Review — Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Everyone’s favorite wombat is back for some crazy platforming action in Crash Bandicoot 4.

Who would’ve thought three years ago that a new Crash Bandicoot would finally make its way to modern platforms. Yet, here we are. After a genius remake bundle of the first three Crash games in the N.Sane Trilogy (released back in 2017), both new and old players fell (back) in love with the ‘coot. Activision took notice and swiftly started production of Crash Bandicoot 4, released 22 (!) years after its predecessor. It’s about time indeed…

First of all, Crash Bandicoot 4 is still very much Crash Bandicoot. The creators stayed true to the nature of what the game made so popular back in the 90’s while also trying to lift up the game aesthetics and mechanics to the current level of videogames. It works. Crash Bandicoot 4 is a platform game pur sang, which unfortunately, don’t pop up very often anymore. While newer players will definitely get to get accustomed to the (near) fixed camera, it is ultimately what Crash Bandicoot is supposed to feel like.

Masks? Masks!

The game makers did try to take some risks and spice things up. Skill masks make its introduction, adding a bit of panache to the levels they’re being introduced to. These skill masks allow Crash (or Coco! — because yes, the entire game can be played with her as well) to gain some extraterrestrial powers, such as being able to jump and spin much further or making blocks appear & disappear.

It adds a nifty, sometimes puzzle-like, element to the game. And the developers made a wise decision to never mix two different masks at the same time. Apart from that, they consciously choose specific parts of the level to let the masks come into play, instead of letting whole levels coast on these mechanics. Good stuff.

The second biggest innovation is the amount of different characters that make their introduction, each with their own skillset and movement. I’d estimate that between 10 to 20% of the levels are played with ‘guest characters’ and they bring a welcome change of pace of the game. Any more of it would have been too much, but having to recalibrate your mind on how the game plays can be a welcome change of pace. The only part where the game tries to overcomplicate things a bit too much, is in the fact that they let these guest characters ‘meet’ Crash in certain levels, having you play the same level from a different perspective. The whole thing kinda misses its mark and doesn’t really add anything to the game. It’s a small complaint on an overall great package though.

That great package is jam packed with content. Sure, you can just run through the levels and get it over with as quickly as you can. But the real fun in Crash Bandicoot has always been for the completionists. Finding and collecting all the boxes (some of them are hidden in almost an overly mean way), finding the gems, speed running the levels, there’s so much to challenge yourself with in every single level that the game has incredibly value and longevity. And then there’s the flashback tape levels as well. Crash Bandicoot 4 just knows on how to keep you engaged over and over again. In a fun, challenging way.

Perfect balance

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a true feat. Coming back 22 years later and being able to strike a perfect balance between the familiarity of the old games, while also keeping it fresh and modern is just as perfect as anyone would‘ve wanted. The game sounds and looks amazing as well. Performance wise it plays smoothly and hits a perfect 60FPS on a PlayStation 4 Pro. There are stories out there however that it doesn’t run quite as good on ‘vanilla’ consoles (regular PlayStation 4 and Xbox One), so keep that in mind. Overall, Crash Bandicoot 4 is near perfect as it comes to what it wanted to achieve. Highly recommended for every gamer out there who likes platform games.

4.5/5

Played on PlayStation 4 Pro.
Review code provided by publisher.