Games such as Tekken, WipEout and Ridge Racer were likely to establish the original PlayStation console's dominance on the console market in the late nineties, but it was only in 1996, with the launch of Crash Bandicoot, that Sony got its own mascot. And that was when it really took off.
The funny character of Crash Bandicoot was rugged, colorful, and quickly turned out to be a figure that could go even square off with Super Mario.
That's why were nobody surprised that game development Naughty Dog kept cooking for three wonderful years. During these years, we were first served three fantastic platform adventures, and these are the three - Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: Warped - which has been refurbished and will be released in 2017 .
Now, like that time, Crash Bandicoot mainly deals with one thing: embarrassing precise platform jumps. It's the case that Crash yet again has beef with the evil world-dominating Neo Cortex, and to save the day, of course you have to jump, and bounce through a huge handful of colorful stages
The jumps usually takes place in three dimensions, but differs from the competitors by exclusively contributing to long, straight and fairly linear levels. Crash is almost always straight from or straight to the camera - later on in the series, the developers were increasingly turning away from this formula, but it will never be as open as Super Mario 64.
However, this does not have to be a negative thing. On the contrary, the extra linearity gives each stage an incredibly clear focus, and despite the fact that at the same time it is a lot to see and do along the way: enemies must be defeated, apples (also known as "wumpa fruit") should be picked, boxes must Crushed, platforms to jump on, and there are also secrets along the way as well.
Gemstones act as the lure of the game to trick the player off the beaten track. Some of the fun and much of the incredible replay value these games have is to go back to look for secrets, collect all boxes in each level and try to beat the different time records.
The latter forces you to complete a stage without dying, in the shortest possible time, and it can quickly become quite addictive. There are also new top lists, which allow you to compete with friends and enemies about who can get the fastest through each stage.
Just this however is not always as easy, because the Crash Bandicoot games (and especially the very first) are devilishly difficult at times. You might notice how I explained that the game's platform jump was of the "embarrassing precise" type earlier in the review, and this is precisely what makes the experience a little more difficult than a regular platform ride in the park.
Crash is admittedly easy to control and the games do not feel like they are 20 years old - jumping, running and slipping as if it were the simplest things in the world and the new ability to control everything with the left analog lever comes along well.
The "problem" lies at the levels themselves, which sometimes require tremendous precision - some of the last boards in the original game (where one must get over a old hanging bridge wich is falling apart only by looking at it) is a lesson in fevelival platform history. It's hardly any games like this anymore.
At times it's getting tiresome and during the three days I've been spending with Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, ive come up with tons of new swear words, but nevertheless it's beatable if you like oldschool platforming. It's something wonderful refreshing with a really difficult platform game, you never die from bad controls or the game not being responsive enough, but instead your own lack of skills, this is something I can live with.
Finally, you can not talk about Crash Bandicoot without mentioning the audiovisual. The exciting levels, the wonderful music and the colorful protagonist were after all what helped make the games famous, and it warms my old heart seeing how elegant everything is in 2017.
In other words, Vicarious Visions have made an excellent job - this is far from a simple upscale, and it really shows in the final product.
The games are consistently beautiful, from the very first second along N. Sanity Beach in the original game, to medieval castle and oriental tiger race in Crash Bandicoot: Warped. Everything is simply very nice, whether it's figures, levels, apples, or boxes.
All I really miss is greater variation across levels. There are, of course, many different places to visit during the three games, but in each game there is little variation. The same theme is often used across multiple boards, and there are only so many jungles or snowy mountains I can run through in a short time before I have to take a break to do something completely different.
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a delightful reminder of some of the nineties best platform games. The collection both looks and sounds very well also in 2017, with beautiful, new graphics, mood-creating music, and levels that offer incredible amount of excitement and fun.