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

[Sonicka]

32 minutes ago, Marcello said:

Nahhh, there's nothing cute or plush-like about this Ken Penders design:

Crash 4's design on the other hand is definitely "cute" and not in any way "too cool for school"

Not really sure how anyone could make that argument to be honest lol The improvement is like night and day. 

That’s fair enough. I can’t really argue my point because With this it just comes down to a matter of different tastes really

Essentially I appreciate what they were going for, but I really don’t think it worked out in Coco’s favour here for a number of reasons others have pointed out. I’m also a bit of a purist on this aspect. But hey ho!

 

I don’t know if it’s been discussed here yet but Canadian Guy’s interview (again, similar to others) was quite interesting. The Dev’s seem to hint at the other versions of crash and co making appearances as they cross over into their dimensions... wouldn’t surprise me too much if they become unlockable skins.

Also, they pretty blatantly mentioned that Spyro turning up was a possibility as well. So there’s also that.

[Kuzu]

2 hours ago, Marcello said:

Nahhh, there's nothing cute or plush-like about this Ken Penders design:

Crash 4's design on the other hand is definitely "cute" and not in any way "too cool for school"

Not really sure how anyone could make that argument to be honest lol The improvement is like night and day. I'd get the opposite...

Not that I don't trust them, but when I see these kinds of statements about how they totally understand what made the original game so beloved I always think of this:

I trust this team more than anything Sonic has ever produced...

[Jango]

Well, if we take Spyro as a reference, Toys for Bob actually improved his controls in Reignited Trilogy, it's 10 times more responsive and snappier than the original. Vicarious Visions, on the other hand, didn't quite got Crash's controls / physics right. It's not unplayable, but it can be annoying to do some jumps, and the hit box (both Crash's and the enemies') is also a little unfair.

So yeah, I'm trusting Toys for Bob more on this one. Also, according to the official website, Beenox is helping them too. And Beenox knows the Crash shit.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

Crash’s controls in N Sane wasn’t the issue, they were redefined and improved upon to make them consistently 1:1 with Warped.

The problem is that the stage design of Crash 1 in particular wasn’t fixed to accommodate that, due to being a straight remaster of the original level layout. Namely the issue was collision found on enemies being rounded and circular, as opposed to being rectangular, ala Crash 1 on PS1. This is why levels like The High Road and Slippery Climb are massive pains in N Sane.

[BadBehavior]

Grinding and Wall running? Man, these devs are smelling blood in the water, coming after that Sonic throne.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

40 minutes ago, Ryannumber1gamer said:

Crash’s controls in N Sane wasn’t the issue, they were redefined and improved upon to make them consistently 1:1 with Warped.

The problem is that the stage design of Crash 1 in particular wasn’t fixed to accommodate that, due to being a straight remaster of the original level layout. Namely the issue was collision found on enemies being rounded and circular, as opposed to being rectangular, ala Crash 1 on PS1. This is why levels like The High Road and Slippery Climb are massive pains in N Sane.

Mix that in with pill-shaped hitbox and you have a recipe for that pain that completing Crash 1 and 2 on the N. Sane trilogy tends to be.

[Lord-Dreamerz]

8 hours ago, Marcello said:

Nahhh, there's nothing cute or plush-like about this Ken Penders design:

Crash 4's design on the other hand is definitely "cute" and not in any way "too cool for school"

Not really sure how anyone could make that argument to be honest lol The improvement is like night and day. I'd get the opposite...

I adore the new art style & designs so much! Comparing all the new designs to all the old ones is night & day difference for me... simply a huge improvement all around I say! i wasn't sure if the new style should had been made at first... but now i love it so much I would not want to go back! Besides Coco, they even made Crash himself both cooler & cuter somehow!

[Plumbers_Helper]

I liked was I saw, the only thing that makes me nervous is the skins. It's probably foolish of me to hope there aren't any microtransactions, but microtransactions are the most likely reason why Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled never got a PC release. Hopefully those hidden dropdown menus on the game's website that list a PC and Switch option turn out to be true.

I like the new designs, there's just one thing from Crash's old design that I wish they would have kept: Crash's belly button.

[Harkofthewaa]

Those skins got me wondering if this game is gonna have unlockable cosmetics like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order. I bring that game up specifically because all of said cosmetics ate unlockable purely through gameplay, and not the "grind for 100 hours" type but actually found in chests and crap in the world giving you a reason to explore. The point is that it would be tragically ironic if Crash 4 has the same thing but with Microtransactions involved. Reminder that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was published by EA.

[Jango]

It's Activision, man. Buying them with real money will be an option, defo. My only hope is that every costume can also be unlocked / bought with in-game currency like CTR. I expect it to be grindy tho'.

[TheOcelot]

Just wanted to chime in and say I'm pleased we're finally getting a "true" sequel to the original classics. I'm not overly hyped as the N-Sane trilogy satisfied my craving for classic Crash, but a new game with hopefully lots of new ideas whilst staying true to the original successful formula looks fun. I do hope there's enough new levels/enough originality so that this feels like a true sequel as opposed to a "Crash Mania" (like Sonic Mania with more re-imagined than brand new content). Whilst it might seem weird getting Toys for Bob to make a new game instead of Vicarious Visions, I think Toys for Bob did a brilliant job with the Reignited trilogy (and also have some experience with Crash in Skylanders), so I trust them to do CB4 justice.

...and it looks nice. The quantum masks changing up the gameplay; slowing down time and anti gravity-walking on walls & ceilings looks interesting enough.  I like the inclusion of grinding on rails, feels natural for a Crash game.

Wonder what the other two masks do? Maybe one mask allows Crash to shrink so that he can get through smaller areas, or allows him to fly maybe?

I guess time-relics are a certainty, I mean they are kind of a staple to the series, although I've had my fill of them and would rather Toys for Bob come up with something else. Actually I'd rather there be more stages to play through (than in the original trilogy) so that time-relics aren't needed to pad out the game.

The transition from 3D to 2D sections (and back to 3D etc) in the original Crash games was something which worked well and it looks like it's been implemented well in CB4.

Whilst I don't mind there being unorthodox levels (like the bike racing, jet ski & planes levels in Crash 3), I hope a large majority of the stages are more traditional platforming which is what made Crash 2 so good (and better than 3 IMO). I'm curious to see what the controls will feel like. I think Crash 2's tighter control (from the original trilogy) was much appropriate than Crash 1&3's more slippery controls.

Also good to hear there are multiple playable characters. If you can the full game with other players (like in Rayman Origins) it could be a lot of fun.

As for the new designs, yeah Coco & Cortex will take some getting used to. I like Crash & N-Gin's designs.

As for other returning villains. I assume Dingodile is & N-Trophy are a certainty. I also hope Tiny returns. At the same I hope they come up with some creative new villains & boss fights.

 

[Ratcicle King]

People are theorizing Cortex's new design looks odd because he's younger, makes sense, his lines at the start of the trailer imply he and Tropy were stuck in the past as babies until they got old enough to act again.

[Jango]

I was reading this interview with Toys for Bob's Paul Yan, and according to the man himself, development of Crash 4 started right after Vicarious Visions shipped the N.Sane Trilogy, in 2017. 

Eventhough Toys for Bob is a big team, I thought they were working exclusively on the Spyro Reignited Trilogy during that time. Those concept arts were spotted in mid-2019. I guess it was a well kept secret for quite some time. Can't say NECA didn't warned us about this totally new game way back in 2017 tho'.

Another cool bit about this interview is the fact that TfB talked to Taylor Kurosaki, a former Naughty Dog dev who worked on Crash back in the day. He's working at Activision today.

Things that were previously mentioned before here, but it's worth repeating: Wrath of Cortex, Twinsanity and the Titans duology still happened, they are not being erased from the lore. I guess you can say that Wrath of Cortex is the game that originated from the bad ending of Crash 3, were Cortex, N. Trophy and Uka-Uka were never banned to the past. 

He also talks about how the platforming in Crash is precise and has a certain rhythm, which is pretty much on pair with what Andy Gavin (original Crash dev) said in an interview recently. 

I guess were good.

[Graystripe2000]

Gameplay breakdown by CanadianGuyEh.

 

[Your Vest Friend]

Oh hey, turns out the guy behind the redesigns of Spyro, a good number of the main cast of Spyro 2, Bianca, and some of the most popular dragon dads was the one who did the Crash redesign. That's pretty neat to be honest.

I'd imagine there's other characters he'll have had a hand in as well.

 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

On 6/22/2020 at 8:50 PM, Harkofthewaa said:

I've been milling about that Coco design, and I figured out what I don't like about it. It's the Sonic Riders arms, they don't look right and completely mess up her proportions making her look bottom heavy. For comparison, here's what I mean by Riders arms:

 

It's that, plus the hair and head of the redesigned Coco. The hair doesn't appear quite proportionate to the head, which makes her look kinda of mainly bald with hair attachments

[Natie]

I'm very glad it actually has color design and cartoon stylization and an artstyle instead of going the way of the remakes just slathering realism paint over everything with a shitty lighting engine. Toys for Bob are good artists.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

Much as I don't dig that Coco redesign,  that is a nice screenshot still.

[Jango]

The only redesign I didn't dig so far was Cortex. Crash and Coco look so great, as much as I didn't had any issue with the Vicarious / Beenox design. And speaking of Beenox, it's great that we have them on board for Crash 4, the work they did in CTR, especially animation wise, was amazing, hopefully they can bring that same level of animation here.

[Sonicka]

2 hours ago, Nina Cortex Jovahexeon said:

Much as I don't dig that Coco redesign,  that is a nice screenshot still.

Yeah... Beautifully terrifying. My god that face. 

Although I actually quite like the stylisation T4B Ultimately went for... it is still a shame the characters overall design and proportions couldn’t have been maintained more faithfully during the process.

I mean, For everything Beenox did slightly differently in CTR Nitro Fueled with it’s looks (and they certainly didn’t always get it right) at least there was usually a consistency in the upgrade of the character models.

22 hours ago, Natie said:

I'm very glad it actually has color design and cartoon stylization and an artstyle instead of going the way of the remakes just slathering realism paint over everything with a shitty lighting engine. Toys for Bob are good artists.

Having gone back to the N-sane trilogy this week I wouldn’t say they coated it in “realism paint”. I agree that The lighting is pretty terrible on the character models though. 

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

IN another news, this game will apparently have over 100 levels.

[Sonicka]

The question now I suppose is; is this 100+ unique levels? ...or are we talking Super Mario World logistics? 
 

 

[mayday2592]

I don't believe it to be accurate. If anything we might get 35-40 levels, with there being missions similar to what we used to get in Sonic games. Plus the wording on that ad is strange.

[Jovahexeon Jax Joranvexeon]

1 hour ago, Son-icka said:

The question now I suppose is; is this 100+ unique levels? ...or are we talking Super Mario World logistics? 
 

 

Considering it says "Levels of Play", unless the "of" is a typo, they could be referring to different game modes as well.

[Chili Dawg]

Yeah it could be a hundred levels int he same sense that Sonic Adventure has 32 levels. Still that could be quite a bit of gameplay we're looking at. Crates 4 daaaaaayyyysss.