In 1996, soon to be one of the most popular and most loved games in history, Crash Bandicoot was released. 21 years later, to keep up with current technology, the world’s favorite bandicoot was re-mastered, bringing a whole new perspective and a wave of nostalgia.

Developed by Vicarious Visions and published by Activision, Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy delivers a compilation of 3 remastered platform games. Critics have appreciated how faithful the game is kept to the original version and overall, received positive feedback. Vicarious Visions used the original “level geometry” in order to rebuild the game play. The animation, art and audio were made from scratch and as the original game was written for PlayStation.

In it’s release week, Crash was at the top of the best selling games, and eventually beat Horizon Zero Dawn for “Best Selling Exclusive Launch Of The Year”. After just 3 months, the game had sold, worldwide, over 2.5 Million copies.

Whether you’re reliving your childhood, or introducing your children to the game, Crash Bandicoot brings a world of fun to anyone who plays it.

Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy

Storyline

In the N-Sane Trilogy, three Crash Bandicoot games are included, the first, original “Crash Bandicoot”, “Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back” and “Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.”
The storyline for each game is similar, Crash has to battle against the Evil Doctor Neo Cortex and his cronies to save the world.

Crash Bandicoot

Crash Bandicoot, once a peaceful animal living on one of the various islands targeted by the evil Doctor Neo Cortex and his assistant Doctor Nitrus Brio, was one of the several animals turned into intelligent beasts with superhuman strength, using Doctor Nitrus Brio’s Evolvo-Ray. The main objective of Doctor Neo Cortex is to create an army of beasts possessing this super strength that could work for him and do his bidding.

Crash doesn’t want to take orders from Doctor Neo Cortex, and as a result he’s subjected to an untested Cortex Vortex in order to try to control the Bandicoot, but Crash escapes the vortex and jumps into the sea. Meanwhile, the evil Doctor begins his plans to experiment on a female Bandicoot named Tawna, and having grown very fond of her, Crash is determined to rescue the female Bandicoot.

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back

Spoiler (If you haven’t completed the first game)

Crash Bandicoot defeats his enemy Doctor Neo Cortex, and successfully rescues Tawna. Cortex plummets towards earth after his defeat, and after regaining consciousness finds himself in a darkened cave surrounded by mysterious glowing crystals. After he experiments on one of these crystals, he discovers that they can hold energy. Meanwhile, the planets are aligning to create a disastrous solar flux that will inevitably destroy the planet, and convinced that the crystals can harbor this power he creates a new crystal powered “Cortex Vortex” in order to absorb the energy from the solar flux. Cortex designs a strategy to use Crash Bandicoot as a tool to collect the extra crystals needed to power the device.

We rejoin Crash Bandicoot sleeping on one of the islands from the previous game. His sister, Coco, is happily using her laptop before it fries, and she instructs crash to go and get her a new battery. As Crash jumps into action, it’s not long before he’s transported to a Vortex room and confronted by Cortex, who orders him to bring crystals from each Vortex. After the first crystal is retrieved, Doctor Nitrus Brio speaks to crash and informs him of Doctor Cortex’s evil plans to harness the destructive energy and tells him he must collect gems, and not crystals, to create a laser to destroy Cortex’s space station.

Crash Bandicoot: Warped!

Spoilers for games 1 and 2!

Crash collected all the gems from the previous game and then Doctor Nitrus Brio was able to construct a laser beam device that shot down the Evil Doctor Neo Cortex’s space station. Fragments of the station plummet to earth and crash into a tropical island, releasing an evil ancient entity known as Uka Uka. Cortex and Uka Uka recruit Doctor Nefarious Tropy and together devise a new plan, to use a time machine to collect more crystals.

Back to our protagonist’s home, and Aku Aku, Crash Bandicoots protector and Uka Uka’s twin brother, senses that after being locked away for centuries to protect the world from his evil doings, Uka Uka is released. Crash, Coco and Aku Aku travel to this space station time machine in order to retrieve the crystals before the evil Uka Uka and Doctor Cortex can carry out their plan.

Gameplay

If you’re like me and sometimes enjoy getting out the old Playstation or NES, you’ll understand how much of a headache it is focusing on old graphics. Laggy, glitchy and blurry, old games are nostalgic and loads of fun to play but can result in feeling dizzy. This is exactly why Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy is so brilliant!

Gameplay is beautifully similar to the original game and keeps its core values, while polishing everything and making it smoother and high definition.

The enemies are more defined, making battles and fighting more “realistic”, where crash tries to defeat enemies on the original game, sometimes the blocky meshes can interfere with the accuracy of attacks. This doesn’t make the new game any easier, but more enjoyable.

All three games have the same feel to them and use the same engine, however throughout the series Crash develops more skills, this makes the third game ultimately the “best” as crash has the most playable abilities, aside from the fact that I find the levels more enjoyable.

One notable point to take into consideration is this game is HARD. The most common thing i’ve heard people say is “I don’t remember it being so difficult!”.

There are still those annoying underwater levels, exactly as we remember them. Underwater levels are notoriously difficult to control, and alongside these are Coco’s aerial levels too. These are only in the third game and are less enjoyable than the standard platform levels. Coco drives a plane around a map where she is being attacked, and has to shoot down several enemies. The plane is incredibly slow and the level is a little tedious and boring. This shouldn’t distract from how good the other levels are, and it’s a small negative compared to many, many positives.

Coco is now also available to play levels that were once only playable with Crash Bandicoot. The game play is exactly the same for both characters.

The controls are the same, and take seconds to get used too. Although it is a platform game, each stage is 3D, meaning you can run off the sides of a wall or an enemy can walk backwards and forwards, as well as side to side.

Visuals

Crash Bandicoot is made in cartoon, 3D style animation. Originally, it’s made to look goofy and juvenile.
In it’s revamp, the graphics and visuals are kept authentic, while cleaning and polishing them. In a way, it’s different yet the same. Which is good news for everyone.

The way the light works enhances the game too, sunlight casts shadows, and can be seen to peek through trees onto Crash, which makes the world feel much more interactive and convincing. Textures such as grass were once flat on the original game, and in this version grass is given individual blades for a much more realistic approach, while keeping it’s cartoon-animation style.

Weather has dramatically improved on the latest version, taking looped, blocks of rain to detailed thunderstorms, and enhancing water effects by using full “reflective shaders” as opposed to the original version where they placed textures under the water to mimic the reflective effect.

Is It Worth It?

Is Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy Worth it?

Crash Bandicoot N-Sane Trilogy is currently selling at $30.00.

If you’re a loyal fan to the original series of Crash Bandicoot games, or just discovering it now and want to try it, the game is 100% worth the money to buy.

To conclude, Vicarious Visions have done a brilliant job crafting this old, outdated masterpiece into a polished, refined game fit for any age to play and enjoy.