Crash Bandicoot N-Sanity Part 1

There are a lot of remakes coming out lately aren't there. In the month of April alone we have the Resident Evil 3 Remake, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the Trials of Mana remake. Jesus, do you think that's enough? I can't deny, I've been a little caught up in the remake craze myself, so much so that I decided to revisit a remake of one of my favourite series, Crash Bandicoot the N-Sane Trilogy. I remember when they first announced it, Crash had been a dormant franchise for so long due to increasingly mediocre releases so when Activision announced that they were remaking the original three games from the ground up in one convenient collection, I was a little excited to say the least. It was developed by Vicarious Visions who had a history with the series, having developed the Game Boy Advance outings and Nitro Kart, so the game was in good hands. When it released in 2017, I was there day one and given the impressive sales figures, so was everyone else. N-Sane Trilogy was a huge success for Activision, it's still selling well in 2020 with it continuously entering into the top 10 in the UK, leading to several more remakes and putting Crash Bandicoot back on the map. I think it's safe to say the game is good, but it's been sometime since last I played it and I want to look at it and see if it still holds up. I'm going to be looking at each game in the trilogy individually and talk about how well they hold up and what changes were made to each individual game, starting with the game that started it all, Crash Bandicoot.

Before we start talking about that though, let's go over the universal changes that are consistent through each game in the collection. Visually, N-Sane Trilogy is stunning. To say this game is a massive improvement over the original would be underselling it, it's one of the best looking games of the generation. The levels have a suberb level of detail with fantastic lighting that adds to the atmosphere. Crash has always reminded me of Donkey Kong Country in how the levels, while still very gamey, try to feel like a real location. From temple ruins to the ancient past, Crash's levels always strike the good mix between arcade style platforming and strong atmosphere that helps make each level memorable from both a gameplay and visual perspective. It's not just the levels that received a visual upgrade, the animations received just as much, if not more, love. The Crash universe has never felt more like a cartoon. Animations are very expressive employing the tried and true animation technique of squash and stretch, platformers are at their best when they embrace their cartoony nature and N-Sane Trilogy is a perfect example why. The cutscenes are a great showcase of this, being more emotive and employing more cinematic angles and shots. That being said not everything has been an improvement, certain effects have been lost in translations. Some levels and cutscenes have lost effects that made them intimidating, this is more noticible in the temple stages in Crash 1 where the lighting makes the level brighter losing much of the original atmosphere. Not a huge problem but purists might be annoyed.

Audio wise it's a treat as well. The soundtrack has been remixed and they sound fantastic, keeping the same feel as the original but updating them with better instruments and adding it's own flair to the compositions. The new voice acting is great as well, these guys have been the main voice actors for this series for years and they do a good job as always. Some line reads aren't as good as the originals in my opinion and I do miss Clancy Brown as Cortex but the new voices are still excellent. Coco, Crash's sister, was added as a playable character in all three games. There aren't any differences other than looks but it's a nice addition nonetheless. Time Trials were added to Crash 1 and 2 though they are entirely optional and you don't unlock anything by completing them, you do get a trophy but that's about it. The last thing I'll mention is that the controls and physics have been changed to be more consistent through each of the games. Some people have criticised this saying it makes jumps harder, especially in the Crash 2 and Warped, but I don't agree with this. I think the game controls great, though there were some exceptions we'll go over on a case by case basis. Alright, now that we got all that out of the way let's look at the original Crash Bandicoot and see how it holds up.

Originally released in 1996 by the, then unknown, Naughty Dog, Crash Bandicoot was one of the first 3D platformers and helped to put the original Playstation on the map. I still remember playing the demo for this game over and over again back in the day but I wouldn't own the full game until much later. Of the three games in the trilogy, Crash 1, more specifiically the original Playstation release, has aged the worst. It isn't a bad game but it has some major flaws. The stiff controls, massive difficulty, weird saving method and the bullshit completion requirements really stick out, especially nowadays. Thankfully these are issue that can be fixed by a remake and I'm happy to report that's exactly what the N-Sane Triliogy does, but we will get to those in due time. The main premise of the game is that Crash is trying to rescue his girlfriend Tawna from Dr Neo Cortex, a mad scientist who is trying to use an army of mutated animals to try and conquer the world. The story isn't that important but at least we're given a goal to strive for. I like some little touches they added like the defeat scenes to the end of each boss fight or how Tawna gets recaptured at the end of her bonus stages but the story is little more than to give context to why we're doing what we're doing. That's fine though because platformers are all about the gameplay and it's here where Crash Bandicoot shines.

Crash 1 is a pure platformer. Unllike later games which would add in vehicles to spice up the gameplay, Crash 1 is all about the simple pleasures of jumping from thing to thing, dodging hazards and dealing with any enemy that stands in your way. Some would decry this and say it is too simple and lacks variety but I disagree with that notion. Being simple isn't a bad thing as long as the game is fun and there is plenty of variety to be found in the level design. I am of the opinion that the best variety comes from varied level design and challenges, not from a variety of playstyles. Not that the latter doesn't have it's benefits, which we will see as we continue with this series, but Crash is a good example of how the former works. Each of Crash 1's levels are unique offering some kind of unique obstacle or challenge. One moment you're traversing through lush jungles avoiding carnivorous plants and the next you're climbing a great jungle fortress while dealing with the local tribesmen, then you're jumping acros lilypads on a river before trekking through ruined temples. There's a healthy variety of locations to play through. That isn't to say there isn't any repetition as the level themes do get repeated at least once but they don't get repeated so often that they outstay their welcome. I said I was reminded of Donkey Kong Country earlier and a big reason for this is because both Crash and DK use a similar design philosophy, it's just one is 2D and the other is 3D. That philosophy being that gameplay variety should come from the levels and that each level should have something unique that makes it stand out. Given that Crash 1 was one of the first 3D platform games, the original developers wanted to take advantage of this by offering different perspectives. Most of the time you'll be walking forward through linear hallway like stages with the camera behind Crash, fun fact this game was nicknamed “Sonics ass game” during development for that very reason, but others take place from a side scrolling view. This change of perspective isn't too jarrring because even the 3D stages arent that dissimilar to a typical side scroller. Really the Crash series is the closest a 3D platformer has come to feeling like a 2D one.

While each level is unique there are two kinds of levels that would go on to become series staples, ride levels and chase levels. Ride levels involve Crash riding on the back of an animal, in Crash 1 it's a warthog, as you try to avoid obstacles. They're super simple but really fun and do a good job of adding variety without changing the core gameplay. Chase levels involve Crash running away from some big obstacle, mostly boulders. Guess Naught Dog took inspiration from Indianna Jones. These stages are all about reaction timing, the boulders come at you fast and you have to avoid obstacles that slow you down as well as bottomless pits. These are fun but they do highlight a problem with the Crash series, running towards the camera. Most of the time the camera is fine and does a good job of showing everything you need, but when you have to run back through the level it can be difficult to tell what you're running towards. It's not so bad in Crash 1 but keep this in mind as we continue through this series.

I really like the sense of progression Crash 1. Crash will travel through three islands in his adventure, on the first island he has to deal with the island natives, travelling through giant walls they've built and dealing with their chief. When you get to the second island Crash starts to run into other creatures mutated by Cortex and travels through dark ruins and mines. The third island is where Cortex's castle is located and this is where the level design changes from the more naturalistic themes to mechanical ones. The first set of levels on the first island have Crash going through Cortex's power station before taking out the mutant Cortex had stationed there. After that Crash will travel across more of the island before finally reaching Cortex's castle, which makes up the last levels of the game. At the end Crash will have to fight N-Brio, the second in command, and then battle Cortex himself on his private blimp as the castle burns in the background. This progression makes it feel like you are actually travelling through the islands, slowly making your way to the ultimate goal of rescuing Tawna. I like when games feel like yoou're going on a journey and not just a collection of random levels.

There are two goals in each level, get to the end and breaking every box in the level, the latter of which will which will reward you with a Gem. Boxes, or crates as they're commonly referred, are strewn through each level and cotain a variety of goodies, from extra lives to Aku Aku masks. Aku Aku is the closest thing to a power up the game has, as long as Crash has one he can take an extra hit before dying. You can stack up to three of them with the third offering a speed up and temporary invincibility. The only other collectibles are the Wumpa fruits, which can be found in the levels or in crates, collect a hundred of them and you get an extra life. It's not that hard to get extra lives in the game as Wumpa fruit is everywhere and you'll need as many as you can get because this game is hard. Admittedly I don't find the game too difficult now but that's only because I've played it several times. In my initial playthrough I was getting game overs left right and center despite having dozens of lives. The worst offenders were the two bridge levels and Slippery Climb, the latter was especially difficult for a very specific reason I will explain later. Suffice it to say, if you're looking for a challenge you'll find it here. Now it's not Dark Souls levels of difficulty but it's still tough. Then again you'd have to be a special kind of brain dead idiot to compare this to Dark Souls in the first place.

A lot of that difficulty comes from the stop and go nature of the level design. You can't just rush through this one, you need to have patience and take your time. Crash himself doesn't have a very large move set, all he has are his jump and his trademark spin attack. If you're used to games like Mario 64 or Banjo Kazooie which give you a large variety of moves you might be disappointed. Then again those games are about open exploration so maybe the comparison isn't fair. Some levels contain short bonus levels where you can get more extra lives. Bonus levels have been reworked in the N-Sane Trilogy. You still need to collect three character icons like in the original, but rather than be transported to the bonus level immediately you'll unlock a platform near the final icon which will take you to it. There are three kinds of bonus levels, Tawna's are the easiest ones, N-Brio's are harder but give more extra lives and Cortex's are the hardest but will reward you with a key that unlocks an optional secret level. Unlike the original where the bonus levels were, well, a bonus, here they're actually mandatory to beat if you want the Gem in that level. This is similar to the way bonus levels were handled in the sequels and like in those, if you die you can just try again as many times as you want until you do. Fortunately you don't need to beat these to save your game like in the original. Now you can save whenever you want. This is a massive improvement over the original where you could only save by beating a bonus level, or by collecting a Gem.

OK, time to address the biggest improvement in the N-Sane Trilogy, no not the improved graphics or controls, though the controls are superior to the original Crash Bandicoot which was somewhat stiff, no I'm talking about how getting the Gems is no longer a pain in the ass, mostly. Anyone who has tried to 100% the original Crash Bandicoot knows how hard it is. See in the original you not only had to break every box in a level, you also had to beat the level without dying once. I've already said how hard the game is but imaging having to do every level in a perfect run. If that sounds like hell, it's only because it is. This is no longer the case in the N-Sane trilogy, now you can die and still get the Gem. So completeing the game !00% is nowhere near as strenuous as it was before. There is an exception to this with the special coloured gems, in those levels you do need to do a perfect run, but it makes sense because the coloured gems are special. Unfortunately one of the coloured gem levels is Slippery Climb which is also one of the hardest levels in the game so, yeah that isn't fun. But this fact, combined with the superior graphics and control, make Crash Bandicoot the N-Sane Trilogy the definitive way to play the original Crash Bandicoot. There is absolutely no reason to play the original version, the N-Sane version is an objective improvement in every way. They even included a level that was cut from the original, which was removed for being really, really hard. Good luck with that. But no game is perfect and the N-Sane Trilogy version of Crash 1 still has some issues from the original that probably couldn't be fixed.

I am of course talking about the bosses. This game is very challenging but none of that challenge comes from the bosses. These guys are pathetic. The only ones that put up a decent fight were N-Brio and Cortex, which are the final two bosses in the game so it's expected. Everyone else though, weaker than diluted water. Papu-Papu especially, you can beat him in under 10 seconds. The other problem I have is 100% completion. I know I just praised the game for improving this aspect but even with all the improvements I still don't think it's worth it. For one, in order to collect all the Gems you'll have to do some back-tracking. Certain levels have secret areas that can only be accessed using the coloured Gems, told you they were special. The problem is that you don't get the majority of the oloured Gems until late in the game and by the time you get the last one, you're at the final boss. I don't mind back-tracking too much but having to play some levels twice is annoying and it's not really worth it. The only thing you get for collecting every gem is an alternative “Where are they now?” style ending that, in my opinion, is worse than the one you get normally and isn't even considered canon. Don't bother going for 100% in this one, just beat the game normally and you'll still have a good time.

And with that we've come to the end of the first part of our look at the N-Sane Trilogy. As you can tell the original Crash Bandicoot was treated very well. Thanks to the improvements made by Vicarious Visions I now consider it to be one of my favourites. Sure it's simple but sometimes that's all a game really needs and if it's fun then who cares. At the end of the day, it's a fantastic platformer that's easy top pick up and play but very difficult to master. We've got two more games to get through so next time we journey into N-Sanity we'll be looking at the remake of Crash 2: Cortex Strikes Back. But first, there's another remake I need look at, one that has been anticipated for many years. Next time I'm taking a look at the Final Fantasy VII Remake.