Crash Bandicoot™ 4: It’s About Time

I have played many hard games, but this one has bested me. I hate it from the bottom of my heart and I have ragequit out of pure frustration. I did not think to ever find a game that would truly drive me insane. But this is it, well done.

I am only slightly conflicted making this review, because at its core I think there's a very solid platformer here you can enjoy. Unlike the entirely safe and just flat out worse sequel TWoC was as a fourth entry I think there are some fun ideas and extras thrown in that work, the different mask powers and flash back tapes being the stand outs for me. Even the difficulty of the later stages can be a satisfying challenge if it weren't for my main problem with this game: just how bloated completion feels. Every stage features 6 gems to collect, with another 6 once you unlock N. Verted mode. To be fair half of those are for collecting at least 80% of all wumpa fruit in a stage, but it doesn't add anything for me to bloat the number of collectible gems so high when it's functionally really just the all boxes, less than 3 deaths and hidden gems. Knowing every stage houses a hidden gem can be a fun hunt but it also cheapens the experience of it when I know I'll be scouring every single stage looking for them, unlike say Crash 2 or 3 where it felt at least a bit special seeing a stage with multiple gems which generally led to a secret or alternate path for them. To add onto that the only optional stages are the timeline levels in which you first take control of one of the 3 alternate characters and then play a version of the regular stage, from the point where they help open up your path, with different and remixed box locations as Crash or Coco again. These don't feel justified at all. Yes the alternate character's part features completely new areas but when you know you'll have to replay a portion of the regular stage anyway the longer ones (especially when going for the N. Sanely Perfect Relic and time trial) begin to feel tedious. If it wasn't possible to make all 9 timeline stages new regular length levels for only the alternate characters I feel they should have gutted half or more of them in favor of making at least one more complete version for each of them. So how about the N. Verted versions of stages? These suck. Sure it's cute to be collecting bumpa berries instead of wumpa fruit, have the entire stage be mirrored and have some kind of visual effect per world with two of them affecting your and the stage's speeds a little. But it's the same level with a different hidden gem location. These effects could have easily been an unlock for gems, relics or whatever and maybe then you could even play around with any world's specific visual gimmick on any stage you'd want rather than it being stuck per world. This feels like nothing but padding, it doesn't feel good to practically have to play the same stage 4 times minimum (before factoring in time trials) like this for completion. Lastly I'll touch on my feelings on N. Sanely Perfect Relics and time trial Relics. For the most part the difficulty of perfect runs and how tight platinum relic times are is totally fine. I do have my gripes about how annoyingly hidden some boxes are and the length of some stages that made me breathe a sigh of relief rather than feel accomplished for perfecting them, but some frustration is probably unavoidable. Now time trials are a lot more mixed. The movement option you receive for beating the game is a lot more challenging to use than the simple Crash Dash 3 and TWoC gave you. Instead the triple spin requires you to rhythmically spin 3 times while holding a direction which leads to finding and using optimal routes to be a ton more challenging, and most every platinum relic time, besides the few levels where you only play as the alternate characters, I saw required its use. On one hand it feels pretty good to get down and zoom through stages with, but on the other it can be at least a bit physically taxing keeping it up especially since you'll almost certainly be restarting a ton and learning the new box layouts because instead of just time freeze boxes appearing a lot of obstacle boxes and aku-aku masks are thrown into the mix. The extra masks are honestly cool to see, it really encourages you to find the best places to damage boost with them and cut down your time even more, but the extra TNT and nitro boxes can be in some real evil spots that could catch you off guard on a good run. Which leads me to the absolute worst of the bunch: the inferno box. I'm not exaggerating when I say I think these are the worst addition to the game as a whole and nowhere does it feel worse than in time trials. A box which on a timer shoots small jets of flame that damage you if you're too close to them, but the real reason it's so bad is they run on their own timer. This means you can have multiple different runs where they're either perfectly in sync with a level's cycles while you're on a clean run and you can blast through fine or they're already firing out and you have to suffer a hit or slow down for them even when you're playing just as cleanly as before. Even with all this I do feel like you can find fun in just playing through the game normally, however I do also think games should be looked at with everything they have to offer on the plate and unfortunately I think most of what Crash 4 offers bogs itself down. Should I have gotten 106% when I feel this negatively about the game? Probably not, but I still found some sick enjoyment hanging out with friends while I muscled through it all. But even if something's still fun with friends I don't think it's enough to merit it being good.

Man, it feels so good to FINALLY have another banger traditional PS2 style platformer in the day and age, and in the Crash Bandicoot franchise no less and this game doesn't disssapoint. The maks, the main gimmick opens the door for a lot of challenging but creative platforming gameplay. The alternate gameplay styles also feel great and offer a nice veriety. Visualy, it's gorgeous full with beatiful locals and bouncy and fluid animation that fit the CB's universe perfectly and rivals Pixar in terms of quality. Overall, yeah this IS the true Crash 4 everyone been waiting for. The title wasn't just for ♥♥♥♥♥ and giggles. Now remaster Twinsanity you cowards!

[h2]Best In The Series[/h2] I wasn't sure what to expect when I first booted it up, but Crash 4 was everything I hoped for and much more. I've been playing Crash since the PSOne and this is easily the best Crash game to date. The locales are all very unique, offering a wide variety in platforming goodness, and each character has their own distinct play-style that keeps the experience fresh. The game is gorgeous and runs like a dream. Not a single crash (no pun intended) in sight. No freezes, no glitches, no stuttering, and the game is pretty well optimized. Was getting around 400fps at 1440p max settings on 2020 AMD hardware. I eventually locked it to 144 though (temps lol). Toys for Bob are amazing. If I didn't know TfB were the devs and I played this, I'd have sworn it was Naughty Dog behind the wheel. It "feels" like Crash. The camera angles, the precision platforming, the humour, it's SO good. Some of the lesser talented or "new age" gamers may struggle with it and complain, but I assure you, it's a skill issue lol. Game isn't hard at all and I played on Classic as opposed to the more forgiving"Modern" mode. If you can beat the side-scrolling Donkey Kong games, you can beat this. One of the things I love about the game is all the collectables and unlockable skins that you can get by just playing the game instead of having it as paid DLC. Skill is the currency. Bring that back. There is a lot of replayability as well. It's a straight throwback....of better times, but in a fresh coat of paint.

One of the best platformer games, IF not the best out yet. Very well optimized, controller support, sound, graphics all is top notch. Go get it...waiting for the next Crash Bandicoot masterpiece :)

There is a VERY good game in here, enough that I absolutely will leave this review as recommended. HOWEVER... If you are used to the difficulty curve of the original PS1 trilogy and their respective "N. Sane" remakes, you more than likely will be caught off guard by the sudden spike in difficulty for this one. ESPECIALLY if you try to go for 100% completion! If you do try to go for 100%, be prepared to encounter absurdly high box counts, tons of BS hidden boxes, hidden gems in places you'd have no way of knowing without a guide, absurdly strict platinum relic times, on top of many, many other compounding annoyances. It is for that reason why I very strongly recommend installing the "N. Hanced" mod. N.Hanced won't turn the game into "easy mode" (I still died a good amount of times replaying the game with this mod), but it polishes the difficulty curve to be a lot more fair and makes the requirements for 100% completion a lot more reasonable. It can be downloaded from Nexus Mods. https://www.nexusmods.com/crashbandicoot4itsabouttime/mods/194

Como juego de Crash sigue cumpliendo, tiene bastante dificultad y es mucho más variado que los anteriores, no solo por los poderes de las máscaras sino por los distintos personajes que ofrece. Tiene muchos niveles, bastantes más que los anteriores Crash y con más rejugabilidad. El detalle de recompensarte con skins los niveles que te pases completos se agradece, sobre todo por añadir al modelo de Crash antiguo. Sigue faltándome algo para disfrutarlo como lo hacía antes con los Crash de la PS, pero sigue siendo un buen juego desafiante para echarle unas cuantas horas al día. Del modelo de los personajes no voy a decir nada, si, son más infantiles, pero realmente está pasando eso con todos los clásicos, así que aunque no me guste del todo, está bien para la gente nueva.