Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time (PS4 / Xbox One)

[Jango]

Didn't read the spoiler part, please keep it tagged But I saw the gameplay and... Damn the stage looks beautiful. And the music??? A slight remix of the Lost Ruins theme from Crash 1? YES PLEASE. 

As for the new mask, some folks have predicted that its power would be dark matter and... There you have it. Super spin and fl... I mean, fall. With style.

 

[Sonictrainer]

If you and your family start eating Apples, Crash will come to your house and you are forced to do the Crash Dance.

 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I finished up the Crash 4 demo and...it uh, it has a lot of issues. I really hope they get these ironed out before release.

Now, before going into the negative stuff, I'll push out the obvious highlights - the graphics and performance in of itself is great. I played the game on a PS4 Pro, and it ran at 60fps the whole way through. The animations had the same cartoony charm that N Sane had, and the music is absolutely top-notch, I can't wait to hear more of the soundtrack.

But that said, the game has a lot of problems right now. First off, Snow Way Out was a horrendous starting level. Not only was it a particularly brutal starting level, but the ice physics do not feel good whatsoever. The bonus room in this stage is also particularly brutal for a starting level. 

What doesn't help this is a critical problem of the game. The momentum and physics are just fucked. When Crash is platforming in 2D, there's a random bug where Crash's momentum will quite literally stop completely mid jump, as if you ran into an invisible wall of some sort. I initially thought this was a glitch with the ice physics, but this also happened in Dino Dash too, so no, it's a problem with the game overall.

I really don't think I need to go into detail as to why this isn't good. This game in particular with the mask mechanics requires some especially tight and precise platforming, and this bug ruins it completely. It was random when it happened, but it happened incredibly frequently. I legitimately don't know how anyone could stomach playing this in Retro mode, because my death counter was at least 20 (you could probably bump it to 40 if you include the bonus level) for Snow Way Out alone thanks to this glitch, and for the sake of context, I'm someone who finished all of the time trials for all three games in the trilogy, Crash 1 included. I'm not new to tough Crash platforming. This bug just made the game downright infuriating to play, because the deaths never felt like my fault, but a fault of the momentum mechanics.

Dino Dash was less frustrating, although there was still quite a few moments of annoyance, mainly related to the above glitch, but it didn't require as much tight platforming as Snow Way Out, so it wasn't as bad. 

I'm still kind of eh on the masks. I didn't mind the mask that swaps out objects, but the time mask was a really frustrating mechanic to work around IMO, again, not helped by this momentum bug. With that bug in place, I had to not only attempt to time jumps to account for the bug, but time jumps to account for the time mask too, and that was really annoying.

Ship Happens (Cortex's Level) was unfortunately the biggest disappointment out of the three levels presented, and I sincerely hope these aren't frequent in the main game. Because Cortex's section of the level only lasts for about two minutes. When you get up to the ship cutscene, control switches back over to Crash and you literally just play the entire latter half of Snow Way Out again, only with harder box placements. I really hope this isn't how the levels with other characters play out in the full game, because it'll be disappointing if it's just two minutes with another character, and then a complete level retread with Crash.

Lastly, I don't like how they throw you into the deep end with no instructions. With both Cortex and the new vine-grinding mechanics, the game doesn't throw up any tutorials about how to use them, meaning you've got to work out the controls by yourself. I didn't know Cortex could use his blaster multiple times to swap out the different kinds of platforms he can create out of enemies for example. 

I sincerely hope that they put on some extra polish before the game goes gold, or that the Day 1 patch fixes that momentum issue. I really, really want to like this game, but that momentum bug is going to kill it altogether if it isn't fixed.

[mayday2592]

Unfortunately its been confirmed all the secondary character stages do this.

[Jango]

1 hour ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

I finished up the Crash 4 demo and...it uh, it has a lot of issues. I really hope they get these ironed out before release.

Now, before going into the negative stuff, I'll push out the obvious highlights - the graphics and performance in of itself is great. I played the game on a PS4 Pro, and it ran at 60fps the whole way through. The animations had the same cartoony charm that N Sane had, and the music is absolutely top-notch, I can't wait to hear more of the soundtrack.

But that said, the game has a lot of problems right now. First off, Snow Way Out was a horrendous starting level. Not only was it a particularly brutal starting level, but the ice physics do not feel good whatsoever. The bonus room in this stage is also particularly brutal for a starting level. 

What doesn't help this is a critical problem of the game. The momentum and physics are just fucked. When Crash is platforming in 2D, there's a random bug where Crash's momentum will quite literally stop completely mid jump, as if you ran into an invisible wall of some sort. I initially thought this was a glitch with the ice physics, but this also happened in Dino Dash too, so no, it's a problem with the game overall.

I really don't think I need to go into detail as to why this isn't good. This game in particular with the mask mechanics requires some especially tight and precise platforming, and this bug ruins it completely. It was random when it happened, but it happened incredibly frequently. I legitimately don't know how anyone could stomach playing this in Retro mode, because my death counter was at least 20 (you could probably bump it to 40 if you include the bonus level) for Snow Way Out alone thanks to this glitch, and for the sake of context, I'm someone who finished all of the time trials for all three games in the trilogy, Crash 1 included. I'm not new to tough Crash platforming. This bug just made the game downright infuriating to play, because the deaths never felt like my fault, but a fault of the momentum mechanics.

Dino Dash was less frustrating, although there was still quite a few moments of annoyance, mainly related to the above glitch, but it didn't require as much tight platforming as Snow Way Out, so it wasn't as bad. 

I'm still kind of eh on the masks. I didn't mind the mask that swaps out objects, but the time mask was a really frustrating mechanic to work around IMO, again, not helped by this momentum bug. With that bug in place, I had to not only attempt to time jumps to account for the bug, but time jumps to account for the time mask too, and that was really annoying.

Ship Happens (Cortex's Level) was unfortunately the biggest disappointment out of the three levels presented, and I sincerely hope these aren't frequent in the main game. Because Cortex's section of the level only lasts for about two minutes. When you get up to the ship cutscene, control switches back over to Crash and you literally just play the entire latter half of Snow Way Out again, only with harder box placements. I really hope this isn't how the levels with other characters play out in the full game, because it'll be disappointing if it's just two minutes with another character, and then a complete level retread with Crash.

Lastly, I don't like how they throw you into the deep end with no instructions. With both Cortex and the new vine-grinding mechanics, the game doesn't throw up any tutorials about how to use them, meaning you've got to work out the controls by yourself. I didn't know Cortex could use his blaster multiple times to swap out the different kinds of platforms he can create out of enemies for example. 

I sincerely hope that they put on some extra polish before the game goes gold, or that the Day 1 patch fixes that momentum issue. I really, really want to like this game, but that momentum bug is going to kill it altogether if it isn't fixed.

Minus the weird momentum bug, seems like stuff they didn't considered for a demo at all, like tutorials and explanations about the new mechanics, stuff that I'm 100% sure will be in the final product.

Snow Way Out and Dino Dash are far into the story, they're not the first levels of the game. They really should've picked earlier and easier levels for a demo, but they probably just rolled with the build they already had done months ago, because since they already fucked us once by locking the demo behind a paywall, they might as well fuck us twice.  

And yeah, the Cortex levels all play like that I'm affraid :/

I'll try the demo later today or tomorrow if I'm not too tired after work and some chores I have to do at home

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Also, random fun fact - Snow Way Out is listed as being in the 11th Dimension.

As in the dimensions from Twinsanity. Twinsanity Island was the 10th in that game.

[Wraith]

I just finished it and had no momentum based glitches or anything. I was pleasantly surprised with how crash felt. I expected to feel the nerfed slide jump but Crash's jump is just really reliable regardless so instead of just sliding around all the time I can just jump and clear gaps confidently. 

They did a great job with this. I'm actually glad they opened with the ice level because it alleviated any of the concerns I had about the game right off the bat. The time mask isn't really a pace breaker and fits into Crash's rhythmic gameplay just fine. It also didn't get anywhere near close to making things too easy as navigating the ice platforms and fighting enemies was a nice challenge even with the mask. As a Crash veteran I'm glad they gave me something with some meat to start with.

The dinosaur chase was even better. Dimension swapping while rail grinding and the chase sequence felt great. Just about the only thing I wasn't so hot on was the Cortex segment in the third level but I was surprised he actually interferes and makes the level harder for Crash. That was a nice little bonus, but I hope the game doesn't have too many mandatory repeating segments. 

Very, very good stuff. Crash 4 is indeed as good as it looks and sounds. Can't wait for the 4th.

[Jango]

It's time to crash.

 

[Jango]

This game is hard as shit.

Also:

Hello darkness my old friend...

[Fire-N-Space]

This new Tawna looks a lot better than the old Tawna from CTR she's no longer super skinny.

[mayday2592]

Its worth noting the side characters will have one entirely unique stage that's presumably mandatory and then show up in stages similar to Cortex's in optional levels. It doesn't excuse the reused second half, but atleast its not required.

[Jango]

I had some time with the demo and yeah, this feels finicky to control. I'm having the same issues I had when I first played Rayman Origins. It's incredibly responsive, floaty and easy to connect jumps, you barely have to land to jump again, which is a great thing, but it clashed with how different this feels from the NST. Once I realized I should be using single jumps to go over pits and platforms, things clicked. I only ever used the double jump to save myself or reach higher places and crates. Crash can actually jump quite far without much momentum, it's much more like the original Crash 3, he's kinda "loose". At the end of the day, controlling him feels really good, much faster and much more responsive than ever, but it should take some time from people that just came from the NST.

The slide is busted tho'. I hate that it kills your speed and doesn't get you much far... And I swear it's kinda bugged too (sliding under the TNT crates in the Dino Dash Bonus round may or may not blow you up). It doesn't feel right, but the problem isn't just a matter of getting used to this change, the level design sometimes isn't built around it. The lava section in Dino Dash speaks for itself, it's so finicky. The lava hitbox doesn't feel right aswell, if you ever so slightly slide past the platform, there's a big chance of getting burned, and the fucking lava is insta-kill... Which sucks. Also speaking of Dino Dash, the grinding part where you have to phase in and out some mushrooms and jump over rocks, they're not popping enough. You can barely see the rocks sometimes. Another small issue I had, and it also existed in the NST, but not the original game, is the crouch+jump. It doesn't work unless you keep holding the circle button even after you pressed X. You can't hold circle, release it and immediately press X to do the higher jump anymore. You can't control the belly flop either. So yeah, despite being a joy to control and jump around, anything that involded sliding is shit. I hope they can fix these issues before release or with a patch later. Oh, almost forgot, no more slide spin aswell...

Other than that, the game looks fucking beautiful and the music is great.

[mayday2592]

The slide spin is still there, when you do it Crash does a leg sweep during his spin.

[Jango]

Launch trailer is here: (watch out for some spoilers!)

Holy crap, some levels look stunning! This feels like the Mario Odyssey of Crash Bandicoot. Great stuff.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

42 minutes ago, Jango said:

watch out for some spoilers!)

What spoilers???? That trailer doesn't spoil anything  story-wise we haven't seen already.

As for some gameplay details,  those don't count as spoilers.

[Sonicka]

Spoilers are a bit subjective. He’s just playing it safe for those that want to go in completely blind... buuuuuut also there is obviously no “Aries dies” level of territory going on within a launch trailer - they don’t mind us seeing this stuff and want to show off the game now.

Overall, I’m pretty excited for this! I love the look of the instrumental music inspired level too - they always feel creative. And I’m loving the return of a few more familiar faces from crash’s past.

I’d say it’s not a bad shout to say it seems to be drawing some creative inspiration (in terms of variety of themes and ideas) from the likes of Mario. Sonic did that twice during his run and both times they turned out pretty spectacularly. 

[Sean]

The last hour or so of conversation was extremely embarrassing so I nuked it. Knock it off, @Jango and @Nina Cortex Jovahexeon.

[Sonictrainer]

Was that an Animal Riding Race level I saw?

[Ryannumber1gamer]

1 minute ago, Sonictrainer said:

Was that an Animal Riding Race level I saw?

Yup, and even better - looks like Polar and Crash chase Cortex riding another animal.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

7 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

9 minutes ago, Sonictrainer said:

Was that an Animal Riding Race level I saw?

Yup, and even better - looks like Polar and Crash chase Cortex riding another animal.

Does make me wonder if if we'll see even more riding levels. Possibly with the return of the Baby T. Rex as well.

The most keen thing of note is definitely the presence of Cortex in that stage and what it'll do to mix things up for the animal riding. 

[Ryannumber1gamer]

I'd love it if the animal levels had the multiple playable characters and were like Crash Twinsanity's chase levels. Crash goes through the level avoiding hazards and chasing Cortex, while playing as Cortex has you setting traps to try kill Crash.

[Jango]

https://es.ign.com/crash-bandicoot-4-its-about-time-xbox-one/167289/news/crash-bandicoot-4-todos-los-detalles-de-su-multijugador-local-en-exclusiva

Multiplayer modes revealed, source in spanish at the moment. 

[SonicWind]

2 hours ago, Jango said:

https://es.ign.com/crash-bandicoot-4-its-about-time-xbox-one/167289/news/crash-bandicoot-4-todos-los-detalles-de-su-multijugador-local-en-exclusiva

Multiplayer modes revealed, source in spanish at the moment. 

Page is down. I guess it was a leak.

Until this news becomes official, here's an article that restates the contents.

[Jango]

I understood most of it, basically there's two modes: cooperative and competitive. In co-op, it works like Super Mario World: you die, you pass the controller and the next player starts. The competitive modes are Checkpoint Race (round-trip races, fastest time wins, crates stop time like the classics) and Crate Combo (also a race, but breaking more crates gives you more points, breaking them in sequence fills a multiplier and rises your score even further). 

The article mentioned 4 playable characters: Crash, Coco, Fake Crash and the brand new Fake Coco.

[Sonictrainer]

3 hours ago, Jango said:

The article mentioned 4 playable characters: Crash, Coco, Fake Crash and the brand new Fake Coco.

I wonder what she would look like?

*Does a quick google search to see different artist's interpretations*

Seeing a number of versions similar to Fake Crash's Dashing Alt from CTRNF