Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy

A smashing blast from the past. This is how the game starts and what a blast it is. Everybody whom even games a little knows the orange bandicoot and the floating mask. You might have seen him in memes around the internet, or at least heard him squeal. He started his debute on Playstation and has come far since then.

You know what to do. You have to finish the level and smash as much boxes as you can, without being hit by any of the obstacles that are set in your way. The fun thing about this game at the time was that it brought something refreshing. All games at the time were serious, nothing much for kids. It was the time of Tomb Raider and more serious games. Mario and Sonic were still part of their respective platforms, the ones they started on and were almost the only respected platform games of the time. The big shots.

Around the corner comes that orange bandicoot crashing in. Bringing with it refreshing levels, refreshing design and overal refreshing things to do. No fast paced level design that give you a headache or an epilepsy attack while playing them. Not a mellow fantasy world with mushroom, turtles to jump on and princess whom always seem to be in another castle.

In this game, you just had a weird bandicoot whom was a subject of some science experiments and the one that escaped. Dr. Neo Cortex was the villain behind it all and the one that kidnapped Crash’ Sister.

The original spawned 2 sequals, with even more crazy level design which were refreshing at the time. We all loved Crash Bandicoot and there wasn’t a kid whom hadn’t played at least a few levels at the time.

Now in 2017, Activision relaunched the orange bandicoot on it’s original platform, playstation. Could Crash Bandicoot survive in the onslaught of online gaming?

Obviously, because a year later, the N.Sane Trilogy was released on Xbox One as well, an this is the version that I got my hands on to playtest for you guys.

At the beginning of the game you get a small clip that shows you Crash hauling a few crates and dropping them inside a machine that refreshes their looks and revamps them for the new era. Crash sees their new look and jumps in himself. First you see the pixalated early 2000 crash jump in and out comes him newly revamped self. What a sight.

Everything you loved about the game is still the same. The levels stayed the same, only the graphics got an update. Not only the graphics but also the cutscenes have had a massive, massive upgrade. All while keeping the same voice actors, which to me makes all the difference. They could have brought in new voice actors, but they kept the same, also the same sound effects as the original, also the same end bosses, which still are fun to defeat and have the right difficulty, then and even now.

Other notable changes are the removal of cheats and how saves are handled. You have an automatic save after completing each level and dying makes you go back to the beginning of the level or you respawn at a checkpoint. You can manually save as well, if you don’t trust the autosaves. Also Achievements have been added to the game and rumble support, which wasn’t there in the original.

In an onslaught of online gaming, it is fun to see a game that brings gaming back to its roots. Singleplayer. I love playing online with friends, but I love to play some games on my own, relaxing, and it is fun to do so with franchises that I love, like Crash Bandicoot.

I love that they revamped him and rereleased the games for this new generation of gamers, whom might never had had a chance to play with the wacky Bandicoot before. Now they can. As a free bonus, 2 previously unreleased levels, originally intended for the original releases, but which were never finished, have been added to the playstation version of the game, but now thanks to the release on Xbox One, they are also available here, free of charge.

Now available for PS4, XBox One, Nintendo Switch and PC (Steam).