Review for Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time. Game for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 02/10/2020
After the dress rehearsals the time has come for the premiere: Activision has finished testing the waters and after the N. Sane Trilogy and Nitro-Fueled it is finally time for Crash Bandicoot for a new chapter, which would continue the story left pending in the 1998 with Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped.
With an obvious play on words, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time it sucked 22 years of expectation and hope in an instant and finally resurrected the former PlayStation mascot with an original story, possible only with a union of forces. All the protagonists who brought Crash back to modernity such as Vicarious Visions, Beenox and Toys for Bob, who have been given the greatest responsibility: after the excellent Spyro Reignited Trilogy, to be in charge of a game that takes part in the project. find how example in the definition of "platform" of the videogame dictionary.
The awakening of the masks
Crash Bandicoot 4 arrived on the market after a marketing campaign that unfortunately left little room for surprises - too much information revealed - but, the result of the experience accumulated over the years, it stands as Warped continuous natural, with Cortex and N. Tropy still stuck in another dimension and Crash dozing on the couch after yet another victory over the evil scientist duo.
Using every drop of energy, Uka Uka manages to open a portal that allows Cortex and N. Tropy to escape from their dimensional prison, to meditate revenge against the bandicoots. Naturally, Aku Aku senses the disturbance and as if nothing had happened in the real world awakens Crash from his long sleep, who with few frills throws himself into the center of the action. The antagonists are doing devilry with space-time, but it's nothing that some turn around can't fix.
The novelty factor of Crash Bandicoot 4 is entrusted to Quantum Masks, four acquaintances of Aku Aku with the power to change the reality around them, as well as the only objects capable of putting together the converging dimensions that allow Crash to jump from one era to another and thus justify the levels of play . Each mask is integrated into the gameplay, giving specific powers to the bandicoots and thus allowing Toys for Bob an unprecedented level design creativity. What is most striking about the levels is not so much the amount of details, but the three-dimensional depth and the sense of progression that is perceived by advancing with Crash and Coco, thanks to tricks such as sliding on vines, changes in gravity and other different innovations that make the much more dynamic gameplay. Another small but significant new entry is represented by the shadow cast by the protagonists when they jump, thus allowing you to see where you will land, a function that in some situations can decide between life and death.
Toys for Bob therefore decided to focus everything on the gameplay, leaving out the story - which is more of a great excuse for the return of Crash - with the usual light notes but with various details that have remained poorly understood. It seems that for the sake of advancing the story in some way - which perhaps only the indefatigable Crash fans will give weight to - some characters have received an ungenerous screen time, leaving some questions pending, and we will hardly see answers in a hypothetical Crash Bandicoot 5 .
The meticulousness shown in the temporal scenarios of this fourth chapter does not reflect, however, the "easygoing" character of the narrative, and as proof of this we can take as an example the sense of threat felt, which fades with the passing of the levels, also due to the fact that the masks are not so protected or obsessively sought by the antagonists, but ultimately relegated to trinkets by gameplay. The game also assumes that you know Crash and that whoever faces him was a player of the trilogy., and with lightning-fast postponements and meetings it cuts out those who have not yet had the chance.
The collectibles
However, the crystals are removed from the equation the masks are the collectible queen of Crash Bandicoot 4, along with the gems, spread by dozens in each level with the function of unlocking alternative skins of the characters to face the levels thematically, as well as of course completism, a feature of which Crash has always been able to boast. Crash Bandicoot 4's watchword is replayability: the levels will be repeated several times, and not only to collect the six canonical gems (and the six of the N. Verted mode), donated under special conditions such as dying less than three times and finding the hidden gem in each level, but also the inevitable relics. The latter will be conquered by going as fast as possible, as always, even if it will be necessary to do without the race, here replaced with a much less effective mechanics.
The famous colored gems, very hidden, and the VHS of the flashback levels, or platforming tests and skill justified by the intense training Cortex underwent Crash years ago when he was general of his armies before his escape from the window that started Crash Bandicoot in 1996.
We mentioned the N. Verted mode, work done by Vicarious Visions in order to lengthen the time spent on Crash Bandicoot 4. It is unlocked by defeating a certain boss, and gives the possibility to walk through the levels already completed with a new graphics, a "camera effect" that changes now I am now looking at the rhythm of each dimension, including the Wumpa Fruits which in the negative universe become the Bumpa Berries but have the same goal. We admit it: we are not big fans of this mirror mode, often more disturbing to the eyes than anything else, in which some filters are less successful than others. Some of these involve spraying colors in a black and white layer to liven it up, or make the player suddenly heavy and slow by submerging it under water.
Dimensional allies
Crash and Coco aren't the only playable characters in Crash Bandicoot 4: trailers have made no secret of it, selling the possibility of take on the role of Tawna, Dingodile and none other than Cortex. The first two are playable in a numbered chapter for the first time, while the doctor had already been co-star of Crash Twinsanity. Tawna is the River Song of Crash Bandicoot 4, an alternate version of Crash's ex-flame with an independent soul who leaps from era to era sporting a grappling hook and athletic streak to patch up some of his allies' paths. Dingo, on the other hand, has to go home, and has a friendly vacuum instead of his flamethrower, making it possible to vacuum numerous wumpa crates and control TNTs. Cortex, finally, is naturally the darkest of the trio, and perhaps the most limited: he has the ability to transmute enemies into platforms, a power that compensates for his inability to make a double jump.
The temporal gaps allow you to follow the subplots of the various secondary characters with ad hoc levels where you can show off their characteristics, while helping Crash and Coco to advance in the main story. Their indirect contribution on the main levels means that often Tawna, Dingo and Cortex are only available for small portions of the game, then passing control to the owners. For this reason, we wished they had more space for them to play more in their guise.
Passing of the baton
Speaking of freedom of choice, it is natural to mention a few modes in which you can play Crash Bandicoot 4: Modern and Retro. The Modern mode eliminates the big face of Crash and allies in the upper right corner that symbolizes the lives, in fact making the game continue at each checkpoint without malus, while the Retro one is the mode to which Crash has always accustomed us, or limited attempts depending on of lives obtained with wumpa fruits until you get to the Game Over screen. Given the increasing difficulty of Crash Bandicoot 4 it is advisable to start in Modern mode. The game is definitely not meant for budding players: the developers have indulged themselves, and the fourth installment of Crash Bandicoot is really difficult given all the new Toys for Bob implementations. For this reason we reluctantly recommend it to patrons, who should head first to the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy - which, we recall, was called the "Dark Souls of platformers". In any case, the game meets the player through an Aku Aku, additional checkpoints in case you notice too many failures and of course the practice, the result of the levels to be repeated several times in case you are hunting for all the collectibles in the game.
The bonuses, which in previous games were a chance to take a breather and accumulate as many lives as possible, are here full-blown puzzles. Often one wrong move is enough to compromise the entire bonus and to force you to start over, until you understand the right order of events, integrating the Quantum Masks from time to time so as not to miss anything. The latter, as we have already mentioned, are fundamental to overcome certain levels: we have Lani Loli, which has the power to change size and materialize some objects outlined by a blue aura; Akano, the mask of dark matter, which allows you to perform a rotation capable of breaking even the toughest cases, and planar for long distances; Kapuna-Wa, who controls time and can slow it down as he pleases; Ika-Ika, with the ability to reverse gravity. Together, they allow for feats that would otherwise be impossible.
Two hearts and a controller
Crash Bandicoot 4 does not forget the 2-4 players, and enriches the offer with Pass and Play and Battle Bandicoot modes. Both involve the use of one joypad: control is simply passed to the other player. The Bandicoot Battle is a mode designed for a few casual games, and is in fact accessible from the (meager) title screen of the game. It is possible to play all the main levels, which are already unlocked, and battle for the best time or accumulate points by destroying crates. Pass and Play instead allows you to go through the main adventure together and swap places depending on the checkpoint or premature death, making Crash Bandicoot 4 a game in its own cooperative way, with the common goal of overcoming a level, collecting all the boxes and who knows, maybe finding a colored gem. It is the first time that a main Crash title has lent itself to this mechanic and we hope to see it revived in the future, because challenging each other or collaborating with platforming strokes has proved successful and fun.
Visually, Crash has never looked so beautiful, bright and crisp: Toys for Bob has reached the maturity of the marsupial with many more elements on the screen, making it take the PlayStation 4 Pro about 30 seconds to load a level. In a similar way to the first Crash Bandicoot, once the idea of a Warp Room has been overcome, it is possible to physically move on a map that shows each scenario, composed of various eras that lead Crash to breathe the saltiness of the Caribbean seas or in the most remote space. All this blends with jokes and scattered quotes to the story of the Naughty Dog creature, interspersing brand new music with nostalgic references in the flashback levels, creating a link between past and present for a series that has officially restarted after 22 years. , but it has always been immortal.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time marks the return of the most famous marsupial in video games when hopes had faded, spanning two generations. Bringing Crash Bandicoot back to life with a new chapter was certainly Toys for Bob's trial by fire, which felt the responsibility of the company by choosing to favor an evolved gameplay from all points of view rather than delineate a story in a more sharp. The addition of supporting actors like Tawna and Dingodile, the many collectibles and the multiplayer modes make Crash Bandicoot 4 a game destined to last over time, pigeonholing itself as one of the most successful modern platformers.
► Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is a Platform-type game developed and published by Activision for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, the video game was released on 02/10/2020
