Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time feels like the natural extension of the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy that I have been wanting ever since... well, the Crash Bandicoot trilogy. Toys For Bob did an amazing job and perfecting the formula here, resulting in easily my favorite game in the series.

Crash Bandicoot 4 plays fairly similarly to the original three games. You run, jump, and spin in linear, hallway-like stages that switch between 2D and 3D. Something that I noticed right off the bat is just how fluid the movement is, especially compared to the N-Sane Trilogy. Crash has a ton of his old moves right from the get-go, and it's easy to combo these moves into each other, like sliding into a jump, or crouching to do a higher double-jump. This game introduces the gimmick of these four masks which you can use to distort reality in some way. Lani-Loli let's you switch dimensions, phasing objects in and out of reality, Akano lets you pull off a dark matter spin that lets you jump high and destroy everything in your path, Kupuna-wa lets you slow down time, and Ika-Ika, my personal favorite of the four, lets you flip gravity. Each of these masks are a ton of fun to use, fit into Crash's moveset excellently, and are utilized to their absolute fullest. By the end of the game, you'll be swapping between masks at a rapid pace in sequences that really put your skills to the test. To add on to the variety, there are also three side characters to play as. Tawna can use a grapple hook and wall jump, Dingodile can use a vacuum to suck up and spit out objects, and Cortex can turn enemies into blocks and dash. Just like in Spyro 3, most of these side characters can be found in optional levels, but unlike in that game, each character has a fully fleshed-out moveset and are incredibly fun to play as. There are a few chase sections, but otherwise, this game's variety comes almost entirely from the masks and side characters which is a breath of fresh air knowing how vehicle-heavy Crash 3: Warped is.

Even more, the level design in Crash Bandicoot 4 is excellent. Each level brings something entirely new to the table, from jumping across cars in a futuristic city, to a music-themed skyline, to exploring an alien planet. Compared to the original trilogy, these levels are far longer and more intricate, constantly changing settings and gimmicks. For example, the first level moves from a beach to a temple to a cave to a rail-grinding section to a tribal village to a towering mountain. The camera moves are dynamic too, sometimes panning up or down to show you just how large the level is. These levels are also a lot more difficult than the original trilogy as well, but this time around, you have the choice to remove lives entirely, resulting in a much less frustrating experience than those original games. My biggest problem with Crash was how the limited hitpoints, trial-and-error enemies, and difficult levels made the addition of a life system feel like artificial difficulty, so I'm glad Toys For Bob ended up fixing that. Add in insanely quick retries and I feel more determined to power through difficult sections just like in games like Celeste and Super Meat Boy. The bosses are also so much better than the original. They're still one-hit kills, but you get a checkpoint after every phase, allowing Toys For Bob to make the fights way longer, larger, and more ambitious.

My only major gripe with Crash Bandicoot 4 has to do with the insane amount of content it has to offer. Getting to the final boss is just the beginning here, each level has an N-verted variant, twelve gems each (6 for each variant), hundreds of boxes to collect, costumes to find, time trials with developer times, flashback tapes that require no-damage runs to collect, and incredibly hidden gems. Not to mention the N-Sanely Perfect Relics which are just ridiculous. Getting 106% in Crash 4 is an insane task and one that I wouldn't recommend to anyone who isn't immensely confident in their abilities to play Crash Bandicoot. I've always found Crash's completion requirements a bit on the steep side, but the massive size of these levels means that I almost always end up missing a bunch of boxes that are hidden around in a corner, and the difficulty makes no damage runs nowhere near as palatable as the first three games. If you're not an avid completionist, these requirements may not mean much to you. I'm perfectly fine with playing to the final boss, beating the N-verted and side character levels, and maybe finding a few hidden gems and flashback tapes along the way. But Toys For Bob went seriously overboard with the padding here, and while I usually like it when games are packed with replay value, this is a bit too much.

As for the presentation, Crash 4 is excellent. The art style is colorful and beautiful to look at, especially in the large-scope levels like Off-Beat and Crash Landed. The story is fairly simplistic, but it packs in a lot of entertaining interactions between the characters, give everyone their own little subplots, and is filled with charm. It doesn't have the mad-cap insanity of Twinsanity's story, but it's a lot of fun on its own. I especially love Dingodile's subplot, where he gets involved just because his diner got destroyed, poor sap. As for the soundtrack, Crash 4 may not be as melodic as the original games, but its dynamic score works great for the larger levels. I love how the music always goes fast-paced whenever you're on a rail-grinding section, it's super fun. My favorite themes are probably the themes for Tawna, Dingodile, and Cortex, it makes playing their levels even more fun.

Overall, Crash Bandicoot 4 is easily the best game in the series for its intricate and memorable levels, fluid gameplay, great variety, and for generally iterating on the originals in useful ways. I wouldn't recommend completing it to 106% at all, but it's definitely worth a play otherwise.

4.5/5 Stars