Let's Talk About Crash Bandicoot Warped

This is it ladies and gents, the final game in Crash Bandicoot the N-Sane Trilogy and widely regarded as one of the finest platformers of all time Crash Bandicoot Warped. Of all the Crash games out there this is the one I have the most nostalgic memories of. I played it all the time when I was a kid. I still have fond memories of playing this at my aunts house. I remember this one time we got confused because of Uka-Uka's name, we thought I had changed the language settings and it took us a while to figure out he just had a weird name. I was a very stupid child. But I mentioned last time that I consider Crash Bandicoot 2 to be my favourite game in the series. Why is that? I didn't even grow up with Crash Bandicoot 2 so, how is it my favourite? I suppose the best way to find out is to look at Crash Bandicoot Warped and see how it holds up.

Crash Bandicoot Warped starts where Crash Bandicoot 2 left off. After blowing up Cortex's space station, pieces of the station fall down to Earth. One of which lands on a temple holding the ancient evil voodoo mask Uka-Uka. You know those Aku-Aku masks you could get in the previous two games, well now he's an actual character and Uka-Uka is his evil twin brother. As it turns out, Uka-Uka has been the true mastermind behind Cortex's schemes, the Palpatine to his Vader if you will, and he's pretty pissed that Cortex has failled him two times in a row. Now that they've lost both the Gems and the Crystals in the present they are left with one option, time travel back to the past to collect the Gems and Crystals there with the help of new villain, Dr Nefarious Tropy. Now it's up to Crash and Coco to travel back and get the Gems and Crystals before Cortex and his forces and put a stop to his villainous machinations once again.

It's a more in depth plot than the last two games but like those it never gets in the way. It's there to contextualise gameplay and in a platformer that's all you need. I like the addition of Uka-Uka to the series mythos as he's a much more intimidating villain than Cortex, though I feel like the N-Sane Trilogy dampened his intimidation factor compared to the original. Like Crash 2 you'll get some cutscenes in between levels with the villains talking to you though in a more mocking tone which I like because it makes you want to take them down. It's not just Cortex that does this but the bosses too which helps give them a little more personality. It's a decent story overall.

Since I've already touched on presentation before I won't go too long into it here but I will say that of all three games in the trilogy, Warped is the most interesting visually. This was always the case mind you but it's more apparent with every game sharing the same graphical fidelity. Thanks to the time travel theme, Crash Bandicoot Warped has the most visual variety. Not that the other games lacked in that department it's just that they don't compare to Warped. I'll talk more about this when I get into the levels themselves but suffice to say that Crash Bandicoot Warped is the most visually interesting and creative game in the N-Sane Trilogy. And the music is awesome. I loved this soundtrack as a kid and it's still great as an adult. The music benefitted from the time travel theme as much as the visuals as the songs perfectly match the level themes and offer a mix of musical styles. The N-Sane Trilogy does it justice with some excellent remixes.

Now we move on to gameplay. In my opinion there are two kinds of video-game sequels, those that refine and change a formula and those that simply add new features. Crash Bandicoot 2 represents the former while Crash Bandicoot Warped represents the latter. As a result I don't have much to say in regards to the games structure, level design or collectibles because I already went over it all in my review of Crash Bandicoot 2. as a result I won't bore you with regurgitating the same informtion and will instead focus on what Crash Bandicoot Warped does differently.

Let's start with the first thing you'll notice, the warp room. Rather than have five warp rooms seperated by a lift, now you have one big warp room seperated into five sections. The levels are now indicated by buttons which activate a portal and you can see them all when entering one of the sections, no needing to run round to get to the level you want. It's a small change but the warp room is definitely more convinient than it was in Crash 2. The levels themselves are great and will take you to a variety of times and locations. From the pre-historic era, to medieval kingdoms to the far off future, you'll visit a lot of different locastions each with their own gimmicks and challenges. This was true of the previous Crash games but it's more pronounced in Warped. Take the pre-historic levels for instance, these have sections where you'll be chased by a Triceritops. Yeah rather than have dedicated chase levels, now they are set pieces in normal platforming levels. This feels like a natral progression given how the chase levels progressed in the trilogy. But these chases help give the pre-historic levels a unique feel and other level themes have similar gimmicks like the grating you can climb in the Arabian stages or the Egyptian stages mostly taking place in temples with more claustrphobic level design and traps to avoid. No two themes feel alike and helps give Crash Bandicoot Warped better variety for better and for worse.

I'll elaborate more on that in a little bit but first I want to talk about Crash's move set. It remains, mostly, the same as it was in Crash 2 but as you progress you'll unlock power ups that give you new abilities. They vary in usefulness but they're still welcome additions. My personal favourites are the double jump and the death tornado spin because with them combined you can skip platforming challenges. The other arent bad but they feel situational, the upgraded body slam is nice but you very rarely need it, the bazooka is good at dealing with enemies from a distance but you have to stay in place to use it and the Crash Dash is great but you don't get it until you beat Cortex. Yes you actually get these power ups by defeating the bosses and unlike Crash 1 or 2 the bosses are actually really good. They aren't the most difficult bosses but they're more engaging and at least the final boss isn't a complete joke. I still think the final boss in Crash 1 is the best but Warped has a pretty good one too.

Ok, I think it's time we discuss the biggest change Warped made. You know how Crash 2 introduced some additional vehicles to the series? Well Crash Bandicoot Warped decided to up the ante by adding a whole host of new vehicles and level types. This is actually a recurrent theme in Playstation platform trilogies but perhaps that's a discussion for another day. Now adding variety isn't a bad thing, Crash 2 did it wonderfully, but sometimes you can go a little too far and make the game feel unfocused. Crash Bandicoot Warped thankfully never quite goes that far but the new level types are a bit of a mixed bag. I think it's best we go through each of them one by one and you'll see what I mean.

Let's start with the ones featuring Coco. Oh yeah, Coco was added as a playable character in some stages of the original but, as has been reiterated numerous times now, the N-Sane Trilogy adds her as a fully playable character in normal stages. First up are the ride stages, returning from the previous games. Here you ride on a baby tiger named Pura on the Great Wall of China while it's still under construction. Love the theming of these and the levels themselves are pretty fun. I like the ride levels from Crash 2 just a tiny bit more but they're still good in Warped. I should also mention that you can ride a baby dinosaur in the pre-historic levels but he acts more as a temporary power up.

Then there are the jet ski levels. These are ok, I like the pirate theme but the level design is a little too open in spots. Also the N-Sane trilogy fucked up the controls and made them too precise, makes the secret level Hot Coco a pain in the ass. On the whole though they're fine but I definitely prefer the wave board levels in Crash 2. The last level type featuring Coco are the airplane levels, though in the N Sane Trilogy you can play as Crash in them if you want. There's some variation in these levels. There are three overall and the first two are aerial dog fights where you have to destroy a number of targets, while the third is a race through a bunch of rings. Not a fan of the last one, controls are stiff when getting a speed boost, but I like the others quite a bit. The controls are great, though vertical movement isn't set to inverted by default which is criminal for flying stages, and it's fun just blasting things out of the sky. The N-Sane Trilogy even adds a targeting reticule to help you aim, a nice touch.

The last two we'll talk about only have Crash as a playable character. The first are underwater levels. I know water levels are often the worst part of any platformer but here they aren't that bad. They are a little slow and the controls a bit finicky but they aren't the worst water levels I've played. And finally there's the racing levels where you ride on a motorbike and try to win first place. These were always my least favourite levels as a kid and I'm still not fond of them as an adult. I always felt the turning was a bit stiff even when drifting, odd considering Naughty Dog would go on to develop Crash Team Racing which is lauded for its excellent controls. Even then the track design is very boring. Jumping off ramps is fun but it gets old fast and while speed boosts in theory make it more exciting they also make the controls worse. I could never beat these as a kid without help and while I can beat them fine now, getting the Box Gem is still a pain because if you miss one box you've got to do the whole thing all over again. Here's a pro tip, if you're going for the Box Gem in the racing levels during the time trials because if out a miss a box then you'll be able to restart the level.

As you can see the new level themes vary in quality but I wouldn't call any outright bad. Even the worst of them are still playable and I can see others enjoying them. But even with the best additions, alll of the different gameplay styles feel unecessary. Crash 2 integrated different gameplay styles but they didn't stray too far from the core gameplay. Crash Bandicoot Warped almost feels like the opposite. It never feels too unfocused, the majority of the levels are focused on platforming, but I can't help but feel like there's a little too much variety for it's own good. Mind you I am in the minority on this one. The vast majority of people hold Warped in high regard and think it's the best game in the trilogy. I suppose it's just a matter of whether or not you prefer more variety or a tighter focus. Unfortunately, I have other gripes with Warped that bring it down a bit.

For starters the pacing has been made much worse. If you remember my review of Crash Bandicoot 2 you'll recall one of the elements that I praised was how the Coloured Gems were spread out. You could get some of them as early as the first stage which meant, barring very few exceptions, you never had to go back and replay previous stages. In Crash Bandicoot Warped, not so much. You won't be able to get any coloured Gems until the third warp room section and you have to replay every level at least twice to get everything. Why? Well let me introduce you properly to the time trials. I already mentioned them in the previous parts because they were added to Crash 1 and 2 in the N-Sane Trilogy but there they were completely optional. In Warped they are mandatory.

Here's how they work. After you beat a level you can re-enter it and find a floating clock. Collecting it will start the time trial with the goal being to get to the end of the level as fast as possible. Boxes are changed in this stage with some being able stop the timer for a few seconds when broken. If you beat the level fast enough you'll get a Relic of three different levels, Saphire, Gold or Platinum. You only need Saphire Relics to get the true ending but there is a secret optional Gem you get for getting Gold Relics in every level, Platinum is purely for bragging rights. I didn't go for Gold Relics for this review because, quite frankly, it's a nightmare to get them in certain stages and I just couldn't bring myself to go through that again. I don't mind the idea of the time trials, it is fun to try and blast through these levels as fast as possible, but the fact that you have to do them makes them feel like padding.

What's worse is you need to get these Relics to unlock levels in the secret warp room. Finding the secret warp points was something thing I enjoyed about Crash 2 so, why change this? I'll admit that some of the secrets were obtuse but they were still more satisfying to find than just beating the time trials until one unlocks. There are still secret warps, two to be exact, but the problem with them is that the levels they unlock are terrible. Eggipus Rex is pathetically easy and Hot Coco is the worst level in the game, it's too open and trying to get the Box Gem and, God help you, the Relic is a pain in the ass. Worse still, neither level has a warp point in any warp room. The only way to get back to them is finding the secret warp points. Why not just add them to the secret warp room?

The last thing I want to talk about are somethings that were changed that I noticed returning to this game 3 years after I played it. I remember when this game first came out that Dingodiles dialogue after he had been defeated was removed but they have added it back in. Not sure why it was removed to be begin with but at least it's back. Also N-Tropy has some dialogue when he gets beat which I think is brand new though I'm not certain of that. And finally there's the brand new level Future Tense. This was made exclusively for the N-Sane Trilogy and it's designed to use all of Crash's abilities. I didn't finish the level for this review because it's pretty long and very difficult but it is a nice addition nonetheless.

Let me make this clear. Crash Bandicoot Warped is a good game, it's a very good game. I only point out these flaws because they bugged me personally but I know plenty of people that love this game and hold it up as the best game in the series. I stand by that Crash 2 is the best in the trilogy but not because I think it's an objectively better game it's just a matter of preference. Both games are excellent and are better and worse in certain aspects. Crash Bandicoot Warped may not be my favourite but I still played it a lot as a kid and playing it again did help me realise how good a game it is.

And that ladies and gents is the end of the N-Sane Trilogy and what a ride it's been. Replaying all these games again was a good reminder of why they are so fondly remembered. None of them are perfect with each of them having their own flaws but so too do they each have unique strengths. Any one of them is worth a purchase on it's own but combined they make the N-Sane Trilogy a worthy package. The N-Sane Trilogy is one of the best remakes I've playec and went above and beyond to not only preserve the original experience as best it could but to improve and add to that experience. It didn't always work out but in my humble opinion, this is the definitive way to play these games. Some might disagree with me but I don't see much of a reason to go back to the originals other than nostalgia. If you haven't picked this up yet, do it now.

With that we bring the Crash Bandicoot N-Sanity to an end. I got a bit delayed in the middle but it was still fun to go back to this game again. Next time though I'll be loooking at a game inspired by my favourite game of all time with Bug Fables. Until next time, remember to stay safe and have fun.