Crash Bandicoot is one of the most video games that will always be remembered. This great franchise marked the childhood of many people, and I think that probably the game that I have repeated the most times must be one of Crash Bandicoot. But why is it so successful and why is it still fun to play it until nowadays? How this franchise could come back to life? I want to share the great experience I had with these great games of the franchise, where the one who created the first ones was nothing more and nothing less than Naughty Dog! Let's take a look at it from the beginning!
Crash Bandicoot 1:
As the name of the game already says, this is the story of Crash Bandicoot, who has unique abilities as he is an experiment created by his main enemy Dr. Neo Cortex. On the other hand, there were other experiments such as Coco and Tawna. Also, another important character from this franchise is obviously Aku Aku, whose spirit lives inside a wooden mask and has special powers that will protect Crash. Once you find and break three Aku Aku crates without losing any protection before, you will get complete invincibility in a limited time.
The game starts with Crash escaping from Neo Cortex's lab at a castle, but he must come back to save Tawna. All this game happens in the Sanity, Wumpa, and Cortex islands. Wumpa is the name of the fruit that the Bandicoots eat in this world. So this first game is about Crash traveling through the Islands confronting many dangers, enemies, and bosses to reach Tawna at Cortex's castle.
The first thing I have to say about the success of the franchise is that it is one creative story to tell. Also one of their greatest ideas was giving life a character like Crash, he does not even talk and has a crazy personality that somehow you have fun with. And it is not just that, they actually made a personal brand by showing very well Crash's expressions.
In this game, you can jump and spin to fight enemies. Also, there are the Wumpa fruits, and each time you collect 100 of them, you win an extra life. Another detail that we enjoy here is that since the beginning when you spin and hit an enemy, that one would fly away and other enemies and crates can be hit too. There are also main cinematics if an enemy reaches and hit us. Also, as the genre of these games is platforms, depending on the level, there are different obstacles and traps we have to avoid.
Not only the main and playable character is what catches the public, but also the bosses. I have to say, that one of my favorite bosses is Ripper Roo, I mean, is a blue Kangaroo that actually has some mental problems, Who does that?! It is even funny to see how Ripper Roo jumps crazily everywhere. Also, another iconic boss is Pinstripe Potoroo and he is another nice example that they did a really good job by animating and personifying animals in a way they look very well and go to the role they must do. Pinstripe with his look, expressions, and even clothes already gives you the idea that he is someone important in the Cortex power plant and also his bodyguard. The whole appearance of the characters makes a match with their way to fight too, and in this case, Pinstripe Potoroo uses a Thompson SMG. Other bosses from the game are Papu Papu, Koala Kong, Dr. Nitrus Brio, and of course Dr. Neo Cortex.
One of the main and best features of this game is the crates, you must find and destroy them all to have all collectibles from the game. You will receive one gem per level once you do it, and here is where we can witness for the first time what Naughty Dog does the best, because, in addition to their ability in the details, they are very good at making the player think outside the box, and making he or she find an object in a level that was always there but also hidden in some creative way. Naughty Dog has a great talent for that, and also what they did great is take advantage of the crates and the bounce they leave once you jump them, to make a unique and special dynamic in the platforms from the game. So, to complete the game at 100% you must know how to control the jumps and the bounces to destroy all crates, especially in the bonus rounds. Speaking of the bonus rounds, there are Tawna's, N. Brio's, and N. Cortex's bonus rounds depending on the level.
Something very special they did since this first game is also the colored gems, these special gems are very essential in the game because they unlock new paths that will allow you to complete the number of crates you must break. And when you get all the normal and colored gems, you will unlock a secret ending. Besides, to acquire all the colored gems, you cannot die in some specific levels, if you die, you will not get them.
Finally, the last feature is the time trial relics, where you have to complete the level at a certain time limit to get the relic. You will need them to complete the game in its entirety.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
Here is where Coco does her first appearance in the franchise, and she has big computer and hacking skills. Because of that, she could hack into Cortex's systems and appear as a hologram to warn Crash.
Also, this is the first time we get to see the Crystals, which are essential for the main story because Cortex tries to trick Crash to collect all of the crystals and use their power to destroy the planet instead of saving it. Here is where we get to see the iconic and famous dance of Crash that we always love to see!
Here we get to know new bosses like the Komodo brothers, Tiny Tiger, and Doctor N. Gin. Also, Ripper Roo comes back in this game as well as Cortex as the main villain.
Also, another nice thing they did is that the normal and colored gems also have their role here which you will find out once you have all of them and get the secret ending. Another interesting new role from the colored gems is that once you get them all, you unlock a special and challenging path in one specific level where you have to go through the same amount of platforms as the number of colored gems obtained in the game. Also, unlike the previous game, the way to get these special gems is more dynamic, one gem can just be very well hidden, the other you cannot die to get it, or others have their own specific challenge.
Something very special in this game that I liked a lot is that you have to be creative and reach some specific places to discover new secret levels. Once you stand up at it, you get instantly teleported to the other level. Another thing about this game is that there would be only one bonus round per level but there are still challenging.
What is great about these games too is that there is more dynamic in the controls because now you can slide and jump higher which makes the game more creative and a little bit different from the previous platforms. And with that, I feel more freedom in this game. Also once you beat the last level you earn the ability to run faster which challenges you to learn to control it to beat the time trials relics.
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
I think this one was the most famous game of Crash Bandicoot. While the first and second games happen in different locations and biomes from the islands, this one is about time travel. Here we have to collect the crystals in different timelines. So here we enjoy more types of enemies and obstacles depending on where and when we will be located. For example, the traps that are in the pyramids of Egypt, or the carpets in India we have to use to pass the level. This new proposal gives a game a chance to deliver more sophisticated locations and platforms.
Here we got to see two new interesting characters and great villains of the franchise. First, there is Dr. N. Trohy who is the master of time and therefore the reason why there is time traveling in the game, and there is also Uka Uka, who would be the counterpart and brother of Aku Aku. Also a new character and boss is Dingo Dile. Other bosses that come back in this game are Tiny Tiger, N. Gin, and Cortex with Uka Uka.
I want to say that the implementation of the main villains of this game was great, N. Tropy, Uka Uka, and Cortex have their own interesting stories. Also, the last battle looked epic, in a way that now Cortex has his own partner that will help him too. Both Crash and Cortex have now their spirit masks and that results in a more interesting battle where we have to be careful that the great power of the masks will not reach us at the same time we fight against our own opponent which would be Cortex.
Here also are the colored gems, where you will unlock too a special difficult path that honors all of them. On the other hand, there are some levels you got to play with only Coco, which is great too and she has got also her battle boss who would be N. Gin.
I wanted to talk about other small details in a separate section of this article, but I feel this one deserves to be mentioned here. That's right, I am talking about the motorcycle races, I enjoyed a lot this new addition to the game, you just enjoy racing and passing through the obstacles, and the skin they gave to Crash was awesome and epic! Also, another thing that deserves to be mentioned is that here is the first appearance of Pura. Coco rides Pura through some levels, which also was pretty cool and you must learn to control it too because you can go faster and jump also far. If you do not control this in the right way, you will fall or get crashed with something and lose a life.
Finally, this game provides power-ups, each time you defeat a new boss, you will win one, and depending on the level it would be very difficult to reach some places without earning first some power-ups. Some of them are double jump, deathly tornado spin, or even a Wumpa Fruit Bazooka!
Crash Team Racing:
After the whole success of their games, Naughty Dog took advantage and created a kart genre-video game which became also a classic from our childhood. This game brings a brand new story with a new villain called Nitros Oxide, who is an alien from the planet Gasmoxia and challenges the characters to race. If they lose, he will enslave the habitants from the earth.
When you win a race, you will get a trophy. Also, you can drive through the map without choosing any level. Depending on what character you choose or even to which boss are you going against, there are three kart classes: acceleration, balanced, and speed classes.
While you race you have the chance to break boxes that provides special items and weapons like tracking missiles, turbo, bowling bomb, and so on. Also, Aku Aku and Uka Uka will help in the race, where besides the invincibility, also they help you to go faster.
So the combination of all of this provides a great new dynamic and proposal. You can also activate 3 stages of turbo boosts, which makes the game super fun because you will always want to go faster. The more you control the speed and turbo boosts, the more difficult would be to defeat you, because you can hold the turbo effect during the whole race if you master it.
There are also other challenges that you have to do to complete the whole game like finding and reaching the CTR letters while you race, or grabbing all crystals before time ends.
What was very good here is that they did great bringing this genre of video game because you can play with friends and family. There are racing cups, battles series, and more to enjoy. The idea of the racing cups was something unique because it does not matter if you end up in a bad place at one race, you can still win. I still remembered that there were some racing cups that I won just by a difference of 1 point!
The bosses are different special racers than when you play a normal one, each one has a unique ability, like for example, Pinstripe shoots missile launchers many times, the same is with Ripper Roo and the TNTs, and so on. All the bosses are Ripper Roo, Papu Papu, Komodo Joe, Pinstripe, and Nitros Oxide.
Another new addition is that at the beginning of the game, you can choose to play not only with Crash, and Coco, but also with Pura, Polar, Dr. Neo Cortex, Tiny Tiger, Doctor N. Gin, and Dingodile, and while you keep going through the story you will unlock more racers to play with.
This game has many features so that you will get never bored. Another one for example is there there are also the Wumpa's fruits, and once you collect 10 of them you got special and better effects in the weapons and items.
Crash of the Titans and Crash Twinsanity, and other games:
After the success of its games, many more video games of Crash came out, but the previous ones were the best of our childhood. Other people played them but not so much. The ones that I would never forget though are Crash of the Titans and Crash Twinsanity. These both games came out in the generation of PlayStation 2 and I liked them a lot, maybe not like the others from ps1, but I still like them.
In the first one you can punch the enemies but what was the best of this is that you can control the Titans with Aku Aku and use their different powers. This was a so new fresh gameplay that was interesting to give it a chance.
The second one I liked even more because it is what it mostly gets close to an opened world game in this video game series. And not just that, this is the first time you team up with Cortex. This was a fun game and provided also this new experience, and as it looked more like an opened world video game, the gems can be creatively hidden in many places.
I would say these were the most famous ones apart from the previous games of course. I would give also a special mention to crash Nitro Kart, which would be like CTR with new items and story. Still, I would say that CTR was a lot better though.
In any case, here are the rest games that came in different platforms:
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex
Crash Bandicoot XS
Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced
Crash Bandicoot: Fusion
Crash Tag Team Racing
Crash Mind Over Mutant
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 2
Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled:
There were many rumors and hopes to repeat our childhood, and finally, they became reality when the developer Beenox belonging to Activision, decided to remaster the games to the new generation consoles. I had to say that I loved it, and as it was when I was a kid, I reunited with my brothers and cousins to replay good times. The graphics and design characters were pretty cool actually, and now you can play as Crash or Coco whenever you want in N. Sane Trilogy. As these games are now from the new generations, you get a more fluid gameplay!
On the other hand, Crash Team Racing was the one that received more improvements, as now you can play online with friends, also you can play with other characters like the popular dragon Spyro. The story is the same but they brought back apart the tracks from Nitro Kart too and their characters. In this game, you can enjoy and have great experiences having battles, racing cups, and more online or enjoy it like old times. The bigger improvements from this game were also the karts and characters skins, like for example, the motorcyclist costume skin of Crash.
Also, they knew we already played the old game, so to challenge us, it came with three difficulties, and believe me, this is something new, a new gameplay experience.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time!
As we were very happy with the remaster, they decided to continue with a new story in collaboration with Toys for Bob, and now this was a new jump to the generations of nowadays. A totally new experience, with designs, and challenges to enjoy. A fresh new start, and I am pretty sure say that this game is at the same level as its predecessors. It has many improvements like different skins for Crash and Coco where we can see the new-gen designs that most of them I actually liked. Here you can realize the hard work they put into the designs. The design is very different from the other video games, but if you ask me, and as the video game name says, it was about time! Many people would say that the design and gameplays styles should be the same, but I think the creators nailed it because much of the same would become boring, and if you do a game from the same style as the previous one, it would not have many surprises and even would be very easy to complete it.
Some new things here are that they expand the number of playable characters, and now you get to play with Crash and Coco, but also there are special levels which you will have to play with Tawna, Cortex, and Dingo Dile. This provides a bigger gameplay experience because each character has its unique abilities, which means there would be new platforms that only they can pass through, and we have to adapt to them and enjoy them.
This game starts by showing us what happened to Cortex, N. Tropy, and Uka Uka after the events of Warped. N. Tropy and Cortex could escape away but without Uka Uka, and now Crash and Coco have to find the quantum masks by traveling and trying to save the multiverse. Each mask will give you also new powers and abilities to go through more challenging platforms.
The proposal of this project is interesting because it is easy to complete the story but the hardest of all to complete the whole game. To reach the highest percentage of the game you need to have all the gems, which now the amount is bigger per level. Also, you need to pass all levels without dying and at the same time collect all the crates. If you did not die and didn't break all crates, you will not get the perfect relic. Also collecting all platinum relics is required in the game. That's right! now it is not enough with the sapphire or gold relic, all of them must be platinum. If that was not enough, you will have to find and reach the flashback tapes, which are extra levels where you have to pass the most difficult platforms from the game. And finally, you have also to repeat all the levels in the inverted mode and collect all the inverted gems.
As you can see, the game requires you a lot to complete it at its highest percentage. I must say that I actually achieved it and I am proud of it. This gameplay was one of the most difficult ones I experienced. That is why it does not matter if you choose to play with or without lives because the idea in this game is taking higher and more challenging risks. That is why if you choose the classic mode, you get a high number of lives because it does not matter.
In this game, there is also a special path you unlock when you collect all colored gems, and this one was also the hardest of all.
Something very funny is the new movement from the game you unlock when you complete the story, and instead of running, you have to use the spin to go faster and collect the platinum relic. It was difficult to understand it but once you catch it, it would become interesting to use.
Other recent games:
There is also two more games from crash that came out in this new generation. These are Crash on the Run! (for mobile), and Crash Team Rumble, in which are with the characters from its about time. This last one is a new gameplay experience, where you can play online with friends!
Conclusion:
We can talk about all the reasons why Crash Bandicoot has succeeded and how it marked our childhoods but it might never end. The details and features of each game are insane, and their strategy and how the way they personify the characters were perfect. Sometimes we feel more bonded with animal characters in video games than people. If they would only use humans, the whole project would fall apart. So I hope I could have named all the reasons for the success of this video game series but in the next extra section, there are smaller details that mean a lot in the franchise!
Details, and other special features of the games:
Crash Bandicoot delivered a specific unique feeling when we were kids, I think that, because of these games, it became popular the dynamic of pass and play. I think that is why they implemented that mode in the last game. Other extra interesting things that are in the game are riding animals (like Polar or Pura), or running from a big rock or dinosaurs. What we love about these games is the way they exaggerate and you get the chance to complete the game more than 100%. This small idea helped to become the games more attractive. Speaking of the percentage, I just remembered the feeling you have when you think you already completed all of it but while playing it more you realized there are other things to collect, hidden, or even more secret levels to discover. The way they made the games from the beginning and hid some easter eggs and other relevant things was insane. Finally, I also remembered as a kid how the game convinces you to play it more to have the collectibles. They gave a valuable meaning to the crystals, gems, or trophies. Its designs made them bright and attractive, and encourage you to collect them!
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