Along the way, he defeats a diverse mix of enemies, smashes a staggering number of wooden crates, and defeats inventive bosses.Ĭrash Bandicoot is still a lot of fun to play, with colorful and packed levels that look even sharper today and a lot of moments that are reminiscent of your favorite Saturday morning cartoons. The camera is often placed directly in front of or behind Crash as we run, jump, punch, slide and crouch through the colorful world. The actual games are best described as 2.5D platformers that provided quite the challenge when they were originally released. While the first title mostly takes place on Crash's home of the Wumpa Islands, the two sequels mix up locations frequently, with time and location jumps as well as the inclusion of Coco Bandicoot as a playable character throughout the trilogy. In case you're not familiar with Crash Bandicoot, he's a comically exaggerated Bandicoot that usually squares off against his creator and nemesis, Doctor Neo Cortex, to spoil his plans of world domination. The Switch port was done by the same developer of the original port, and they did a fantastic job given the Switch's limited hardware capabilities, but more on that later. Instead of just giving them the expected HD overhaul, developer Vicarious Visions completely remade all assets and pieced together an experience that feels distinct while still capturing the essence of the series. Sane Trilogy revives all games of the original trilogy: Crash Bandicoot, Cortex Strikes Back, and Warped.
The PS4 version was hailed by many as the best remake we've seen in years, and they may have been right. We took a look at the Switch version to determine how well a crate-smashing bandicoot can make the jump from more powerful consoles to the hybrid handheld. Sane Trilogy was released in 2017 on the PS4, and the PC, Xbox One and Switch versions came out this year.
What's the next best thing to an actual sequel? That's right: a proper remake. Naughty Dog's creation has since seen several spin-offs, with actual sequels few and far between, but the titles didn't catch on nearly as well. In 1996, who would have thought that a comical rendition of a marsupial from Down Under would define the jump-and-run era on Sony's PlayStation console? While Nintendo had its favorite plumber explore the first semi-open-world 3D adventure we had seen to date, Crash Bandicoot successfully created an experience on the rivaling home system and become a video game icon.