Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

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Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy
Single-player

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a 2017

Windows, and Xbox One
in 2018.

N. Sane Trilogy was a commercial success, having sold over 10 million copies by February 2019. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its graphics, level design, improved gameplay, and faithfulness to the originals, although some criticized its high difficulty.

Gameplay

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a collection of

remasters of the first three games in the Crash Bandicoot series; Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back and Warped. Each game features Crash Bandicoot traversing various levels in order to stop Doctor Neo Cortex from taking over the world. Like in the original games, Crash uses spinning and jumping techniques to defeat enemies, smash crates, and collect items such as Wumpa Fruits, extra lives and protective Aku Aku masks. The trilogy adds new features across all three games, including unified checkpoints, pause menus and save systems, including both manual and automatic saving, time trials, which were first introduced in Warped, and the ability to play most levels in each game as Crash's sister, Coco.[1] It also features remastered audio and cutscenes, including new recordings of the games' dialogue given by the franchise's more recent voice actors.[2]

Development and release

A comparison between the first level of the original game (top) and the N. Sane Trilogy version (bottom)

Prior to the announcement of the N. Sane Trilogy, the Crash Bandicoot franchise had been on hiatus for approximately six years, the last entry being released in 2010. In a

Eric Hirshberg regarding the future of the Crash series, he said, "I don't have anything official to announce, but I can speak as an individual, I love Crash Bandicoot. Those were some of my favorite video games growing up. And I would love to find a way to bring him back, if we could."[3] Andy Gavin, co-founder of Naughty Dog and co-creator of Crash Bandicoot, has said that he would love to see an HD version of the marsupial's first four games, or even a full-blown reboot.[4] Fellow co-creator Jason Rubin said he was hopeful that Activision would "Bring Crash back to their glory days and that the character is still very dear to fans between 18–49 years".[5] In June 2013, Andy Gavin suggested ways to revitalize the series. "Crash needs a total reboot. There's an opportunity to reset the history, and go back to his creation story and the original conflict with Cortex. In that context, you could reprise classic Crash 1 and 2's settings and villains. It would make sense to use a more modern, free-roaming style. I would concentrate on Looney Tunes-esque animation and really addictive action. That's what we did with the original Crash, and there's no reason it couldn't be done today. Given the current Crash games, people forget that he was once cool. Our Crash had a certain whimsical edge to him. Sure, it was goofy – but it wasn't dumb."[6]

In July 2014, Sony Computer Entertainment CEO Andrew House revealed that they had thought about reviving the Crash Bandicoot series, saying "It's never off the table."

Vicarious Visions under the title Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy and were released for PlayStation 4 on June 30, 2017.[9][10] Vicarious Visions has also expressed interest in making a new Crash Bandicoot game following the N. Sane Trilogy's release.[11]

The game uses the

idle animations for the character, with the winners announced the following month.[14][15]

Two additional levels were added as post-launch downloadable content: Stormy Ascent, a level originally designed for the first game but was cut due to its difficulty,

Windows, and Xbox One on June 29, 2018;[18] which were developed by Toys for Bob, Iron Galaxy and Vicarious Visions, respectively.[19][20] The Switch port in particular was not originally intended until a lone engineer at Vicarious Visions successfully ported the game's first level to the platform, proving it was feasible to port the entire trilogy.[21] Sega published the Japanese Switch version on October 18, 2018, while Sony Interactive Entertainment published the Japanese PlayStation 4 version.[22][23]

Reception

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy received "generally favorable" reviews from critics across all platforms on which it was released, according to

Jeuxvideo called the ground-up production "[a] real performance" while also praising "the nostalgia factor" and the rerecorded music.[36]

Criticism of the game centered around aspects such as character controls and the original trilogy's pitfalls. Justin Clark of Slant criticized the trilogy as "stultifying in [its] need for absolute precision" and stated that achievements provoked "little reward".[37] Dornbush was less critical of the level design, but noted that the first game was "easily the weakest" for its limited move set,[34] while Ashley Oh of Polygon found some design choices "unforgiving and frustrating" and agreed that there was "no margin of error" in much of the platforming.[35]

Sales

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy was a commercial success, selling over 2.5 million copies in the first three months of its release,[38] increasing to ten million by February 2019.[39] In the United Kingdom, the N. Sane Trilogy was the best-selling game for eight consecutive weeks since its initial release.[40] Its release also saw the biggest launch of a game in the first half of 2017, behind Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands.[41] It was also the second-best-selling game in its first month in the US.[42]

Awards

The game won the award for "Best Remake/Remaster" at IGN's 2017 awards,[43] while the readers and staff of Game Informer voted it as the "Best Remastered Action" and "Best Remastered/Remade" game in theirs.[44][45] It was also nominated for the Tappan Zee Bridge Award for "Best Remake" at the New York Game Awards 2018,[46] and won the award for "Game, Classic Revival" at the National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards, whereas its other nomination was for the "Original Light Mix Score, Franchise" category.[47][48] It was also nominated for "People's Choice" at the Italian Video Game Awards.[49]

Notes

  1. ^ Original games developed by Naughty Dog. Ported to Nintendo Switch by Toys for Bob and Windows by Iron Galaxy.
  2. ^ Mancell was the composer of the original games; the music was arranged by uncredited members of Vicarious Visions' audio team. Mark Mothersbaugh is also listed as a composer but was only a music producer for the original games.

References

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  2. ^ from the original on October 22, 2018. Retrieved December 5, 2016.
  3. ^ "Waiting for a Crash Bandicoot Comeback". Kotaku.com. November 8, 2011. Archived from the original on July 1, 2017. Retrieved November 7, 2012.
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  20. ^ Iron Galaxy Studios [@IToTheG] (July 3, 2018). "So cool that we got to work with the talented folks over at @VvisionsStudio and @Activision to bring @CrashBandicoot N. Sane Trilogy to the PC! How is everyone enjoying it so far!? https://store.steampowered.com/app/731490" (Tweet). Retrieved July 3, 2018 – via Twitter.
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External links