Crash Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy – Oh Rage Quit How I Have Missed Thee

In a time where movies, television and song are being re-booted, re-mastered and re-done it is no surprise that the gaming world has long been at the frontline of this trend.

As technology improves it is often with eager anticipation that long-loved games are given a new lick of paint and maybe some improvements under the hood, and then re-launched so that we can re-live the joys of our youth.

Vicarious Visions and Activision certainly deliver that, and more, with Bandicoot N’Sane Trilogy.

Sitting down to play the first of the trilogy I was quickly transported to long hours of restraining myself from screaming at the screen, berating an anthropomorphised cartoon Bandicoot and throwing my controller in a full-on Rage Quit.

The humiliation of not getting all the boxes as the game drops each one on your head as a reminder of your failure has you smashing the restart button.

Missing a jump you made five times without instant brings a grown man to near tears, and finally getting a perfect run and the bonus gem has my flatmate banging on the walls telling me its 2am, and I should shut up and go to sleep.

I forgot how much I missed this game.

The trilogy remastered is fun, frustrating and will be a great way to show kids today how hard-core gaming was back in the day.

Once again you control Brash Bandicoot whose quiet life on the Wumpa Islands is thrown into chaos by Dr Neo Cortex, his creator, megalomaniac and all-around bad guy intent on killing our hero dead.

The first three games in the series, Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped have not only been re-mastered but apparently, almost none of the source codes were available to the developers so the recreation is pretty damn impressive, considering it was basically done from scratch. They also used new recordings of the game’s dialogue which meant a nice new paycheck for the voice actors.

The gameplay is still the same as you jump, spin and crash your way through crates, apples and various creatures to get to the end of each platform level.

There are some new features in the re-makes such as unified checkpoints, pause menus and a save system – features not seen until Warped for us original players. You also have the ability to play most levels as Crash’s sister Coco, which is sweet.

The premise is pretty simple: Crash, with the help of his Mask chum Aku Aku, need to get through each level so you can defeat the bad guy Dr Neo Cortex who is joined by Uka Uka, the evil version of Aku Aku. They gave Uka Uka a sick beard which does not mean all bearded people are evil. Just saying.

Anyway, while Crash’s moveset is pretty limited to spin, run and jump in the first game he does get additional moves in Cortex Strikes Back: high jump, high spin jump, body slam and slide attack. Warped even provides new moves after each Boss Battle, which is really cool.

In addition, the environments change as you progress to the next game such as deep sea diving and ice sliding and of course in Warped there are jet skis and motorcycles.

This game will be fun and make you want to never turn on your console at the simultaneously, but as a throwback to a simpler age of gaming and for those wet and cold weekends, this is a great way to spend a few hours remembering why we love technology and advancements in gaming.