Characterful, moreish and fiendishly difficult, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time feels about right

July 24, 2020
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It’s about time indeed: nearly 22 years after Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped released on the original PlayStation, the master of jorts returns. This time, though, it’s Spyro Reignited Trilogy studio Toys For Bob handling it, and so as much as I’d personally have loved to see a gritty, blood-and-guts reboot from Naughty Dog, most of the questions for Crash 4 are going to be about authenticity and faithfulness to the originals.

If that’s all you’re worried about then you can stop worrying. Crash 4 is plenty faithful – if anything it’s a bit too faithful, in fact, because while Toys For Bob seems to have nailed the character and playfulness of the world from what I’ve played, it’s also not just continued the trend of some utterly, fiendishly difficult platforming, but made it even harder. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is nails.

That, thankfully, is also where some of the changes have come in. A big one is the introduction of a new “Modern Mode”, that removes the entire concept of lives and game overs. I was enormously sceptical of this, in all honesty. The tension of the life system and the way it plays off the temptation to risk it all for a few more Wumpa fruit that might, just, tip you over the edge to another one is what the originals are all about. Removing it in Modern Mode takes away an entire layer of the game, but it’s also a welcome boon because of the heightened difficulty. Crash 4 isn’t just as tough as some early Crash games – I think it might actually be tougher.

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