden gem, dying less than 3 times and breaking all boxes. You will also need the Nsanely perfect relics which require you beat all 38 levels whilst breaking all boxes and without dying. You will also need to secure a platinum time trial relic on each of the 38 levels. Not a gold relic like the other games, but a platinum. Only one relic worse than the developer times. You achieve all of the above and then the game wants you do all 38 levels again, collecting all 6 gems but this time. This time it’s in the Nverted versions of the levels. The same levels except they have been rotated and now have an extremely ugly filter slathered over the top. After this find the 6 secret gems and beat the games 21 flashback tapes. You will hours upon hours replaying the same content and it’s here the games flaws really stick out.
The game requires perfection from you for 106% completion. But it rarely gives perfection back. Hit box detection can sometimes be completely off resulting in infuriating unfair deaths. The game will teach you a mechanic where you spin a box under a TNT box. But sometimes despite the game telling you this is safe, the TNT will explode resulting in a death and a restart. Sometimes masks won’t activate when pressing the button resulting in death. The game is inconsistent with hazards. One laser grid is completely fine to stand on the edge of, but another exactly the same? Nah, that’s a death. All this led to some seriously infuriating moments. You unlock skins along the way but that’s the only worthwhile thing you get seeing as the secret endings are pretty naff.
But despite the game causing me to question my life choices I really enjoyed it. You have to get some enjoyment if your sitting there putting 130 hours into the thing. And I felt amazing afterwards. Some games now feel a little pointless because they don’t offer the same level of challenge. After completing this I eyed up Super Meat Boy. But I backed down. One super hard platformer is enough for this year. But next year, Super Meat Boy platinum is mine.
And so, with a funny sounding yet triumphant trumpet, my little marathon of the Crash Banticoot series comes to an end. That's right, there are no more games everybody, absolutely no other games that I need to playPLEASE OH GOD DON'T MAKE ME PLAY THEM I WISH TO BE FREED FROM THIS MARSUPIAL REALM.
''Tell me, Crash, is this all there is, forever?’’
To be completely honest, I got Crash 4 shortly after it released on switch, even tho I didn't play ANY of the games at that point, but I figured that I shouldn't pass on the opportunity in playing a seemingly very fun 3D platformer, and so, I started playing... and shortly after I noticed my joy-cons had drift. Suffices to say I wasn't all that excited to keep playing a game that demands precision with, well, a controller that can't really give me that precision. Ando so, I postponed it, even well after I managed to grab myself a Pro Controller, and it ended up being the best involuntary decision I could have made, as it ended up serving as the final footnote in my dive of the Bandicoot's most well-known adventures, and it made its subtitle have the full weigh it fully deserves.
Indeed, my friend, it's about time, a game that strives to be the definitive sequel to a game that came out 22 years prior to this one, and let me tell, aside from what I think of the trilogy as a whole, those are some damn big shoes to fill.
Let's see if it has the foot to do it.
The Bandicoot at matter
As the ''fourth'' entry to a fairly continuist franchise, and one that had been subjected to some decisions questioned by many, AND with the remakes of the original trilogy coming out just three years prior, Crash 4 had all going for it to take the easy route: just make another Crash game, one that follows the beats of the OG's and you are set and done, you make some fans happy and make a fairly easy buck, simple! But as everyone has said, and as for many things one could say about Crash 4 (as I will certainly do), being not original is not one of them.
The game hits you with its presentation like if it was a punch to the eye, what Toys for Bob managed to do with the visual style is honestly jaw-dropping. Everyone has gotten a small re-design here, and nor only the new art-style does wonder to these old faces, but makes every animation a sight to behold. Every movement of every character, in both cinematics and gameplay, feels like watching an awesome animated movie, so many details and small things that make everything just so alive, and I think each time I'll think about this characters it will be in THIS look THIS style. Just look at Crash, Coco or Dingodile for crying out loud, they ooze so much personality that it makes me MAD, I'm angry at how amazing they look.
And the levels... DEAR CRUST THE LEVELS. Are these perhaps the most detailed, good looking and creative levels I've seen in a 3D platformer? 'cause they are up there for sure. Long gone are the days of level themes that repeat the same structure and in a messy order, instead, It's about time takes the original Crash Bandicoot world-map way of distributing levels and goes bonkers with it: each world a new theme, each level a new idea inside that theme. This game grabs your hand and takes you through unimaginable lands, from a prehistoric dying world to a Mad Max-esque wasteland, to even just filthy swamps, and it always manages to look beyond good and detailed, with set pieces that expand far beyond any other past game had ever done, and it truly feels like Warped on steroids. It's a blast going though these lands, you never know what crazy new thing the game it's gonna throw at you, but you know damn well it's going to be fun.
It also does a very smart thing: instead of collecting new power-ups to your move set every time you beat a boss, you start right of the bat with your double jump, and as you advance in the story, you rescue new masks that, at designated points, appear and give you powers that are designed specifically to be used in the level they are, like slowing time, give you a super spin that makes you practically fly,… and this may not feel as rewarding as a permanent upgrade at first, but it truly does wonders to help make incredibly more interesting level design, and thanks to it goes crazy with these ideas, and just adds so, SO much to the base crash formula that I couldn’t decide on my favorite one, they all just work so well.
Nonetheless, a lot of people would make the understandable assumption that even if the levels had a visual and design upgrade, the difficulty and challenge that was present in the first games would be lost, and to that I say... you poor, WRETCHED, FOOLS. There have been some changes that some could think make the game easier, like the fact that the recommended mode is the one without lives or that there are checkpoints through the bosses, but saying that this game is easy would a lie, it's incredibly challenging and offer some of the hardest platforming sections in the entire franchise , and while this is pretty welcomed, as it gives some really memorable and fun to overcome challenges, and there's really nothing wrong with any of this itself, but... well, we will get to that...
Only N'Tropy comes easy
I really wanted to start this review with the net positives, because this game has a few of them as you may have noticed, and make no mistake, when this game is good, is GOOD, in all caps, and I really want to make that clear. There are things I didn’t even talks about for the shake of not making this review longer than it already is like the music and boss fights, ‘cause both are absolute home runs, the bosses probably being the best in the series by far.
However, there are aspects the game which the game does fault a bit, like the story and the other playable characters. The game’s story honestly feels like a pretty decent take from where Warped left all, and putting the spotlight on N.Tropy as the true antagonist was a great decision… and then you beat N.Tropy (both of them) and the game decides to take the characters to little trip, but then it remembers the story needs a climax and so Cortex is the main bad again and it’s all just very jarring. I wouldn’t be as bad if other elements were also weirdly paced, a lot of interesting things like the return of Nitrus Oxide or Tawna not wanting to lose Crash and Coco after the versions of her dimension were killed are just glossed over very quickly. I know this is a Crash game, and that the story doesn’t want to be that complex in the first place, but still, it just feels they wanted to do a lot of things, so they threw them on the script with no consideration if they would feel half-baked or poorly made… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
And as for the other playable characters, those being Tawna, Cortex and Dingodile, they are… fine????? I guess they are but none of them felt better that the base Crash and Coco. Twana just felt to restrictive and not having the slide severely limits her movement, Dingodile is very fun and it introduces some interesting elements, but aiming the TNT can be a pain on the ass sometimes, and Cortex… is probably the best, it is the lest mobile of them all, but it makes it up with the genuine interesting mechanic of turning the enemies into platforms, which if expanded upon could be the mechanic for an entirely new game! But what all these three have in common, is that… you barely see them. Yeah, for some reason most of the levels where you play as them you only do it for a small part of it, and half-way through you are back playing a level you already have beaten as Crash or Coco, the one difference being box placement, which just feel tacked on, repetitive and boring… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
If these where the only bad things the game did, I wouldn’t complain even a bit, but keep in mind, these are the aspects that are a bit mixed… now it’s time dip the hands into the bullshit.
A faulty N.Gin
Hey, Vicarius Visions called, they want their whacky hitboxes back!
Ok, that may be a little to mean, Crash 4’s hitboxes and collision are nowhere near as bad as the ones in the N’sane Trilogy, but I did had a few moments where something silly happened, but luckily those where only counted instances… unlike some other shit. I was constantly raising my eyebrow to constant minor inconveniences, ‘cause Crash base movement may feel good, and the level design may be incredible, but that does not do much when the game decides to pull some silly trick or bug, specially in the enemies’ department.
And again, I can praise all these levels all day, but doesn’t change the matter that they just. Don’t. END. Levels lasts more than 15 minutes AT LEAST, and that’s not considering if you get stuck in some hard parts or the now infuriating bonus screens, and that would not be that much of a problem if it that didn’t meant that there are more boxes to break here that in any Crash game, 100 something boxes at minimum, and these number can reach to 300 in the Crash levels, and in the most outrageous case 5 FUCKING HUNDRED for one Dingodile level. So if you miss a box, and believe you me, you WILL miss a box, you have to start all over again the whole 15 minute level to get the box gem. And you may think ‘’oh well, just don’t pay attention to the boxes’’ but here’s the thing: not paying attention to the boxes just makes the game much less interesting, it eliminates some of the most interesting challenges out of the equation and it just doesn’t feel right. But at the same time, going for all the boxes isn’t worth at all ‘cause pretty much all the time it’s going to result in you missing some that you couldn’t find and as such you just end up feeling frustrated or demotivated! It’s the ouroboros of fucking it up, there’s no escaping here! And true, it’s not like I got all the boxes in any of the past games, but the difference it’s that in those I didn’t feel as frustrated ‘cause levels weren’t as long, there weren’t as many boxes, and so I still tried to break them in any new level, and I did got a lot of gems! Here tho? It’s just painful and if you are going for completion, it’s just time wasted… AND THAT’S ONLY ONE OUT OF THE SIX GEMS FOR EACH LEVEL.
There are 6 gems in total in each level, tho I’ll admit, some are fun to collect, like the wumpa fruit gems or the hidden one, and they are welcomed additions for sure… oh wait, did I say in a aggravating way that there were six of them? Oh, silly me, I meant 12… YEAH. After boss two, you unlock the N.verted versions of levels, which are.. the same levels you played… but with a nice filter on them! There are cool themes here and there, but in general, the changes are minimal, and in some cases make the level even more of a pain to see and traverse through, and also THEY ARE JUST THE SAME LEVEL AGAIN. I can’t call it padding ‘cause it isn’t necessary to beat the game, but it’s content that adds nothing to the overall experience and it just hinders it but making you go through it over, and over, and over, and over again; and that doesn’t even include the flashback tapes, the perfect runs, the unlockable skins, the time relic challenges and the N.verted versions of bosses. I know it may sound silly to criticize in this way what is basically side content, but is side content that just keeps recycling the base game, and it’s a big, BIG chuck of the game, and not playing it means not ‘’enjoying’’ all of the game, tho for me it ended up not even necessary to go though to get tired of the game, because even tho is just 10 hours long it just felt so looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Something something, pun with Dingodile in it
If I had to describe Crash 4, it would be by saying is both the best of what the series has to offer, while at the same time being some of the most repetitive and by design frustrating 3D platformer I’ve played, and I really don’t know if it was because of it’s nature as a Crash game or because of Toys for Bob insistence of making this experience last as it did.
If you asked me if I had fun, I’d say that only truly at the first half, and the rest of them I just praying for the end at some points, and it hurt me to feel that way so fucking bad, ‘cause again, what’s it’s good here, is freacking great, but I just can’t shake the feeling off that if it was more focused, more restrained with its content and, this would have been the best linear 3D platformer I ever played, but instead… it’s still a pretty good game!
I did overall enjoy it, but… I think I’m done with Crash for now. It was very fun, and I’m so glad that I ended up going all the way through this marathon, but, I had enough, I am too tired and my head hurts. I will be back to this series, don’t get me wrong, I really want to play Twinsanity but, for now, I’m happy with this little crazy voyage, and it was interesting to see the ups and downs of this marsupial, but it’s time for us to part ways…
Peace at last…
''Tell me, Crash, is this all there is, forever?’’
To be completely honest, I got Crash 4 shortly after it released on switch, even tho I didn't play ANY of the games at that point, but I figured that I shouldn't pass on the opportunity in playing a seemingly very fun 3D platformer, and so, I started playing... and shortly after I noticed my joy-cons had drift. Suffices to say I wasn't all that excited to keep playing a game that demands precision with, well, a controller that can't really give me that precision. Ando so, I postponed it, even well after I managed to grab myself a Pro Controller, and it ended up being the best involuntary decision I could have made, as it ended up serving as the final footnote in my dive of the Bandicoot's most well-known adventures, and it made its subtitle have the full weigh it fully deserves.
Indeed, my friend, it's about time, a game that strives to be the definitive sequel to a game that came out 22 years prior to this one, and let me tell, aside from what I think of the trilogy as a whole, those are some damn big shoes to fill.
Let's see if it has the foot to do it.
The Bandicoot at matter
As the ''fourth'' entry to a fairly continuist franchise, and one that had been subjected to some decisions questioned by many, AND with the remakes of the original trilogy coming out just three years prior, Crash 4 had all going for it to take the easy route: just make another Crash game, one that follows the beats of the OG's and you are set and done, you make some fans happy and make a fairly easy buck, simple! But as everyone has said, and as for many things one could say about Crash 4 (as I will certainly do), being not original is not one of them.
The game hits you with its presentation like if it was a punch to the eye, what Toys for Bob managed to do with the visual style is honestly jaw-dropping. Everyone has gotten a small re-design here, and nor only the new art-style does wonder to these old faces, but makes every animation a sight to behold. Every movement of every character, in both cinematics and gameplay, feels like watching an awesome animated movie, so many details and small things that make everything just so alive, and I think each time I'll think about this characters it will be in THIS look THIS style. Just look at Crash, Coco or Dingodile for crying out loud, they ooze so much personality that it makes me MAD, I'm angry at how amazing they look.
And the levels... DEAR CRUST THE LEVELS. Are these perhaps the most detailed, good looking and creative levels I've seen in a 3D platformer? 'cause they are up there for sure. Long gone are the days of level themes that repeat the same structure and in a messy order, instead, It's about time takes the original Crash Bandicoot world-map way of distributing levels and goes bonkers with it: each world a new theme, each level a new idea inside that theme. This game grabs your hand and takes you through unimaginable lands, from a prehistoric dying world to a Mad Max-esque wasteland, to even just filthy swamps, and it always manages to look beyond good and detailed, with set pieces that expand far beyond any other past game had ever done, and it truly feels like Warped on steroids. It's a blast going though these lands, you never know what crazy new thing the game it's gonna throw at you, but you know damn well it's going to be fun.
It also does a very smart thing: instead of collecting new power-ups to your move set every time you beat a boss, you start right of the bat with your double jump, and as you advance in the story, you rescue new masks that, at designated points, appear and give you powers that are designed specifically to be used in the level they are, like slowing time, give you a super spin that makes you practically fly,… and this may not feel as rewarding as a permanent upgrade at first, but it truly does wonders to help make incredibly more interesting level design, and thanks to it goes crazy with these ideas, and just adds so, SO much to the base crash formula that I couldn’t decide on my favorite one, they all just work so well.
Nonetheless, a lot of people would make the understandable assumption that even if the levels had a visual and design upgrade, the difficulty and challenge that was present in the first games would be lost, and to that I say... you poor, WRETCHED, FOOLS. There have been some changes that some could think make the game easier, like the fact that the recommended mode is the one without lives or that there are checkpoints through the bosses, but saying that this game is easy would a lie, it's incredibly challenging and offer some of the hardest platforming sections in the entire franchise , and while this is pretty welcomed, as it gives some really memorable and fun to overcome challenges, and there's really nothing wrong with any of this itself, but... well, we will get to that...
Only N'Tropy comes easy
I really wanted to start this review with the net positives, because this game has a few of them as you may have noticed, and make no mistake, when this game is good, is GOOD, in all caps, and I really want to make that clear. There are things I didn’t even talks about for the shake of not making this review longer than it already is like the music and boss fights, ‘cause both are absolute home runs, the bosses probably being the best in the series by far.
However, there are aspects the game which the game does fault a bit, like the story and the other playable characters. The game’s story honestly feels like a pretty decent take from where Warped left all, and putting the spotlight on N.Tropy as the true antagonist was a great decision… and then you beat N.Tropy (both of them) and the game decides to take the characters to little trip, but then it remembers the story needs a climax and so Cortex is the main bad again and it’s all just very jarring. I wouldn’t be as bad if other elements were also weirdly paced, a lot of interesting things like the return of Nitrus Oxide or Tawna not wanting to lose Crash and Coco after the versions of her dimension were killed are just glossed over very quickly. I know this is a Crash game, and that the story doesn’t want to be that complex in the first place, but still, it just feels they wanted to do a lot of things, so they threw them on the script with no consideration if they would feel half-baked or poorly made… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
And as for the other playable characters, those being Tawna, Cortex and Dingodile, they are… fine????? I guess they are but none of them felt better that the base Crash and Coco. Twana just felt to restrictive and not having the slide severely limits her movement, Dingodile is very fun and it introduces some interesting elements, but aiming the TNT can be a pain on the ass sometimes, and Cortex… is probably the best, it is the lest mobile of them all, but it makes it up with the genuine interesting mechanic of turning the enemies into platforms, which if expanded upon could be the mechanic for an entirely new game! But what all these three have in common, is that… you barely see them. Yeah, for some reason most of the levels where you play as them you only do it for a small part of it, and half-way through you are back playing a level you already have beaten as Crash or Coco, the one difference being box placement, which just feel tacked on, repetitive and boring… Huh, I wonder if we will return to that point…
If these where the only bad things the game did, I wouldn’t complain even a bit, but keep in mind, these are the aspects that are a bit mixed… now it’s time dip the hands into the bullshit.
A faulty N.Gin
Hey, Vicarius Visions called, they want their whacky hitboxes back!
Ok, that may be a little to mean, Crash 4’s hitboxes and collision are nowhere near as bad as the ones in the N’sane Trilogy, but I did had a few moments where something silly happened, but luckily those where only counted instances… unlike some other shit. I was constantly raising my eyebrow to constant minor inconveniences, ‘cause Crash base movement may feel good, and the level design may be incredible, but that does not do much when the game decides to pull some silly trick or bug, specially in the enemies’ department.
And again, I can praise all these levels all day, but doesn’t change the matter that they just. Don’t. END. Levels lasts more than 15 minutes AT LEAST, and that’s not considering if you get stuck in some hard parts or the now infuriating bonus screens, and that would not be that much of a problem if it that didn’t meant that there are more boxes to break here that in any Crash game, 100 something boxes at minimum, and these number can reach to 300 in the Crash levels, and in the most outrageous case 5 FUCKING HUNDRED for one Dingodile level. So if you miss a box, and believe you me, you WILL miss a box, you have to start all over again the whole 15 minute level to get the box gem. And you may think ‘’oh well, just don’t pay attention to the boxes’’ but here’s the thing: not paying attention to the boxes just makes the game much less interesting, it eliminates some of the most interesting challenges out of the equation and it just doesn’t feel right. But at the same time, going for all the boxes isn’t worth at all ‘cause pretty much all the time it’s going to result in you missing some that you couldn’t find and as such you just end up feeling frustrated or demotivated! It’s the ouroboros of fucking it up, there’s no escaping here! And true, it’s not like I got all the boxes in any of the past games, but the difference it’s that in those I didn’t feel as frustrated ‘cause levels weren’t as long, there weren’t as many boxes, and so I still tried to break them in any new level, and I did got a lot of gems! Here tho? It’s just painful and if you are going for completion, it’s just time wasted… AND THAT’S ONLY ONE OUT OF THE SIX GEMS FOR EACH LEVEL.
There are 6 gems in total in each level, tho I’ll admit, some are fun to collect, like the wumpa fruit gems or the hidden one, and they are welcomed additions for sure… oh wait, did I say in a aggravating way that there were six of them? Oh, silly me, I meant 12… YEAH. After boss two, you unlock the N.verted versions of levels, which are.. the same levels you played… but with a nice filter on them! There are cool themes here and there, but in general, the changes are minimal, and in some cases make the level even more of a pain to see and traverse through, and also THEY ARE JUST THE SAME LEVEL AGAIN. I can’t call it padding ‘cause it isn’t necessary to beat the game, but it’s content that adds nothing to the overall experience and it just hinders it but making you go through it over, and over, and over, and over again; and that doesn’t even include the flashback tapes, the perfect runs, the unlockable skins, the time relic challenges and the N.verted versions of bosses. I know it may sound silly to criticize in this way what is basically side content, but is side content that just keeps recycling the base game, and it’s a big, BIG chuck of the game, and not playing it means not ‘’enjoying’’ all of the game, tho for me it ended up not even necessary to go though to get tired of the game, because even tho is just 10 hours long it just felt so looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo-
Something something, pun with Dingodile in it
If I had to describe Crash 4, it would be by saying is both the best of what the series has to offer, while at the same time being some of the most repetitive and by design frustrating 3D platformer I’ve played, and I really don’t know if it was because of it’s nature as a Crash game or because of Toys for Bob insistence of making this experience last as it did.
If you asked me if I had fun, I’d say that only truly at the first half, and the rest of them I just praying for the end at some points, and it hurt me to feel that way so fucking bad, ‘cause again, what’s it’s good here, is freacking great, but I just can’t shake the feeling off that if it was more focused, more restrained with its content and, this would have been the best linear 3D platformer I ever played, but instead… it’s still a pretty good game!
I did overall enjoy it, but… I think I’m done with Crash for now. It was very fun, and I’m so glad that I ended up going all the way through this marathon, but, I had enough, I am too tired and my head hurts. I will be back to this series, don’t get me wrong, I really want to play Twinsanity but, for now, I’m happy with this little crazy voyage, and it was interesting to see the ups and downs of this marsupial, but it’s time for us to part ways…
Peace at last…
How to 100% Crash 4 in only one step
Step 1: You Don't
Step 1: You Don't
From what I've played of this, it seems like the ultimate realization of both Crash Bandicoot's gameplay and cast, would love to continue playing it but it seems to be cursed when it comes to trying to run it on my PC set up! Perhaps another day, Bandicoot...
Want to just say that this game is actually horrendous
CRASH IS BACK
God it feels good to use that phrase and mean it without a hint of internet mind-poisoned irony. Toys for Bob get it. They get what was fun about classic CB, and where that formula can be taken. The introduction of new masks and traversal mechanics bring such a fresh spin to what's already solid platforming. However... Fuck me there are some brutal segments in here. Path of Pain shit. Finishing a level with 48 deaths made me feel like a very old man.
But then comes the animation and cutscenes. Pure Satuday morning cartoon stuff that has this ancient oaf feeling youthful again. Is this joy I am seeing? Wonderfully rendered worlds, inhabited by daft stretchy characters that make you feel like somebody cared. There's love to spare in this place, and you're being welcomed in.
To get back to the chat about feeling like god's most geriatric fool, I cannae see myself going back to 100% it. As much as younger me would have made a point of it, I just respect myself too much these days to bother with this kinda thing, and I'm glad for it. Gives me more time to enjoy other games, or to lie on top of the bed and wonder why that's a painful thing to do now.
God it feels good to use that phrase and mean it without a hint of internet mind-poisoned irony. Toys for Bob get it. They get what was fun about classic CB, and where that formula can be taken. The introduction of new masks and traversal mechanics bring such a fresh spin to what's already solid platforming. However... Fuck me there are some brutal segments in here. Path of Pain shit. Finishing a level with 48 deaths made me feel like a very old man.
But then comes the animation and cutscenes. Pure Satuday morning cartoon stuff that has this ancient oaf feeling youthful again. Is this joy I am seeing? Wonderfully rendered worlds, inhabited by daft stretchy characters that make you feel like somebody cared. There's love to spare in this place, and you're being welcomed in.
To get back to the chat about feeling like god's most geriatric fool, I cannae see myself going back to 100% it. As much as younger me would have made a point of it, I just respect myself too much these days to bother with this kinda thing, and I'm glad for it. Gives me more time to enjoy other games, or to lie on top of the bed and wonder why that's a painful thing to do now.
there's no getting around it: crash 4 is a miserable, joyless game to play. when i say miserable, i mean that in the most literal sense of the word; it actively inspired misery in me to play it. every time i accomplished a difficult goal like getting an NSP relic in a level or a platinum relic, i failed to feel joy or catharsis. this is a game that i literally cannot feel myself enjoy, whether it be from the generation of cortisol that comes with me playing it, the clenched teeth i have when i get to uncharted waters in a level, the several times i shout "FUCK!" at the top of my lungs after a simple mistake that shouldn't enrage me is made, the way that i notice i haven't smiled or laughed in hours. . . the list goes on. it is incredibly dour to play this game and feel myself wanting to desperately like it, and yet know that i don't enjoy it whatsoever.
to give context, i grew up with the crash trilogy. i still have fond memories of playing crash 1 in my brother's room in our first home that i was barely cognizant enough to form memories of. i still remember what it was like for me to play crash 2 in the playstation 1 kiosk at Fry's electronics (when my mother had to take me home, i was literally screaming and crying at being torn away from it lmao). and i still remember playing crash 3 day in and day out because i had no memory card but i still wanted to beat the game in one sitting (never did accomplish it). those games have a special place in my heart and remind me of an innocent childhood that few things on this earth can.
so please know that it brings me nothing short of great shame to sit here and tell you all the things i dislike about crash 4, a game that i've wanted for about two decades now. i don't dislike this game because i want to, i dislike it because saying otherwise would be incredibly dishonest to the experience that i've had with this game.
the most obvious and glaring problem with crash 4 is that it is one of the most vile games on earth to 100% (or 106%, if you want to be nitpicky). i have no sources for this, but the game feels as though toys for bob heard people comparing the NST remaster to dark souls and wanted to double down on the games being perceived as "difficult". maybe i'm just a hipster, but the crash trilogy has never been an especially difficult series of games to me. there are difficult parts, yes, but i've found that getting 100% in each of them isn't nearly as difficult as people say (yes, even in crash 1). crash 4's design philosphy seems to be unquestionably to make the player feel challenged. an admirable goal by itself, but the execution is completely mangled.
to summarize, every level in the game has the following: 4 gems you get from box collection, 1 gem hidden somewhere in the level, 1 gem you get from beating it in less than 4 deaths, a platinum time trial relic, and an NSP relic for beating the level without any deaths and getting all boxes. oh, and you have to do each level twice because there are n. verted levels with gimmicks that usually don't affect gameplay in any meaningful way, and when they do, it's a chore. by the way, did i forget to mention the flashback tapes, which you can only get by reaching them in a level without dying, after which you unlock an excessively difficult bonus level that usually demands more precision than a crash game naturally lends itself to?
i hate when reviews of anything just summarize the plot of a work, but i felt it necessary to make a standalone paragraph there to underscore just how much shit there is to collect in this game. there's just frankly too much going on here and most of it is tedious to do. there's a reason that a very common sentiment online for this game is "this game is great if you DON'T go for 100%". hell, scroll through the reviews of this game on this website and you'll see it here. every time i see someone say that, i'm reminded of dragon age: inquistion's release and how everyone had to outright spam "LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS" because players would get stuck doing the mundane and frankly garbage side content in the first area of the game, not realizing that they had barely scratched the surface of it. it's a tell-tale sign of game-design failure when your advocates have to tell new players that there is an incorrect way to play the game and it is fairly trivial to fall into it.
is crash 4 good when you play it casually without going for 100%? sure, maybe. i wouldn't know. i went into this game wanting to 100% it, and i didn't expect that sentiment to radically change my experience with the game. for the first third or so of the game, i had fun. i enjoyed my time. i found NSP relics to be slightly tedious to go for, but i was otherwise enjoying myself. then i started hitting levels like run it bayou, bears repeating, rock blocked, and crash landed, to name a few. i'm not afraid to sling mud on myself and say that some of these levels took hours to finish 100%ing. crash landed by itself took me, without exaggeration, 8 hours (getting all the boxes in the riding sections of that level is the most dastardly thing i've had to do in a modern game). and okay, sure, is it because the levels are just that challenging yet rewarding? no, it's because they're extremely bloated, rife with autoscroll sections that demand trial-and-error chipping away if you want to get 100%, and aren't polished enough to sustain the amount of attention you need to give them. can you imagine the absolute agony i felt when i saw an alternate timeline open up after i did run it bayou and realized i'd have to do those autoscroller sections again without a single mistake?
so what should have been a fun experience where i learn a platformer became rout memorization to accomplish what, at times, felt like herculean tasks. my reward was never worth it. the game seemingly egged me on every time i even got a perfect level done, with my prize being a "huh you think you're hot shit? get another NSP relic then loser" and being told i would have to do the level again to even get the skin i wanted. this is even reflected in the pause menu. every time you pause the game, the majority of your screen is dedicated to showing you what you have yet to get in the level, almost as a "remember: you're here forever" type reminder.
let's do an experiment. right now i want you, the reader, to think about the crash trilogy (assuming you played it). i want you to estimate the average amount of boxes per level in each game. i want you to actually write down these numbers. as a bonus, guess how many levels in each crash game has 100 or more boxes. have you got your numbers for each game? good. for the purposes of this review, i have totaled out the entire trilogy's box count (excluding any levels that don't have boxes as well as stormy ascent and future tense) and i can let you know what those numbers are.
for crash 1, there are 1168 boxes in the entire game, with 24 levels that have boxes (the great hall being the only one that has no boxes (and it is functionally just an all gems check)). that averages out to 48.6 boxes and there is only one level with more than 100 boxes (jaws of darkness). moving on to crash 2, our numbers increase dramatically with a box total of 1876 and 27 levels. that averages to 69.5 boxes and there are three levels with 100 or more boxes (snow biz, air crash, cold hard crash). lastly, for crash 3, we have somewhat equitable numbers to crash 2. 1961 boxes and 29 levels gives us an average of 67.6. crash 3 has 6 levels with 100 or more boxes (gee wiz, dino might!, sphinyxinator, future frenzy, bug lite, and ski crazed).
let's do this same experiment with crash 4. again, i had done all the counting for you, and the results are compelling. for total box count, crash 4 has 7304 boxes over the span of 38 levels. that averages to 192.2 boxes per level. and, for shits and giggles, do you want to know how many levels have over 100 boxes in them? literally all but one of them have over 100 boxes, with the second level (n. sanity peak) being the only one to be sub-100. i know this point might seem belabored, but i need to stress that this illustrates a greater problem with crash 4. levels are, on average, 3 times longer than an average crash 2/3 level and have more strenuous 100% requirements to boot.
i feel like kathy vavrick-o'brien at the end of survivor all stars. i respect making a platformer this demanding and large in terms of its scope. as much as i cursed every single person who developed this game while playing it, i do acknowledge there was so much passion and heart put into this work. but there was a parallel course that could've been taken where this wasn't such a devilish game. there was a way to make this game have the amount of content it did without leaving players left in the carnage of 100%ing it actively ruining experiences. so many of these levels feel like 2-3 bunched up into one. and there are so many repeats with alternate timelines levels that just retread preexisting ones. so much of this game wasn't necessary. were you scared that no one would want to pay $60 for a platformer in 2020 and felt obligated to stuff as much shit into this thing as possible to justify it? i think you succeeded in the worst way, toys for rob i mean bob. yeah, i got 106% in your game, and it was for the worse. you made a genuinely lengthy and difficult platformer that will take people several more hours to 100% than any other crash game, probably more than any other modern platformer. you did all of this at the expense of making the game fun to play. does it at all sadden you that everyone has to put disclaimers on how to enjoy your game properly? that your piece of art fails to speak for itself in one of the most basic ways? i wanted this game for two decades, but i now sit here wishing it hadn't been made because of the net negative impact it's had on my life. and it breaks my heart that we've reached this point.
among other nitpicks, i do wish that all of the non-crash/coco characters in the game just outright weren't in it. i'll just say it i'm horny for dingodile and i love his design in this game but good christ are his levels an abomination. tawna and cortex aren't much better off, and any time i play as the three i'm just wishing they weren't even in the game. the game's long enough as it is, if you cut all the levels that involve any of them, get rid of n. verted levels entirely (they serve absolutely no purpose beyond what having toggleable filters fulfills), and, for god's sake, get rid of NSP relics. do all that and you'd have a much leaner and more enjoyable game. one i'd actually imagine myself enjoying.
as it is now, i don't want to replay this game in the near future. in the distant future, however, i do want to come back to this game. i want to put this game in my PS4, play it without any pressure to get an NSP relic or a platinum time trial relic, or even do the alternate timelines. i want to play this game casually, and give myself the chance to like it. that day is far away, and it's one i hope i can enjoy.
to give context, i grew up with the crash trilogy. i still have fond memories of playing crash 1 in my brother's room in our first home that i was barely cognizant enough to form memories of. i still remember what it was like for me to play crash 2 in the playstation 1 kiosk at Fry's electronics (when my mother had to take me home, i was literally screaming and crying at being torn away from it lmao). and i still remember playing crash 3 day in and day out because i had no memory card but i still wanted to beat the game in one sitting (never did accomplish it). those games have a special place in my heart and remind me of an innocent childhood that few things on this earth can.
so please know that it brings me nothing short of great shame to sit here and tell you all the things i dislike about crash 4, a game that i've wanted for about two decades now. i don't dislike this game because i want to, i dislike it because saying otherwise would be incredibly dishonest to the experience that i've had with this game.
the most obvious and glaring problem with crash 4 is that it is one of the most vile games on earth to 100% (or 106%, if you want to be nitpicky). i have no sources for this, but the game feels as though toys for bob heard people comparing the NST remaster to dark souls and wanted to double down on the games being perceived as "difficult". maybe i'm just a hipster, but the crash trilogy has never been an especially difficult series of games to me. there are difficult parts, yes, but i've found that getting 100% in each of them isn't nearly as difficult as people say (yes, even in crash 1). crash 4's design philosphy seems to be unquestionably to make the player feel challenged. an admirable goal by itself, but the execution is completely mangled.
to summarize, every level in the game has the following: 4 gems you get from box collection, 1 gem hidden somewhere in the level, 1 gem you get from beating it in less than 4 deaths, a platinum time trial relic, and an NSP relic for beating the level without any deaths and getting all boxes. oh, and you have to do each level twice because there are n. verted levels with gimmicks that usually don't affect gameplay in any meaningful way, and when they do, it's a chore. by the way, did i forget to mention the flashback tapes, which you can only get by reaching them in a level without dying, after which you unlock an excessively difficult bonus level that usually demands more precision than a crash game naturally lends itself to?
i hate when reviews of anything just summarize the plot of a work, but i felt it necessary to make a standalone paragraph there to underscore just how much shit there is to collect in this game. there's just frankly too much going on here and most of it is tedious to do. there's a reason that a very common sentiment online for this game is "this game is great if you DON'T go for 100%". hell, scroll through the reviews of this game on this website and you'll see it here. every time i see someone say that, i'm reminded of dragon age: inquistion's release and how everyone had to outright spam "LEAVE THE HINTERLANDS" because players would get stuck doing the mundane and frankly garbage side content in the first area of the game, not realizing that they had barely scratched the surface of it. it's a tell-tale sign of game-design failure when your advocates have to tell new players that there is an incorrect way to play the game and it is fairly trivial to fall into it.
is crash 4 good when you play it casually without going for 100%? sure, maybe. i wouldn't know. i went into this game wanting to 100% it, and i didn't expect that sentiment to radically change my experience with the game. for the first third or so of the game, i had fun. i enjoyed my time. i found NSP relics to be slightly tedious to go for, but i was otherwise enjoying myself. then i started hitting levels like run it bayou, bears repeating, rock blocked, and crash landed, to name a few. i'm not afraid to sling mud on myself and say that some of these levels took hours to finish 100%ing. crash landed by itself took me, without exaggeration, 8 hours (getting all the boxes in the riding sections of that level is the most dastardly thing i've had to do in a modern game). and okay, sure, is it because the levels are just that challenging yet rewarding? no, it's because they're extremely bloated, rife with autoscroll sections that demand trial-and-error chipping away if you want to get 100%, and aren't polished enough to sustain the amount of attention you need to give them. can you imagine the absolute agony i felt when i saw an alternate timeline open up after i did run it bayou and realized i'd have to do those autoscroller sections again without a single mistake?
so what should have been a fun experience where i learn a platformer became rout memorization to accomplish what, at times, felt like herculean tasks. my reward was never worth it. the game seemingly egged me on every time i even got a perfect level done, with my prize being a "huh you think you're hot shit? get another NSP relic then loser" and being told i would have to do the level again to even get the skin i wanted. this is even reflected in the pause menu. every time you pause the game, the majority of your screen is dedicated to showing you what you have yet to get in the level, almost as a "remember: you're here forever" type reminder.
let's do an experiment. right now i want you, the reader, to think about the crash trilogy (assuming you played it). i want you to estimate the average amount of boxes per level in each game. i want you to actually write down these numbers. as a bonus, guess how many levels in each crash game has 100 or more boxes. have you got your numbers for each game? good. for the purposes of this review, i have totaled out the entire trilogy's box count (excluding any levels that don't have boxes as well as stormy ascent and future tense) and i can let you know what those numbers are.
for crash 1, there are 1168 boxes in the entire game, with 24 levels that have boxes (the great hall being the only one that has no boxes (and it is functionally just an all gems check)). that averages out to 48.6 boxes and there is only one level with more than 100 boxes (jaws of darkness). moving on to crash 2, our numbers increase dramatically with a box total of 1876 and 27 levels. that averages to 69.5 boxes and there are three levels with 100 or more boxes (snow biz, air crash, cold hard crash). lastly, for crash 3, we have somewhat equitable numbers to crash 2. 1961 boxes and 29 levels gives us an average of 67.6. crash 3 has 6 levels with 100 or more boxes (gee wiz, dino might!, sphinyxinator, future frenzy, bug lite, and ski crazed).
let's do this same experiment with crash 4. again, i had done all the counting for you, and the results are compelling. for total box count, crash 4 has 7304 boxes over the span of 38 levels. that averages to 192.2 boxes per level. and, for shits and giggles, do you want to know how many levels have over 100 boxes in them? literally all but one of them have over 100 boxes, with the second level (n. sanity peak) being the only one to be sub-100. i know this point might seem belabored, but i need to stress that this illustrates a greater problem with crash 4. levels are, on average, 3 times longer than an average crash 2/3 level and have more strenuous 100% requirements to boot.
i feel like kathy vavrick-o'brien at the end of survivor all stars. i respect making a platformer this demanding and large in terms of its scope. as much as i cursed every single person who developed this game while playing it, i do acknowledge there was so much passion and heart put into this work. but there was a parallel course that could've been taken where this wasn't such a devilish game. there was a way to make this game have the amount of content it did without leaving players left in the carnage of 100%ing it actively ruining experiences. so many of these levels feel like 2-3 bunched up into one. and there are so many repeats with alternate timelines levels that just retread preexisting ones. so much of this game wasn't necessary. were you scared that no one would want to pay $60 for a platformer in 2020 and felt obligated to stuff as much shit into this thing as possible to justify it? i think you succeeded in the worst way, toys for rob i mean bob. yeah, i got 106% in your game, and it was for the worse. you made a genuinely lengthy and difficult platformer that will take people several more hours to 100% than any other crash game, probably more than any other modern platformer. you did all of this at the expense of making the game fun to play. does it at all sadden you that everyone has to put disclaimers on how to enjoy your game properly? that your piece of art fails to speak for itself in one of the most basic ways? i wanted this game for two decades, but i now sit here wishing it hadn't been made because of the net negative impact it's had on my life. and it breaks my heart that we've reached this point.
among other nitpicks, i do wish that all of the non-crash/coco characters in the game just outright weren't in it. i'll just say it i'm horny for dingodile and i love his design in this game but good christ are his levels an abomination. tawna and cortex aren't much better off, and any time i play as the three i'm just wishing they weren't even in the game. the game's long enough as it is, if you cut all the levels that involve any of them, get rid of n. verted levels entirely (they serve absolutely no purpose beyond what having toggleable filters fulfills), and, for god's sake, get rid of NSP relics. do all that and you'd have a much leaner and more enjoyable game. one i'd actually imagine myself enjoying.
as it is now, i don't want to replay this game in the near future. in the distant future, however, i do want to come back to this game. i want to put this game in my PS4, play it without any pressure to get an NSP relic or a platinum time trial relic, or even do the alternate timelines. i want to play this game casually, and give myself the chance to like it. that day is far away, and it's one i hope i can enjoy.
I liked this in parts as it is probably the best straight up platformer in the series but the gimmick levels bar Tawna suck and the last area is straight up not fun. The masks lose their enjoyment early on and so it brings the game down a bit.
Enjoyable but I can’t recommend
Enjoyable but I can’t recommend
Incredibly fun platformer held back by it's frustratingly brutal conditions for 100% completion
Totally serviceable follow-up to the originals. About half of this game is a loving send up to the series and the games that came before it, and the other half is "haha dark souls of platformers" that relies on exploiting the quirks of the sometimes janky physics while navigating imprecise or often unclear hitboxes. So, it's fun, except when it's not. Plus, there are so many collectibles that are just busywork-tier mobile game nonsense that I have less than zero desire to revisit this for any sort of completion goals. I even stopped attempting to get all of the boxes in each level by the last world.
Unrelated: I want to know what maniac on the dev team thought 450 boxes in a single level was a good idea. I just wanna talk, bro, just a quick little chat... Just got a couple questions, like where the two I missed were hidden.......
Unrelated: I want to know what maniac on the dev team thought 450 boxes in a single level was a good idea. I just wanna talk, bro, just a quick little chat... Just got a couple questions, like where the two I missed were hidden.......
i hate activision so much its unreal
I like Crash. Everytime I see him I want to play as him. I think the games feel pretty good. Too bad all the traditional Crash games infuriate me to the point of quitting. I don't have the fortitude to play the levels casually. It also just annoys the shit out of me that getting all the boxes is hard. Yeah I get this is one of the harder platformer series, but I just can't enjoy it because of that and it sucks.
Coming off Pseudoregalia making me find platforming really fun makes Crash 4 just find platforming really painful.
Anyways, Crash Tag Team racing clears.
Coming off Pseudoregalia making me find platforming really fun makes Crash 4 just find platforming really painful.
Anyways, Crash Tag Team racing clears.
Antes de tudo, quero dizer que só joguei as fases principais, não joguei as fases inversas e nem as fases dos outros personagens que vao de encontro com a historia do Crash.
Quarto jogo da série (os outros jogos são delirio coletivo :v, até o game faz uma piada com isso), temos aqui a mesma estrutura dos games antigos: varias fases, um monte de caixas pra quebrar e uma porrada de joias pra achar.
Pra dar uma variada no gameplay, temos 4 mascaras novas. Cada uma tem uma habilidade diferente: Inverter a gravidade, girar sem parar, alternar plataformas invisiveis e desacelerar o tempo. Na penultima fase, tem uma sessão ali que vc vai usar todas, é uma doidera. Alem do Crash e da Coco, podemos jogar com outros 3 personagens (incluindo o Neo Cortex), cada um suas particularidades.
Eu não tenho mais a paciencia e tempo da minha época de adolescente, então nao fiz 100%. Alias, aqui é um inferno pra fazer isso hein. Alem das caixas, cada fase tem 6 diamantes. E cada fase tem a versão inversa dela (ou seja, mais diamantes). Tem as cruz de time trial (que eu só fiz a primeira mesmo e quando eu vi o tempo da cruz dourada...vixi) e sem contar as joias secretas. Alem disso, tem as fases de antes do crash 1 (essa fases vc só anda de lado e tem muitas caixas e pouca plataforma e é bem facil de cair) e tem as fases que vc joga com os secundarios e cruza o caminho com o Crash...cara, quanta coisa viu :v
A dificuldade do jogo é o que vc espera: começa de boas e vai aumentando. A ultima fase eu morri umas 30 vezes na sessão que usa todas as mascaras.
Apesar de eu não fazer tudo (e nem pretendo), eu me diverti com esse game. Não é perfeito, mas é legal.
Quarto jogo da série (os outros jogos são delirio coletivo :v, até o game faz uma piada com isso), temos aqui a mesma estrutura dos games antigos: varias fases, um monte de caixas pra quebrar e uma porrada de joias pra achar.
Pra dar uma variada no gameplay, temos 4 mascaras novas. Cada uma tem uma habilidade diferente: Inverter a gravidade, girar sem parar, alternar plataformas invisiveis e desacelerar o tempo. Na penultima fase, tem uma sessão ali que vc vai usar todas, é uma doidera. Alem do Crash e da Coco, podemos jogar com outros 3 personagens (incluindo o Neo Cortex), cada um suas particularidades.
Eu não tenho mais a paciencia e tempo da minha época de adolescente, então nao fiz 100%. Alias, aqui é um inferno pra fazer isso hein. Alem das caixas, cada fase tem 6 diamantes. E cada fase tem a versão inversa dela (ou seja, mais diamantes). Tem as cruz de time trial (que eu só fiz a primeira mesmo e quando eu vi o tempo da cruz dourada...vixi) e sem contar as joias secretas. Alem disso, tem as fases de antes do crash 1 (essa fases vc só anda de lado e tem muitas caixas e pouca plataforma e é bem facil de cair) e tem as fases que vc joga com os secundarios e cruza o caminho com o Crash...cara, quanta coisa viu :v
A dificuldade do jogo é o que vc espera: começa de boas e vai aumentando. A ultima fase eu morri umas 30 vezes na sessão que usa todas as mascaras.
Apesar de eu não fazer tudo (e nem pretendo), eu me diverti com esse game. Não é perfeito, mas é legal.
stop me if you've heard this from me before. 100% is a pain
but dammit this is a really strong platformer that took a lot of what I liked about the previous games and amped them up while also adding it's own twists. a true sequel's purpose fulfilled
but dammit this is a really strong platformer that took a lot of what I liked about the previous games and amped them up while also adding it's own twists. a true sequel's purpose fulfilled
was nice to play a true blue sequel to warped but like holy fuck i never want to play this game ever again
100%??? yeah right!!!! if u can do that they should study u in some kind of freak lab
100%??? yeah right!!!! if u can do that they should study u in some kind of freak lab
This is my first ever Crash game I have experienced. Truth be told I'm someone who didn't get this game with the intent on potentially becoming a fan or getting into the rest of the series, I mainly picked it up because I wanted a pretty decent new platformer to play on my brand spanking new Xbox Series X.
The first thing that grabbed me was the absolutely stunning visuals. This game looks and runs incredibly, the aesthetics of the stages are super creative, vibrant, and are jam packed with detail, the framerate is as smooth as butter at a rock solid 60 fps, and the game overall FEELS amazing to handle as well. The controls are extremely tight and rock solid, which makes precise platforming super fun to pull off and it makes traversal around tricky obstacles almost seamless. Your moveset is fun to use as well, slide jumping isn't really something the game teaches you but it's a lifesaver later on in the game with how much hang time you get in the air. The stages themselves are mostly really fun platforming challenges, with interesting stage gimmicks and power ups with the quantum masks you obtain throughout the story. They're all incredibly satisfying to use and super tight with how well they work. Thankfully since I have this game on Series X, the loading times are apparently way better than they are on Xbox One X and PS4 pro, and at the time of this writing the official Series X enhanced version hasn't come out just yet so this may be improved even more
I do have a few issues though. The other characters I'm not really a fan of since their level design isn't as interesting as Crash's or Coco's and their moveset is also nowhere near as fun to boot. There are alternate side missions you can play with these characters as well, where they cause something to happen in a regular Crash level offscreen and you get to see what exactly causes it, but this is ruined by the fact that you still need to play through the Crash section it leaves off from, and it's practically identical to the original stage you've already played with some very minor changes. I'm glad these are optional at the very least but this is just lazy.
On top of the main campaign, there's a slew of extra collectables to obtain, the VHS tapes, the color gems, all the rest of the gems as well as the N verted versions of each stage, the time relics with varying ranks, I've heard absolute horror stories of people attempting to 100% this bloated behemoth of a game, but thankfully I don't feel content doing anything of the sort. I played an N verted stage, got a good handful of the VHS tapes, got all the color gems, a couple of perfect relics, got a platinum time relic AND (humble brag) even beat a dev time relic as well, but this is all enough for me. Truth be told I think Crash 4 is a much more enjoyable experience when you're NOT trying to look for and break every single box, and I find it much more fun to just go from point A to point B at my leisure, which I'm sure might sound sacrilege to most Crash fans out there, but that's how I enjoyed this game a lot more, and I'm unsure if this is going to be the case when I play the original trilogy later on. Still, I'm really glad I got to play this anyway. It only took one game but now I'm hooked.
The first thing that grabbed me was the absolutely stunning visuals. This game looks and runs incredibly, the aesthetics of the stages are super creative, vibrant, and are jam packed with detail, the framerate is as smooth as butter at a rock solid 60 fps, and the game overall FEELS amazing to handle as well. The controls are extremely tight and rock solid, which makes precise platforming super fun to pull off and it makes traversal around tricky obstacles almost seamless. Your moveset is fun to use as well, slide jumping isn't really something the game teaches you but it's a lifesaver later on in the game with how much hang time you get in the air. The stages themselves are mostly really fun platforming challenges, with interesting stage gimmicks and power ups with the quantum masks you obtain throughout the story. They're all incredibly satisfying to use and super tight with how well they work. Thankfully since I have this game on Series X, the loading times are apparently way better than they are on Xbox One X and PS4 pro, and at the time of this writing the official Series X enhanced version hasn't come out just yet so this may be improved even more
I do have a few issues though. The other characters I'm not really a fan of since their level design isn't as interesting as Crash's or Coco's and their moveset is also nowhere near as fun to boot. There are alternate side missions you can play with these characters as well, where they cause something to happen in a regular Crash level offscreen and you get to see what exactly causes it, but this is ruined by the fact that you still need to play through the Crash section it leaves off from, and it's practically identical to the original stage you've already played with some very minor changes. I'm glad these are optional at the very least but this is just lazy.
On top of the main campaign, there's a slew of extra collectables to obtain, the VHS tapes, the color gems, all the rest of the gems as well as the N verted versions of each stage, the time relics with varying ranks, I've heard absolute horror stories of people attempting to 100% this bloated behemoth of a game, but thankfully I don't feel content doing anything of the sort. I played an N verted stage, got a good handful of the VHS tapes, got all the color gems, a couple of perfect relics, got a platinum time relic AND (humble brag) even beat a dev time relic as well, but this is all enough for me. Truth be told I think Crash 4 is a much more enjoyable experience when you're NOT trying to look for and break every single box, and I find it much more fun to just go from point A to point B at my leisure, which I'm sure might sound sacrilege to most Crash fans out there, but that's how I enjoyed this game a lot more, and I'm unsure if this is going to be the case when I play the original trilogy later on. Still, I'm really glad I got to play this anyway. It only took one game but now I'm hooked.