Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (PS4 / Xbox One)

[Jango]

I'm playing this right now. And by God is it great, holy shit. Do I ever want more story in my Crash games from now on. The first cutscenes are perfect. 

[8ther]

So that's how they look like without "shoes".

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Honestly, a big problem I have with the game is the absurd completion requirements, to the active determent of the game. Any time I end up missing a few crates or die over three times, it just ends up immediately killing my fun, and making me not enjoy much of the level. Between the long length of levels, and so much shit to do in each one, it just feels frustrating.

[mayday2592]

So far this is on its way to the top of the list for me. I agree some of the gem requirements are a bit redundant, but the excellent level design makes up for it and it seems most of the meaningful extras can be gotten after a standard run and inverted run anyways. Played through the 11th dimension and I had a smile on my face for a good chunk of it. So much fanservice and throwbacks in  this game, its crazy. 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

I do wonder what the completion bonuses will be this time. God forbid they unlock the secret ending and it turns out to be foreshadowing for a Twinsanity remake.

[Graystripe2000]

3 minutes ago, Nina Cortex Jovahexeon said:

I do wonder what the completion bonuses will be this time. God forbid they unlock the secret ending and it turns out to be foreshadowing for a Twinsanity remake.

According to the trophy list, there’s a 100% ending and a 106% ending.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

One thing story wise I don't like:

Spoiler

N Brio is randomly working alongside Cortex again, despite canonically having turned against him in Crash 2, and no explanation is given for it.

 

[mayday2592]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1Scarer said:

One thing story wise I don't like:

  Hide contents

N Brio is randomly working alongside Cortex again, despite canonically having turned against him in Crash 2, and no explanation is given for it.

 

Spoiler

Its implied he's doing it to perfect a potion that will make him extremely powerful, not really out of loyalty to Cortex as suggested by his intro scene and in game dialogue. "i'll,uh they'll be unbeatable!" Also, finding out the NVerted mode is basically  the result of a  Bumpa Berry trip is one of the most bizzare things to come out of the series. Also N.Brio laying an Egg and Crash joyfully deciding to keep it.

 

[Winston]

As many have mentioned, the absurd amount of hidden crates in each stage is extremely frustrating. It adds replay value, sure, but some of the stages are really long and include large amounts of crates. It's really not fun taking an eternity to do a stage to then find out you missed four hidden crates somewhere behind a wall. If anything, it makes me want to do the complete opposite of replay it. I just focused on getting to the end of the game, which is typically something I don't do in Crash, but the crate smashing completion was so annoying. 

The game over-all is fun though, if a bit challenging. I feel like this game easily tops the first three in difficulty, but maybe I'm just saying that because I'm so familiar with those first three. Well... maybe the first game is still a bit harder in some aspects, but I'd certainly say this is harder than 2 or 3. That final level especially was such a pain in the ass for me, even if it was enjoyable.

Now I'll get into some spoilers for the entire game, so beware if you haven't beat it.

Spoiler

The story of the game was quite interesting, and I enjoyed the cameo from Nitros Oxide especially. I really do wish he had a boss battle though, because that would've been extremely cool. I guess it was nice to hear his dialogue and have him appear in that one cutscene. It's kind-of a shame that this game really just focuses on the doctor characters, would've been neat to have more of them appear as bosses. I'm also a bit disappointed that we didn't see any levels from previous games outside of the very first one. Sure, I didn't want an overabudance of them, but it feels like a waste to use this whole alternate dimensions thing and then not bring in a stage from say Wrath of Cortex or Twinsanity and remix it a bit to show this is an alternate timeline.

Maybe that's just a stupid thing to complain about, but I feel like using dimensional travel and not doing that is sort-of a waste. The only game they really revisit is the first Crash game in the end, and it's a bit jarring to see past Cortex walk away and then resemble his N. Sane Trilogy appearance all of a sudden in a cutscene they reused. Probably easier to do that though than reanimating it, so I don't entirely blame them for doing that. Just seemed weird they didn't make past Cortex look more like N. Sane Trilogy Cortex in the art style of Crash 4 if they were going to do that, and it would've made past Cortex stand out a bit more obviously from Crash 4 Cortex. 

I still like the game, I just wish it did celebrate the series more as a whole with it's whole focus on alternate dimensions. Probably one of the best Crash games there is still. 

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

6 hours ago, Nina Cortex Jovahexeon said:

I do wonder what the completion bonuses will be this time. God forbid they unlock the secret ending and it turns out to be foreshadowing for a Twinsanity remake.

Spoiler

Obviously not foreshadowing, but the Evil Twins do have a cameo.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Spoiler

Holy shit, Dingodile calls enemies bastards

 

[Harkofthewaa]

So I was able to snag a disc on launch day (normally that wouldn't be an issue but, well, Covid's a thing), been playing it and here are my thoughts so far (I just beat N. Brio for reference):

1: The controls are nice and tight, figuring out how to use the air time the slide gives you was the only real hurdle.

2: So far the levels have had a nice even difficulty curve... until you start going for gems. I've only snagged a couple of box gems so far, most I miss by like eight to ten boxes (a couple of them by one though... uggh) which leaves me scratching my head each time. I've missed most of the hidden gems too so clearly these levels are good at hiding stuff. But asking you to beat these long mask bereft levels with only dying three times is a little much. Don't try to go for all six gems in one go, just don't. It's not worth it.

3: Tawna's playtime is literally just a refined version of Nina's from Twinsanity. Take away the slam, cut the range on the Hookshot and replace the wall jumping with the tether and there you have it. I don't mind, just pointing it out.

4: I tried a couple levels in N.verted mode. The effects are nice, but each N.verted level has SIX new gems to collect, effectively doubling the gem count. Also, CTR:NF died for this.

The final takeaway is that with all the crap to collect, the flashback levels, stuff so well hidden and the three deaths thing trying to force multiple runs through a level, then forcing more runs with N.verted mode, it really seems like Toys For Bob is trying their hardest to get as much playtime out of the player as possible. That's not to say the game isn't fun, far from it but I can see that getting 100% is going to be a slog.

 

[Jango]

Played it a bit more, defeated the first boss (really cool and tough, but I've noticed some framerate issues on my base PS4) then switched to The Boys. I'm enjoying this too much to end it so quickly. Words cannot describe how awesome this feels. It's a proper new game. I don't know the level design, or the music, or the secrets. Discovering everything for the first time again is a joy. I've never been this nostalgic, not even with Sonic Mania. I'm also getting MAJOR Rayman 2 / Origins vibes, which is great.

I finally got the hang of Crash's new slide. I didn't realized you can quite literally slide in the fucking air. You actually have to nail this to access a secret area in "Hit the Road". It's pretty satisfying to pull it off. As for jumping, this is easily the best Crash have ever felt, to me at least. I have so much air control, this feels a lot like Rayman Origins. The spin is the same as ever, but I've noticed that the radius of your spin when standing still is smaller. It's usefull to break crates that have a TNT above them (when they're on the ground). You can't move or spin Crash around while body slamming anymore, which is a shame (it rarely ever made a difference in the original games, but anyways). At least they made him fall faster than he did in the first gameplay videos we got. All in all, once I told myself that this isn't Crash 2, or Crash 3, things clicked. I had a hard time with the demo because my mind was expecting Crash 4 to play exactly like the old games, but they don't. Which isn't a bad thing, mind. It's different in many aspects, but nothing is broken or bad IMO.

So yeah, I'm loving this shit, and so far, I'm finding the difficulty pretty good. I only ever got frustrated trying to find the 2 missing crates in "A Real Grind". Playing on Retro from the beginning and I already have more than 50 lives. 

My biggest complaint is the frame rate on a base PS4. I wish a patch can lock the game at 30, because there's some noticeable judder here and there. 

Oh, and the UI is kinda ugly, that wumpa fruit GIF is pretty cheap, eh?

[Sonicka]

Game finally arrived today (darn preorder didn’t show early - not even for release day). 

Amazing stuff so far - well, I’m only on level one as decided to start a separate playthrough with my 4 year old today (she loves crash) so figured now is as good as anytime to teach her some platforming ropes - she’s got a pretty good handle so far as we traipsed our way through 

I think my only worry is the 40+ pages of Activision license agreements that I had to sign... It’s a plaformer. Why is this necessary? I read through some of it and saw many mentions of “LiVe SeRvIcEs” which... is a bit concerning considering their history.

Otherwise, no real complaints so far. Can’t comment on the frame-rate it plays on my PSPro... it feels 60, but is probably 30. But the game is GORGEOUS regardless. 

[Jango]

Forgot to mention, the music is fucking epic, oh my jolly. It's a bit more ambient like Crash 1 sometimes, but it's great stuff. The N. Gin boss music is a major highlight, fuck me. Destructive.

[mayday2592]

Yeah I'm not going for 106 percent in this, relics are just brutal. Really don't get why they didn't add checkpoints to time trials, they fixed a few of the bigger issues like making backtracking more manageable and less time consuming, but didnt fix this.

[Sonicka]

3 hours ago, mayday2592 said:

Yeah I'm not going for 106 percent in this, relics are just brutal. Really don't get why they didn't add checkpoints to time trials, they fixed a few of the bigger issues like making backtracking more manageable and less time consuming, but didnt fix this.

Relics have always been pretty brutal to be fair. Why would they add checkpoints to time trials though? Doesn’t that defeat the object?

IMO, as useful as his may be... if they did that I think it also hampers the momentum of a good run and the whole fun of the idea. It’s not really something that needs to be “fixed” for what is supposed to be a challenge anyway.

THAT being said...there no reason why it couldn’t be included in a patch as an optional extra (like the toggle for the circle shadows, or the option of Retro or Modern modes for lives). That way you could just have a mark against your name (or perhaps get a “fake relic”) on a level if you managed to beat the time whilst dying mid level. It would separate the challengers out, but at least you can take home the prize regardless and go for the real deal when you are ready.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

32 minutes ago, Son-icka said:

Relics have always been pretty brutal to be fair. Why would they add checkpoints to time trials though? Doesn’t that defeat the object?

Not really? It's about getting through as fast as possible, not getting through without any deaths and quickly as fuck.

But to answer your question - they absolutely should've been added this time around because of the absurd level length of every single level. It was one thing in the original trilogy when you could beat levels in 2 to 4 minutes, it's another in Crash 4 when it can take upwards of 10, to even 15.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

It's understandable that Crash games can be difficult to 100%, but jesus christ, Crash 4 goes above and a bit too beyond with the hidden crates and the reluctant relic pains in this game. Especially with longer and bigger levels.

Playing the game is fun, but 100%ing it unfortunately feels like a contender for the biggest chore of the series.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I have platinumed every single Crash game, and I have platinumed every single Spyro game. I even worked my ass off to learn CTR's mechanics so I could beat all of Oxide's times in that game.

Yet I just can't bring myself to even bother with this game. Everything about it is just beyond disheartening. Platinum relics are going to be an absolute nightmare between the increased difficulty, and length (I've heard the last levels of the game makes Stormy Ascent look easy, with people show death tolls of nearing 100), and the game is just bullshit with how it hides it's crates. 

The bonus levels are godawful as well. Requiring patience and a lot of trial and error, and there's nothing more utterly infuriating than wasting your time trying to pull off a bonus level, finally doing it, only to find out - whoops! You missed some random ass obscure crate hidden behind a ledge, or wall, that you LITERALLY COULDN'T EVEN SEE.

Toys for Bob screwed the pooch on this. This is straight up Mega Man 9 levels of difficulty flanderisation, and that is an absolute bleeding shame, given how decent the game itself is if it weren't the absurd completion requirements.

[mayday2592]

Yeah those later stages go on for a bit especially in world 8. I think im just gonna go for all the skins and hope none involve platinum relics and no death awards. The ending for 106 want worth it at all.

[Sonicka]

32 minutes ago, Ryannumber1Scarer said:

Not really? It's about getting through as fast as possible, not getting through without any deaths and quickly as fuck.

Personally disagree here. You don’t checkpoint and correlate the best sections of a lap for time trials in a racing game for example. Devs just applied the same logic into a platformer. Even Sonic Mania follows this formula. It’s straight to the end otherwise you have too many handicaps. As it is the box smashing time crates sort of add an interesting handicap gimmick (but cleverly it’s worked into 3 levels of relics for time attacks)

I think that really. if you’re gunna add checkpoints to time trials then you get rid of the time crates, because then it should be more about your art in the knowledge of the level and dependency on your own abilities when taking leaps and strategies through it. There has to be a line drawn somewhere... OR just make time trials and relic runs different modes (like in CTR) and don’t make one dependable on a completion bonus. 

32 minutes ago, Ryannumber1Scarer said:

...they absolutely should've been added this time around because of the absurd level length of every single level. It was one thing in the original trilogy when you could beat levels in 2 to 4 minutes, it's another in Crash 4 when it can take upwards of 10, to even 15.

Buuuuuut then this is also true of this game having played more of it now... so I do agree with you on this haha! 

So perhaps there should have been a workaround to slot something slightly different in considering the longer levels? Even as a different mode or method for obtaining relics/item of worth, and just have the time attacks as “just for fun” ...like Sonic Mania. 

[Winston]

33 minutes ago, Ryannumber1Scarer said:

The bonus levels are godawful as well. Requiring patience and a lot of trial and error, and there's nothing more utterly infuriating than wasting your time trying to pull off a bonus level, finally doing it, only to find out - whoops! You missed some random ass obscure crate hidden behind a ledge, or wall, that you LITERALLY COULDN'T EVEN SEE.

That is another huge complaint I have. I always liked bonus levels in the other Crash games, and sure, sometimes they were rather difficult but for the most part they were a refreshing change of pace and made sense design wise. It'd hint at what you have to do with the design itself. Some of the bonus levels in this game do that, but not a lot of them. This games bonus levels are anything but refreshing, and are even more difficult than the levels in my opinion. Not to mention the amount of times that you have no idea what's going to happen in them, and you hit one box you shouldn't have and then you have to restart the whole thing over again... until you go back and successfully do that, and then find out you have to do something else weird and obscure. Like, yeah, plenty of people had to retry the bonus levels in the other games over and over again, including myself when I was younger... but for the most part, every bonus level in the original trilogy made it quite obvious what you had to do just by looking at it. I don't recall every bonus level since it's been a while, but the hardest ones to me were the ones where you needed the firefly that made the room dark, but even then it was obvious that you needed to break as many crates as possible while the firefly was still there. 

I don't want to do a bonus level if it's even more draining than the actual level itself, especially when I've been working on beating the level I'm currently on for like ten or fifteen minutes. Even if I'm used to the bonus levels in the original games from replaying them so much, I really don't think any of them were ever as hard as the levels themselves. I remember one bonus room later on in 4 that required me to do a weird jump on two flaming crates to get up higher, and that was fine enough because at least it makes it obvious that's what you have to do, and then you jump to the right and hit another crate... and then all of a sudden a bunch of nitros surround a crate that just popped up, and you just then realize you had to jump on that crate and it's too late now and you have to restart. Not to mention the end of that bonus room has another fuck you moment where you have a bunch-of TNT crates and bonus boxes stacked with metal crates on top, and then you slide under the TNT, get to the other side, and then realize that the metal crates are too high to get on top of so you messed up and have to kill yourself again. A lot of the solutions just aren't all that obvious. I think it should be difficult, yes, but not to the point where it just isn't fun to play them at all. Sometimes I'd enter a bonus room, look at the design of it from one glance, and just not even want to complete it and kill myself because I didn't want to even attempt it. Maybe that's just a me problem, but I personally don't like them making some of these bonus rooms this challenging. 

[Conando]

Yeah, I can attest to having to look up a VIDEO GUIDE for Bonus Stages in Crash 4. That wasn’t a thing in the older games, it was easy enough to figure out what you have to do, it was about execution. Then of course I still missed like 3 crates obscured by the foreground so I don’t get the crate gem anyway.

[Jango]

The bonus level difficulty spike is real indeed. They feel more like the N. Brio bonus rounds from Crash 1, which are tricky as hell and not all that rewarding. TfB missed the mark there, no doubt about. As for the time trials, I only did the first level to see how it is, and I barely got the sapphire. For anyone who already finished the game, just tell me, is the sprint power-up in this game? Because they're really gonna be as hard as getting the platinum relics in Nitro-Fueled, if not more... I'm curious for that 106% ending tho'.