Developer: Toys for Bob
Publisher: Activision
Platform: Xbox One, PS4
Tested on: PS4
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time – Review
Crash Bandicoot was often deemed as Sony’s mascotte to battle against Mario and Sonic, but sadly, Sony didn’t own Crash as it was an Activision franchise. Nonetheless, the whirly bandicoot stayed loyal to Sony for some time and pumped out three great titles for its main series, a formidable racing game to match Mario Kart’s kart racing title(s) and a Mario Party clone, Crash Bash. After that, it went downhill for Activision’s loveable critter and he somewhat got forgotten over the years. There were a few sputters of life over the years, even on Nintendo’s consoles and handhelds, but nothing could make Crash regain his popularity. We saw some life again when he starred in the last Skylanders entry and the announcement was made that the original trilogy would be remastered, as well as CTR. After the massive success of those remasters, Activision surprised us with the announcement of a fourth Crash Bandicoot game for its main series. It’s About Time we got our hands on this latest entry, allowing us to present you with our review of the game.
Story
Crash Bandicoot 4 starts off by showing us the main villains from the previous games, who are now locked up in a prison somewhere in-between different dimensions. The evil mask, Uka Uka is able to open a rift, allowing his evil companions to escape. As the rift opened up many wormholes to different dimensions, both Neo Cortex and Nefarious Tropy find themselves in the unique position to not only conquer one world, but many. Aku Aku, Crash’s guide, notices that something is wrong and urges the wild bandicoot to investigate the matters. The find out about the tears in time and space, and also discover the appearance of the Quantum Masks, which can help restore the damage that has been done.
The flow of the story is actually quite good, and there’s a lot going on. You’ll get occasional cinematics and they create a certain motivation to keep pressing forward.
Graphics
It’s About Time follows the same graphical style as the games in the remastered trilogy. You’ll find charming and cartoony characters and enemies, in a very bright and colorful world. As was the case in the older games, you will find yourself in many different environments, each with specific themes and unique backdrops. There’s a proper amount of enemy models, and just like always, the hazards, traps and enemies are clear and more than often it’s also very obvious what does what.
The cutscenes sometimes look a bit muddy, and not every hitbox is very clear when having to go off on the graphical portion of the game. While hitboxes are mostly a gameplay issue, it’s annoying when certain objects are visibly not connecting with Crash, Coco or the very interestingly redesigned Tawna.
Sound
The sound design of the Crash Bandicoot games has always been perfect for the type of games they were (and are). You hear a lot of familiar tunes, but also new music has been added, all perfectly in sync with the themes of the different worlds and their stages. Most of it serves as a perfect backdrop and while you will not immediately start humming the tunes, they do their job very well. The sound effects are still the same iconic sounds from the old trilogy, with some new enemy sounds and certain ability sounds added to the mix.
There is a tiny bit of voice acting present in the different cutscenes of the story, and this is also done very well. Crash isn’t much of a talker, but everyone else brings the game to life in a proper fashion.
Gameplay
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a very traditional 3D Platformer in which you can either play with Crash Bandicoot, Coco and in some cases Tawna. You’ll have to make your way through many different stages, which often vary in their format. You’ll mostly find yourself jumping from one ledge to another, while avoiding traps, getting past obstacles and kicking evil minions’ butts. Other times you find yourself been chased by a giant monstrosity, hoping to fight another day, or you can even commandeer certain vehicles to spice things up even more.
The game does not only offer an authentic Crash Bandicoot experience, where you have to restart a stage when you run out of lives, it also adds the ‘Modern’ mode, which allows you to revive at the last checkpoint you passed for as many times as you want, giving casual players a shot at getting through the different stages. Other than the normal experience, the game also holds a lot of collectibles in terms of unlockable skins or even secret stages.
This Crash game brings something new to the table, namely the power of the different masks. You’ll find yourself messing with gravity, different dimensions or even the ability to keep spinning and destroy everyone who crosses your path. The game becomes interesting with these added skills and abilities, but it also adds a challenge, as many of the segments where you can actually wield certain powers are actually quite hard.
Conclusion
Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time might just be the best Crash Bandicoot game as of yet. The game pretty much offers the full experience for gamers that expect different things from the Platformer genre. You will have stages you can wade through nearly aimlessly to get to the end of the game, but you also have a lot of collectibles to gather, skins to unlock, special stages to play and even certain side routes you can take. Even though the game still offers a real Crash Bandicoot challenge, the new ‘Modern’ mode allows casual fans to beat this title as well. If you loved the previous entries in the series, this one will blow your socks off.
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