Chronicle of Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

A long time ago, in a period that historians call the 1990s, the mascot reigned supreme. These anthropomorphic animals had bad attitudes and large sneakers, and often broke spontaneously, which was the style of the time. And one of the most famous of these creatures was Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot, a marsupial-clad denim who turned on the original PlayStation in 1996, becoming the stupid and grimacing face of the new CD-powered console. And now, for the first time, it's on PC

The N. Sane Trilogy is a remastered collection of the first three Crash Bandicoot games. There have been some adjustments to the physics that hardcore Crash fans and speedrunners have contested, but for most people, it should look exactly like what it was in '96 – and that's part of the problem. This is a platform game of the oldest and squeakiest schools, with punitive jumps, traps that require perfect accuracy and enemies that can kill you in one shot.

Some people will love the sound, go back to a bygone era when the 3D platforms were pure and not stained by the traps of the modern video game. But for me, it's like I'm coming back to a time when the games were way worse than they are now. Hell, Crash felt even overwhelmed at the time overshadowed by games like Tomb Raider and Mario 64, making its linear levels and frustrating design even more difficult to digest in 2018.

The fixed angles of the camera make it difficult to measure many jumps, which is a problem in a game where the fall of a pit means to be rejected at a checkpoint or at the beginning of a level. The Looney Tunes style death animations are fun the first time you see them, but waiting for them to go off slowly when you just want to get back into action and try again is extremely tedious. And Crash does not seem to me to be satisfying to control, with a simple, weightless physique and a short, stiff jump that I hated in '96 and that I continue to do in 1966.

This kind of platform basic shapes recognition t more entertaining. Especially when I could play one of the many 2D PC platform games that, in the 22 years since the release of Crash, have taken the genre in interesting new directions. Crash is a dusty old relic of the past, though these stunning remastered graphics do their best to make you think otherwise.

It's sometimes amazing. nice game, especially at 4K. Everything is big and bulky and tactile. The characters and the enemies are wonderfully, expressively animated. In terms of maintaining the appearance of a clbadic game and simultaneous update for modern hardware, developer Vicarious Visions has done a remarkable job here. But the disadvantage of these lavish and expensive visuals is that they emphasize how the game is archaic.

It is authentic, however, and that is exactly what some people will want from a Crash Bandicoot remaster. If you are looking for the same experience you had in its low-poly climax, you will be well taken care of. But if you have no investment in the series, no nostalgia, and are looking for a fun and well-designed 3D platform game – a genre terribly misguided on PC – you'll be disappointed. The addition of auto-save is one of the few concessions that it brings to modern game design, but otherwise it stubbornly clings to the past and leaves it alone that seldom leave.

All is not bad. The first grueling and repetitive game has aged badly, but the second, Cortex Strikes Back, has some well-designed levels that are a nice test of concentration and dexterity. It almost feels like a rhythmic action game at times, memorizing patterns, maintaining your momentum, and it can be exhilarating in the moment. At least until the next cheap death, of which there are many. The third game of the trilogy, Warped, is the most varied of the three, although the weather was cruel for these levels of racing.

Remake of the first three Crash Bandicoot games of the PlayStation N. Sane Trilogy era is about perfect. The problem is that these games may not have been very good in the first place and that they have only got worse with age. It's fun to have here, but also a lot of frustration when you fight with design decisions that were made more than two decades ago, at a time when the three-dimensional jump and motion were still in motion. train to be understood. We desperately need more PC-based 3D platforms, but those looking to the future, not the past.