Crash Bandicoot: N-Sane Trilogy (2017)

[TheOcelot]

That's the lamest date-reveal trailer I've ever seen, haha.

30th June will make a nice late birthday present for me

Apparently the price is $39.99

[Teoskaven]

Activision releasing a title relatively early and not at full 60-70 bucks price? I must be in Bizarro world.

Sucks that i still can't have a PS4 atm, but who knows, by June i may be having one.

[TheOcelot]

Activision's blog

Quote

Everyone’s favorite marsupial is in the process of getting enhanced, entranced, and preparing to dance in HD graphical glory when he bursts back onto the scene in the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy game collection. But don’t worry, because the process isn’t that painful for him. At least it’s not anything that a couple of wumpa fruits won’t fix.

Now we know that Crash has plenty of fans out there, all eager for news about when this orange critter will spin things up again. And you’re in luck, because your patience has paid off. Activision and the development team at Vicarious Visions have been hard at work updating this classic trilogy. They have some big news to share with you and are answering some of the questions they’ve received from fans, so read on!

WHEN IS THE N SANE TRILOGY COMING OUT?!

 

JUNE!

30TH!

(yes, that’s 2017)!

Can you believe it?! We can hardly believe it.

Why did you wait until now to tell us?

To torture you!

No, seriously, from our point of view it’s about being confident in a schedule that allows us to deliver on the quality of games we all want. We had to ensure everything’s aligned to deliver it smoothly. Sometimes it takes a bit of time to know these things.

(Kara Massie, Producer)

What has changed from the original games in the environment art?

This is a great question and something that we’ve been working pretty hard on. The addition of real-time lighting in a PBR (Physically Based Rendering) engine, along with an increase in texture size, can sometimes make our environments look different than the originals.

Generally, while we strive to recreate each level so it looks and feels like the original, we also want to make sure that environments are fun, colorful, and read well in the fast-paced action with the addition of the new technology we are using.  

(Dustin King, Art Lead)

What’s been your favorite level to make art for and why?

I’ve enjoyed working on the prehistoric levels, and I found them to be a good case for reinterpretation. As I started working on them, I found that adding more greenery helped bring more of the earthy, prehistoric look that hearkens back to the illustrations in dinosaur books I loved as a kid. I also decided the path is more like shallow swamp water, since a tar pit would slow the player down.

I like the contrasting mix of familiar elements of earth, fire, water, and plants, and it has been fun trying to effectively blend these elements.

(Aaron Trulson, Environment Artist)

My favorite level to work on was Future Frenzy.  This level was jam packed with lights, signs, and all of these cool futuristic shapes.  It was really fun making the city look alive, with all of the neon signs and the flashing lights.  Getting the reflections on the buildings to look just right was a lot of work for the engineering team, but I'm really excited with how it turned out.

(Jeffrey Lee, Environment Artist)

My favorite levels to make art for have been Deep Trouble and Under Pressure. These underwater levels are full of colorful and exotic sea plants that bring the whole environment to life. I wanted to give more depth to these levels, so look out for a fuller looking ocean.

(Andrew Lee, Environment Artist)
Is The N. Sane Crash wearing shorts or jorts or jeans?

Wow, I actually had to look up ‘jorts’! Our version of Crash is wearing surfer shorts which we felt reads much closer to the shapes, colors, and forms in the original games, and is in line with the original concept art we started from that was provided to us by Sony. We feel it also speaks to his ‘90s era persona.

(Dustin King, Art Lead)

Who are the Voice Actors?

• Fred Tatasciore (Dingodile, Koala Kong, Komodo)
• Debi Derryberry (Coco, Tawna)
• Greg Eagles (Aku Aku)
• Dwight Schultz (Papu, Lab Assistant)
• Maurice LaMarche (Nitrous Brio, Lab Assistant)
• John DiMaggio (Uka, Tiny Tiger)
• Jess Harnell (Crash Bandicoot, Pinstripe Potoroo, Ripper Roo)
• Corey Burton (Doctor N. Gin, Doctor N. Tropy, Baby Cortex)
• Lex Lang (Dr. Neo Cortex)

Why did you remake the soundtrack compositions, instead of reusing the originals?

We are recreating the original compositions to match the high-definition visuals and the updated look and feel of the game.  The original music was brilliantly composed and arranged to get the most out of the memory and processing power of the original PlayStation. With much expanded resources, we are able to really improve sound quality and fidelity, while staying faithful to the original compositions.

(Justin Joyner, Audio Lead)

Remaster or Remake? It’s a Remake isn’t it? It’s totally a remake? Please settle this.

Remaster or Remake? This is a AAA remaster. We’re giving this the love and attention to detail that we pay to all of our AAA games. We’re building it using the original level geometry so that it plays as close to the original as possible. We’ve also referred to this as a remaster plus, as we are adding new features that we think the fans are going to love!

(Dan Tanguay, Game Director)

Did you see my idea? Did you read our thread / watch our video / get my letter?

We actually do check online now-and-then, and we read all our letters. But honestly we’re really, really busy. Did you notice that date? It’s coming up very soon. Like you, we are really huge Crash fans, and we feel that we are taking very good care of what we know is precious to you. There is so much to explain, and we will, in time. For now, please know that we love you, and that we love and appreciate your kind words and support.

(Kara Massie, Producer)

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Dwight Schultz is there...but not as Dingodile. Huh. He voiced Papu in Twinsanity too, so at least he got something back. 

John DiMaggio is a holdover from both the Radical series (Uka Uka) and CNK (Tiny). 

Jess Harnell as Pinstripe...interesting. I suppose since he was laughing mad in his boss fight, it fits (likewise with Ripper). 

Dunno who this Fred Tatasciore guy is though. But to do Dingodile, Koala Kong and the Komodo Bros, must have a range...

*Searches on IMDB*

*First results that pop out are Killer Croc, Shifu and goddamn Snap Shot*

Well I'll be, that is a good range. 

[Meta77]

Whoops I sent a reply ro the mods sorry haha. I meant to say I'm sad we didn't get a Collectors edition

[Your Vest Friend]

Also have to say that I do like that release date. Still plenty soon, but it swings out of the way of both Breath of the Wild and Odyssey in a nice little middle ground. 

[Jango]

Ohmygod I totaly read Dwight Schrutte from The Office and was like "-the fuck?".

Sad Nolan North isn't coming back to voice N. Gin, but oh well... ALSO. People worried about june being too soon to deliver three games with quality, the art department guys just said their favorites levels to recreate were all from CRASH 3, so it's safe to say they are pretty close to finish the games. Gameplay wise, they are now all the same for the three games, and the extras moves you get along the way don't change thaaaaat much the gameplay, so it's not as time consuming to add/script as people are believing... And the vehicle levels are basically the same too, and they repeat in each world. And finally, we don't know WHEN this started development, for all we know it could be 2015, so yeah.

Don't worry guys. Believe. Embrace.

[Ratcicle King]

23 minutes ago, VEDJ-F said:

*First results that pop out are Killer Croc, Shifu and goddamn Snap Shot*

 

So a couple of years ago he voiced an anthropomorphic Crocodille with an australian accent for a franchise Vicarious Vision worked on?

Pffft I wonder where VV had the idea of hiring him as Dingodile.

[Your Vest Friend]

Crocogator. There's a difference. 

 

The difference being that they don't have to adhere to the nuances of crocodile or alligator anatomy differences.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Wonder if there'll be a demo for it? I'd like to give it a try before buying. I've only played the GBA version and the apparently bad Wrath of Cortex games. Oh, and the stage in Uncharted if that counts.

[Jango]

Quote

Corey Burton (Doctor N. Gin, Doctor N. Tropy, Baby Cortex)

Oh yeah, they are keeping the true 105% ending, awesome! And for the record, Corey Burton voiced a LOT of charactes, even freaking Zeus from God of War

And speaking of 105%, I wonder if the time trials (of Crash 3) will be the same as the original... I guess not, and now, instead of beating the Naughty Dog's records, we'll have to beat the VV's records!

This game is giving so much to look forward and yet they've revealed so little.

One thing I didn't said before, but I would love to see "improved" is having slightly different remixes for each level. In the original games, every time a level had the same trope (temple, jungle, boulder), they would use the same music track. I'm not saying ND were lazy, for all we know they probably couldn't add more songs due to lack of disk space... but now VV can! Just saying it would be a nice addition to make each level stand out a little more, instead of simply being a harder version of the one before it...

 

I seriously don't know which game I'm more excited for this year, Mania or N-Sane!

 

[Meta77]

F area 51 time trail

 

[Jango]

TBH, if a PSN trophy requires it, this would be the very first time I'll attempt to get all platinum relics in Crash 3. I'm kinda ashamed to admit this, but then again, to 105% the game you only needed the gold relics, sooooo =P I did beat ALL OXIDE GHOSTS in CTR, mind you =V

[TheOcelot]

14 minutes ago, Jango said:

TBH, if a PSN trophy requires it, this would be the very first time I'll attempt to get all platinum relics in Crash 3. I'm kinda ashamed to admit this, but then again, to 105% the game you only needed the gold relics, sooooo =P I did beat ALL OXIDE GHOSTS in CTR, mind you =V

There will probably be a platinum relic PSN trophy for Crash 1, 2 & 3 (as we are getting relics in all games).

I managed to get all platinum relics in Crash 3 once or twice and let me tell you.......................it's not worth the trouble. The times are too harsh. Whilst the platinum relics are still tricky to get in CTR they are more fair, based on skill whereas the Crash 3 platinum relics are often based on luck (I'm looking at you Arabian-night stages). Yeah, the Oxide time-trials are a good challenge. You just have to turbo-slide 99% of the time and take all short-cuts. Such a shame CTR isn't being remastered along with the others.

At least here's a chance to make the platinum relics a bit easier to get in Crash 3. 

 

[Jango]

This just in:

The official Crash website is offline!

http://www.crashbandicoot.com/

 

Updates coming? More soon!

[Forte-Metallix]

5 hours ago, Tracker_TD said:

 

June 30th.

http://www.polygon.com/2017/2/16/14634936/crash-bandicoot-n-sane-trilogy-release-date

Am I the only one who thinks Crash's dance at the end is a bit off?

It seems like the animators tweaked it slightly to remove the "suck it" and dry humping motions. Crude as they were, they were part of why the dance was so memorable.

[SonicWind]

Just now, Forte-Metallix said:

Am I the only one who thinks Crash's dance at the end is a bit off?

It seems like the animators tweaked it slightly to remove the "suck it" and dry humping motions. Crude as they were, they were part of why the dance was so memorable.

I heard that a VV employee said in an interview that they had to tone down the humping.

Yeah, it's kind of a shame.

[KHCast]

1 minute ago, Forte-Metallix said:

Am I the only one who thinks Crash's dance at the end is a bit off?

It seems like the animators tweaked it slightly to remove the "suck it" and dry humping motions. Crude as they were, they were part of why the dance was so memorable.

People (mainly parents) get easily upset by shit like that easily nowadays compared to back in the day.(ironic since more kids this in this age play violent games lol )

[Jango]

Today's kids will crap for Crash, but the devs still have to tone down stuff like that... shame. Also, Papu Papu's theme sounds great! It's basically a HQ version of the song.

Also, it would be totally freaking awesome to have an... UNCHARTED easter egg hidden somewhere in these games! Let's go full cicle!

[Polkadi~☆]

9 minutes ago, Forte-Metallix said:

Am I the only one who thinks Crash's dance at the end is a bit off?

It seems like the animators tweaked it slightly to remove the "suck it" and dry humping motions. Crude as they were, they were part of why the dance was so memorable.

 

7 minutes ago, SonicWind said:

I heard that a VV employee said in an interview that they had to tone down the humping.

Yeah, it's kind of a shame.

REEEEEEEEEEEE

But yeah, damn, it's so memorable. But, you can't just remove all evidence of the original, it still exists. So take that, Sony!

 

[MightyRay]

A part of me would mind seeing Coco do a similar victory dance to Crash in the games. I don't know why I just thought it would be cool for the two bandicoots to share something in common. Aside from spinning and dashing. 

[E-122-Psi]

1 hour ago, Mightyray said:

A part of me would mind seeing Coco do a similar victory dance to Crash in the games. I don't know why I just thought it would be cool for the two bandicoots to share something in common. Aside from spinning and dashing. 

She did one as an idle animation in Mind Over Mutant.

Schultz being brought in but not for Dingodile seems odd, though I admit he didn't exactly sound like Hootkins' version besides the accent so maybe they want a better imitation this time (but then why LaMarche as Brio?). Burton I'm iffy about, but then again he is a veteran actor and had only a couple lines in a game with bad cutscenes anyway (even the usual actors didn't sound very enthusiastic in WOC). Do add in N. Gin's reverb this time though.

Nice to know they got Dimaggio as Tiny again, I'll be interested hearing how he does Uka this time though. Also interested how Tatasciore will be handling making proper interpretations of the original unvoiced characters.

[MightyRay]

Really? I didn't know that. I'll go check it out on youtube and see if it's any good. Thanks for letting me know @E-122-Psi!

[Jango]

Site is back, nothing new, but the release date is now displayed.

[Meta77]

7 hours ago, Soldier: 76 said:

 

REEEEEEEEEEEE

But yeah, damn, it's so memorable. But, you can't just remove all evidence of the original, it still exists. So take that, Sony!

 

Just more reason I hate this new generation of kids.