Toys for Bob's clear love and understanding of what makes Crash tick manifests in every aspect of It's About Time's design, but to call it a love letter would be to unfairly gloss over the important strides it makes for the franchise itself. Nitpicks aside, though, Crash 4 earns its title as a worthy sequel to Warped, one that preserves the series' timeless charms while bringing bold iteration where it's needed. Visual aids, such as a handy marker showing where Crash will land when airborne, have offset those frustrations greatly, but there were a few deaths that felt less like my mistake, and more a symptom of the series' infrequently unreliable collision detection. I will say that not everyone is going to be happy with Toys for Bob's decision to stick with the old-school kinaesthetics that also stirred a fair amount of contention in 2017's Crash N.Sane Trilogy, and there will be moments where Crash 4's laws of physics will rub you up the wrong way. It's honestly quite hard to identify any major shortcomings for Crash 4, so efficient as it is at delivering on all the promises of a Bandicoot sequel. Taken together, there's over 100 levels of play on offer here, and goodness knows how many hours of replay value for completionists.
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On top of everything else, Toys for Bob has thrown in lore expanding Flashback Tape levels, replay modifiers known as N.Verse Modes, a vast wardrobe of costumes for Crash and Coco, pass-the-pad multiplayer modes, and a Time Trial system, in addition to other secrets which I won't spoil here. In fact, the sheer breadth of content goes above and beyond what is expected from a mainline Crash game. This may sound like heresy to Crash enthusiasts, but even those who will stick solely to the Classic system can at least appreciate the reason for Modern Mode's existence, which allows more people to enjoy everything that It's About Time has to offer at their own pace and proficiency.Īs for me, Classic Mode sounds like a great option for my already planned re-run, especially now that I know the layout of each level, and have refined my mastery of Crash' skillset through the trial and error shenanigans that Modern Mode accommodates for. The safety net it offers worked as a natural encouragement for me to take more risks with hidden areas, focus on collecting every crate to unlock more Gems, and keep practicing any particularly tricky jump without having to worry about restarting the level entirely.
The original system is still there in the form of Classic Mode, of course, and you can switch freely between the two at any point from the main menu, but I chose Modern Mode early on during the campaign, and haven't looked back since. "Crash 4 absolutely meets the same, deceptively high difficulty threshold as its predecessors." This alternative playstyle setting removes the finite life system and Game Over states of the series' tradition, and restarts players at the last checkpoint whenever they die, with Extra Life crates now replaced by Golden Wumpa fruit.Ĭrash Bandicoot 4 (Image credit: Activision) Oh, and for those wondering, Crash 4 absolutely meets the same, deceptively high difficulty threshold as its predecessors (you're going to die, a lot), but Toys for Bob has wisely introduced an equaliser to Crash's often unforgiving sense of challenge in the form of Modern Mode. That structure is an odd choice, as I'd have much preferred spending the entire mission as one of the new characters, the joys of playing as whom extend well beyond mere visual novelty. That said, the Timeline Events often feel like they're over before they've properly begun, reaching their interaction with the Bandicoot's own adventures before forcing you to replay the second half of the level as Crash or Coco again. All three come with their own unique moveset, and thus offer both radically different challenges and play styles from Crash's own, be it using Cortex's iconic ray gun or Tawna's gravity-defying grapple hook. In addition to Crash and Coco, players can jump into special Timeline Event levels as Cortex, Dingodile, or Tawna, revealing how each of the characters help or hinder our heroes on their journey through the multiverse.
Crash Bandicoot 4 (Image credit: Naughty Dog)
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