Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time
Following on from Warped, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is the newest entry in the series for our lovable orange marsupial. Developed by Toys for Bob, who most recently gave us the Spyro: Reignited Trilogy (as well as the Switch port of the N. Sane Trilogy for Crash) and published by Activision, …It’s About Time sees villains Neo Cortex, N. Tropy and Uka Uka break out of prison on a mission to enslave the multiverse. And of course, it’s up to you to stop them!
To start the game, you are given the choice between two gameplay options: Modern or Retro. Modern allows you to respawn infinitely from Checkpoints, whereas Retro will give you three lives (with the ability to gain more by collecting wumpa fruits), and upon losing the final one you’ll restart from the beginning of the level. This option can be changed at any time and has no impact on Achievements, which is great as it doesn’t make you feel guilty for choosing one option over another - it’s complete personal preference. You, of course, play as Crash - with other playable characters including his sister Coco, nemesis Dr. Neo Cortex, fan-favourite Dingodile and ex-girlfriend Tawna. Crash and Coco are playable throughout the game, whilst the others have specific levels where you get to play as them and take advantage of their different abilities which is super fun. I mean come on, who doesn’t want to play a baddie every once in a while!?
Crash Bandicoot 4 looks absolutely phenomenal. Even with a recent release in the form of the N. Sane Trilogy, which required the games to be rebuilt from the ground up, Crash looks better than ever here. The Bandicoot himself has had a complete makeover, with new expressions to give him more character than ever before. His design has also been tweaked and improved, as well as each of the other characters, giving them all fabulous new appearances - and with unlockable costumes throughout you can really see how much attention to detail has been given here. Costumes are unlocked through gaining all six clear gems in a level, although there are a couple of costumes that were given through pre-order bonuses. Thankfully, there are no micro transactions involved in the unlocking of costumes, which seems to be a rare thing nowadays.
The variety of locations, explained through the use of time travel and the multiverse are also very recognisably Crash, with stunning colour palettes and plenty of detail. Environments are gorgeous, and the music throughout is fantastic, enhancing the nostalgia whilst also remaining fresh. Enemy design is fairly typical for the series, with level enemies being less of a battle and more of a roadblock that you need to scoot past or spin off into the distance. The game’s bosses are mostly made up of familiar foes, but they all look absolutely amazing and the boss fights, whilst not overly punishing, are highly entertaining.
Crash 4 is authentic to the nostalgia of growing up playing Crash Bandicoot in the 90s. Just like when we played through the N. Sane Trilogy, we were surprised by the difficulty of some segments. Crash always seemed difficult but not too difficult when we were younger, and trying 2, 3 or maybe even 4 times would be enough to get through even the trickiest of areas. Or maybe it was just that we didn’t care as much about destroying every single box and nabbing every single wumpa fruit. The rose-tinted glasses certainly made it seem like Crash was a far less challenging task when we were kids. And that’s not to say we haven’t enjoyed playing Crash 4 - in fact, the challenge just encourages us to keep playing more. Controls felt great for the most part, although we did hit a few snags on the forward-running sections. Neither of us could be sure if there was a slight pull when jumping towards the screen, or if this was down to our controllers being pretty well worn. Either way, even with those slight snags, it didn’t cause us too much of an issue.
The Level Select menu - which only appears after completing the first couple of levels - is done in the style of Crash 1, with a cute little overworld to represent each of the dimensions. Six clear gems can be gained in each level, along with a seventh “Color Gem”. Gems can be obtained by destroying every box; broken down into percentages destroyed, completing the level in under 3 lives and finding the hidden gem in the level. Additional unlockables, such as the Time Trial Relics from the original games, and the N. Sanely Perfect Relics are designed to add another layer of challenge to the game. Time Trials are awarded in three tiers, with the Platinum relic being the hardest to get (and requiring the Triple Spin to even be in with a chance of unlocking). The Triple Spin isn’t learned until completing the story, so don’t even bother with the Time Trials until afterwards (we wasted a fair bit of time with that!). The N. Sanely Perfect Relics, as mentioned before, are the hardest Relics to gain - requiring you to gain each levels’ clear gems (with or without the hidden gem). With zero deaths. Allan unlocked the first level’s Perfect Relic on his first go, but this just gave him a bit of false hope for how simple the rest would be!
Priced at £59.99 on the Xbox Store, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is an expensive title, especially considering that the N. Sane Trilogy/Crash Team Racing Combo pack, which includes a total of four games, is the same price. But the luxury of a new Crash Bandicoot game, and one with plenty of replayability in the form of collecting clear and coloured gems, winning Time Trial Relics and successfully pulling off some N.Sanely Perfect runs.
Toys for Bob clearly put a lot of love into making Crash 4. There’s tonnes of little Easter eggs and references throughout, including a Spyro the Dragon rubber ring right at the very start of the first level. There’s plenty to offer here for both old and new fans alike, and it’s definitely a title I will be coming back to long after completing the main story.
In the end, we decided to give Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time the Collecting Asylum rating of 8.5/10.
Have you played It’s About Time yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
