Right, well I have not quite completed this game yet and at first I wasn't going to bother reviewing or playing it but I have since changed my mind, so this review will be on the cursed, infuriating and deeply frustrating original Crash Bandicoot game.
Yep, I have finally decided to go ahead and give this game a review after having completed nearly all of it as I have been playing it as part of the PS4 N-Sane trilogy that was released just last month.
Anyway so, get ready to tear your hair out and give this one a look....
STORY
Right, I will say just a bit about the story so no spoiler warning this time round. So, the game begins with the villainous Dr Neo Cortex (voiced by Clancy Brown) along with his assistant, Dr Nitrus Brio, who have created a device known as the Evolvo ray, which they will use to mutate animals and turn them into creatures with superhuman strength. Together they both experiment on a bandicoot, Crash, who they intend to use as the leader of the animal soldiers. Cortex then subjects Crash to the Cortex vortex in an attempt to control him, however it rejects Crash, who then escapes.
After this, Crash then decides to try and rescue another bandicoot, Tawna, a female, who Crash had grown fond of during their together in captivity. So, from the beaches of N.Sanity island, Crash sets on his path to try and rescue Tawna and find a way to defeat Cortex but before he does, he must overcome a series of dangerous obstacles and enemies......
THOUGHTS
Well, the original Crash Bandicoot it has to be said remains the weakest of the three games in the N-Sane trilogy and not only the weakest it is also the HARDEST of the three games as well and as it goes it soon becomes a very frustrating experience. Yet despite that however, the original Crash is still quite enjoyable and there is still some fun to be had here as you play as Crash and navigate through the dangers and a fair amount of the levels are quite manageable. However the game's difficulty as it progresses soon becomes more and more unforgiving, which is where you will find yourself soon throwing the controller at the wall!
GAMEPLAY
As for the gameplay, well its pretty similar to the other games as it would given that it was the game that started it all off. So here, Crash will progress through a series of levels and he will have to run and jump over a series of obstacles that lie in his path whether they be enemies in human or animal form (or indeed something else!). Crash has two available attacks to him, his first one is a spin attack that he can use to spin enemies off the screen and he can also jump on them from above.
Crash starts the game with five lives but he can gain more as he progresses either by breaking special boxes that contain an extra life (with Crash's face on them) or by breaking enough boxes containing wumpa fruit to gain 100 fruits, which will give an extra life. Crash can also break other boxes with the good witch doctor, Aku Aku's spirit within them, which will provide Crash with temporary protection against enemies and if he breaks open three boxes then he will become invincible for a short period of time. The Aku Aku mask and spirit will not prevent Crash however from dying in all circumstances as there are times where Crash will fall to his death or drown in water, which the good witch doctor cannot help with!
Crash can also access secret areas of the game at times where he can find more boxes to break and once he finds them all he will collect a crystal for that level. Further to this, Crash can also access other areas by collecting three icon tokens of Tawna, Cortex or Brio, which will take him to a bonus area where he has to break more boxes. Other boxes can include checkpoints, Nitro and TNT explosive boxes as well as metallic boxes with an "!" symbol, which will materialise previously intangible boxes into being solid, which Crash can then break.
And lastly regarding the enemies, Crash will face a number of bosses throughout the game that will vary in difficulty level and will require certain tactics in order to defeat them. Some of the bosses can be fairly tricky whereas as others can be dispatched pretty easily although it has to be said defeating the bosses can be a fair bit easier than the levels themselves!
GRAPHICS AND MUSIC
As for the graphics, well looking at them from the PS4 N-Sane trilogy perspective, the look great and the visuals here have been given a terrific overhaul as the game has been brought firmly into the 21st century. The game was already pretty varied in its environments from the outdoor jungle to the tribal fortresses to inner areas of Cortex's labs but here they look even better with their graphic upgrade. Crash and the other character models have also been very nicely updated and look better than ever, so overall this is a great visual overhaul to the original.
As for the music, well again it is scored by Josh Mancell and the score has been updated by the Vicarious visions team (the video game developer team behind the trilogy's release) and it sounds great and overall its a very good score. And Mancell here has put together an excellent mix of jungle music for the outdoors levels aswell as some more foreboding sounding tracks for the indoor levels such as in Cortex's labs. And the VV team certainly deserve much credit for updating Mancell's original score here and it stands out as one of the game's strongest aspects.
FLAWS (Warning: this section may refer to the odd spoiler in terms of the action of certain levels!)
As for flaws....yep, Crash Bandicoot has its share.
And to start off I think one of things that makes the game frustrating is its mixed level of difficulty as some levels are quite straight forward whereas others are insanely difficult and will leave you tearing your hair out!
And its funny how the game takes a sudden sharp jump up in difficulty from saying the earlier levels to the first really tough level "Native Fortress" where Crash needs to progress through a series of tough obstacles including moving platforms, bats, hostile natives, dangerous plants and lizards. And by the time we get to the game's toughest level by far "The High Road" where Crash has to navigate a very dicey bridge with hardly any wooden boards and use a series of tortoises to bounce on to jump over the bridge gaps, its time to smash the controller and go spare!
Also after that there is the 2nd toughest level "Slippery climb" which is a nightmare that involves Crash having to make a treacherous climb leading him on his path toward his eventual showdown with Cortex . This level sees Crash having to time his jumps carefully as he has to navigate a series of revolving platforms aswell as use large birds to jump over gaps, not to mention watch his footing on retractable staircases. Yep, its a real bugger of a level that shows once again that this game is pretty unforgiving.
Another issue is to do with the actual age of the game as its gameplay does feel pretty dated it has to be said with Crash's simplified running, jumping and simple attacks, it is pretty limited in what gameplay aspects its offers. And this is something of a letdown in itself, especially as in the other two games you get a chance to pull off other moves such as the sliding attacks, body slam and you can even sprint. So, in this respect you feel very limited as to what you can do, and when you want to pull off a slide attack or do a body slam, its annoying that you can't do it and this makes the gameplay pretty disappointing.
Then there is the issue with obtaining the coloured gems in the game as you have to go through six separate levels without dying once to just obtain all of them, which is pretty unfair given how bloody hard these levels are! And so far, I've only managed to collect two of them as the other levels are a nightmare to get through without dying!
So, personally for me I think completing this game 100% would be nearly impossible given that you would not only need to finish all the levels but also gain access to all the secret areas, complete all the bonus rounds in order to obtain all the crystals and completing the time trials (where you are awarded relics) not to mention try NOT dying when collecting the coloured gems! I mean have these developers actually played the game??? Personally whoever made this game was a grade A sadist and I'm sure there would be a long line of people that would personally love to give him a real kicking!
Another problem arises from the fact that most of the game bosses are pretty easy yet the actual game levels remain far tougher to get by, which in itself makes the gameplay feel a bit unbalanced and again it goes back to the game's mixed difficulty levels. However some of the latter boses still provide a tough test especially Nitrus Brio, Cortex's villainous assistant, who repeatedly throws a mix of potions at Crash that either explode on impact or produce green blobby monsters, which Crash has to avoid. And this is all before Brio then drinks a concoction of his own potions that mutates him into a giant muscly green version of himself, which Crash must try and avoid his powerful attacks and use a well timed jump attack to defeat him.
And don't get me started on the final boss of the game, Dr Cortex himself! This guy is a mssive pain in the ass and you need to try and dodge the the laser bolts he fires at you from his gun, which float around the screen at stages and if Crash contacts with them...well its curtains. This must have taken me at least 100 goes or more and it remains one of the most infuriating parts of the game, still at least they were saving the toughest boss for last I guess.
And another problem I have with the game and indeed the N-Sane trilogy in general is the long loading times between levels as it takes a bit too long for my liking. This is further compounded with the lack of a restart option within the level itself (unless you are doing a time trial then you can) especially if you are trying to collect one of the coloured gems as you need to do this without dying. So, in this case, if you die then you need to quit the level and go through the loading screen and then go back into the level and then wait for ANOTHER loading screen before you can start again! So, basically the whole game can be very time consuming when it comes to loading screens.
And last of all is this question....why the hell didn't Crash learn to swim???!! I mean the guy (or bandicoot) could easily probably learn to and even at the start of the game we see him washed up on the shores of N.Sanity island (which suggests to me he probably could swim). However for the sake of an extra obstacle, Crash whenever he hits water, simply drowns and that's it! And its not until the 3rd game (Warped) that Crash dawns scuba diving gear and get's some underwater levels to do but prior to this its just daft to have him simply drown.
Anyway that's it for the flaws.
SUM UP
So to sum up, the original Crash Bandicoot is an entertaining game that is packed with plenty of platform action and if you like a stern challenge then this game is definitely for you. However, its dated gameplay and frustrating difficulty level are what hold it back from being great and in that respect it lags behind the better sequels. However it also has to be said the game still deserves its credit and without it we wouldn't have had the sequels in the first place, so its still worth playing but just be prepared to hurl the controller around the room if you do!
OK, so that's it for now and I'll be back again soon maybe before the end of the month with another post.
Till then bye for now!
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