Now that this remake of this classic PS1-era trio of platformer games is hitting Game Pass, let’s revisit how this content-filled package holds up at all. Is Crash Bandicoot still worth in 2024, or is it an outdated experience? And does Vicarious Visions’ remake do these classics justice? Let’s find out!
WOAH!
The 90’s was undeniably the peak era for mascot platformers, be it 2D or 3D. Many console wars (hint hint, check out our highly ironic console war-based card game) were fought over whether it’s Mario or Sonic who’s cooler, but plenty of other successful and less successful attempts were made: Xbox’s sort of own Banjo-Kazooie, Ubisoft’s Rayman, somewhat forgotten ones like Gex, Bubsy or Tonic Trouble, and lastly the subject of this review: Crash Bandicoot. Not everyone may remember that these games were developed by Naughty Dog, nowadays far more known for the Uncharted and The Last Of Us franchises, and these 2.5D/3D platformers (more on that later) were one of the franchises that allowed the original PlayStation to dominate among the 5th generation of consoles.
The franchise, since, has suffered multiple instances of identity crisis. After the original trilogy, the game received a very well-received kart racer spin-off, Crash Team Racing – one that’s also been ported to newer platforms, albeit with a bit more game-as-a-service aspects than originally published. The PS1 also saw a forgotten but decent minigame spin-off in the vein of Mario Party – that one was called Crash Bash. From the PS2 onwards, the franchise has received various new chapters, reboots and reinventions by different developers, and while some of the games were fun, the general feeling was that nothing really came close to the classics. It is for this reason, and because of Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy’s success, that back in 2020 we received a proper “Crash 4”, an excellet one at that if I can say so myself. But let’s take a step back and look at the N. Sane Trilogy on our consoles.
Bandi-cute
The original Crash Bandicoot games were in a visual style that was very reminiscent of what many refer to as the Nickelodeon era: very stylized, exaggerated, almost gross at times. This remake turns the games into… a safer, smoother look. a middle-ground between what you’d find between a Disney/Pixar movie and the cartoony Fortnite visuals. This slight stylistic change doesn’t impact the general feel of stages all that much, but it does modernize things a tad. Speaking of modernizing, the game itself tries to be a faithful recreation, but it is effectively a full remake from the ground up: indeed, the original code and models were not used, which brings forward a few unexpected changes to those who are vastly familiar with the originals. Some hitboxes, most notably the playable character’s, have a different shape, with some game elements like certain boxes even functioning slightly differently. It’s virtually impossible to notice for anyone who wasn’t played Crash Bandicoot very recently, but it’s worth mentioning.
But let’s get into the meat of it, shall we? How does this classic Crash Bandicoot experience hold up in 2024? Well, it’s still a lot of fun. It doesn’t have the freedom of games like Mario 64, despite the 3D graphics, as most areas are either played in a tight rail of a back-camera segment with very little movement to the sides, or straight-up sidescroller parts, especially in bonus areas. The original Crash Bandicoot, in that sense, is the least imaginative, with some fun platforming segments but not a lot of variety. The first sequel expands on this, and by the third game, there’s a new playable characters as well, vehicle segments, underwater levels and more. Some of these parts feel a bit gimmicky and perhaps not on part with the standard platforming segments, but they’re still fun and nostalgic. With bonus paths and and plenty of secrets, even the rail-based format offers a lot of exploration.
That’ll take me a while
The levels are full of crates to either break or avoid, collectible apples, tons of enemies to smash away using our bandicoot’s iconic spin attacks or jumping on their head, Mario style. This trilogy brings us back to that iconic Crash formula quite well, despite a few small changes that aren’t always great, and the game’s on-rails formula may not necessarily resonate with new players who are used to the freedom of modern 3D platformers like Mario Odyssey. But if you do like the classic Crash Bandicoot style, the N.Sane Trilogy has all the goodies: the first 3 games are back in full, including their bonus stages and even some restored content from older betas. It is, by all means, the definitive way to play through these great platformer campaigns.
But finishing every level and seeing the end credits is really just the start of the experience, as every stage of all 3 games also offers further further trials: finding all gems, clearing all crates, finishing under a time limit in a specific game mode where crates give extra seconds… it’s here when the so-called “Dark Souls of platformers” formula begins, as getting through some of these final challenges can be tough as well. Navigating through some of the gimmicky levels of Crash Bandicoot 3, especially the underwater ones, while trying to be pixel perfect with the moves is quite the challenge, but it’s honestly worth the hassle for platformer fans who want a challenge – something that is often missing in titles of the sort nowadays.
I’m going N. Sane
Despite a handful of bizarre small changes from the original games, Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy is still quite a riot. Naughty Dog’s iconic “on-rails” 3D platformers, remade from the ground up by Vicarious Visions, is still a lot of fun, with the main character’s iconic spins making for what is still a quite fresh experience that differentiates itself from other titles in the genre. With tons of content and a massive amount of extremely hard challenges to aim for in the search of that elusive 100% completion (and beyond), this is one of those platformers that could keep you coming back for a while – making this a great addition to Game Pass (also on PC and cloud – the first Activision-published game to be playable via cloud on Game Pass). Lastly, the game was never updated for Xbox Series X, most damningly sticking to 30fps on either Xbox console.
Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy
Played on
Xbox Series X, Xbox One X
PROS
- Crash Bandicoot is still a lot of fun to this day
- Mostly faithful recreations, with even some lost levels restored
- High skill-ceiling optional challenges are worth pursuing
- Tons of content
CONS
- Not as
- Some new hitbox and collision woes
- The new visual style is a slight downgrade
- Crash 1 is a little stale, Crash 3 is a little gimmicky in hindsight
- 30 frames per second even on newer consoles
