Crash Bandicoot | Review

Developer: Naughty Dog

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment & Universal Interactive Studios

Reviewed on: PlayStation

Available on: PlayStation

Released: September 9th 1996

Crash Bandicoot is a 3D platformer created by Naughty Dog (the studio behind the Jak and Daxter, Uncharted and The Last of Us games) in 1996. It's one of the first games I ever played and one which I've played many times since and what better time to talk about it seeing as it's recently been revealed that a HD remake of Crash Bandicoot and it's two sequels is being developed.

Crash Bandicoot was created with the intention of introducing a new mascot for the newly released PlayStation, in a similar way to how Nintendo had Mario and Sega had Sonic. Although Crash never officially became the PlayStation mascot, he was unofficially known as such and his name became synonymous with the console. If you owned a PlayStation the odds are you will have had a Crash Bandicoot game, they were must-have titles which everyone remembers fondly, but, does Crash's first outing deserve the acclaim the series went on to gain?

The creators of Crash wanted the main character to be a real animal but one that not many people had heard of. I imagine a lot of people only know what a bandicoot is because of Crash. I know I'm one of them!

The story of Crash Bandicoot is mostly given to us at the start of the game through the beginning cutscene, oddly enough you don't actually get to see the cutscene unless you leave the game inactive on the main menu for a few seconds which probably means some players never even got to see it, but nevertheless the game begins like this;

The evil Dr. Neo Cortex and his sidekick Dr. Nitrus Brio are scientists who plan to take over the world. They own three islands just off the shore of Australia and are using these to conduct strange experiments on the local inhabitants. By genetically altering all of the creatures on these islands Cortex hopes to create an unstoppable animal army.

Unfortunately, one of his projects involves a Bandicoot called Crash, and during the attempt to turn him into a super soldier, everything goes wrong, resulting in Crash escaping the facility but leaving behind his love interest, Tawna Bandicoot, to be experimented on.

How ironic that the creature given the label of 'reject' is the one to put a stop to Cortex's plans (spoilers).

Crash accidentally falls into the sea upon his escape and drifts to the shore of one of the nearby islands. Being the selfless bandicoot that he is, he decides he must head back to Cortex's facility and stop him, thus not only saving Tawna but the whole world.

The cutscene introduces us to the antagonists very well, giving them a clear motive and explaining why they're such a threat, it also gives some character to Crash, showing him to be clumsy, but determined. The plot is basically just a typical damsel in distress story that we've seen time and time again in the Super Mario games (among others), it gets the job done, but it's quite a lazy way of giving you an overall goal while playing through the game.

The game ends with Crash defeating Cortex (who proceeds to fall from his blimp after the battle) and then rescuing Tawna. They celebrate atop the blimp with Cortex's facility burning to the ground in the distance. If you 100% the game you gain access to a secret ending where Crash and Tawna fly away on a big bird and the credits sequence shows what happened to all the bosses you defeated after the events of the game. Oddly, the secret ending isn't the canon ending as it doesn't show Cortex falling from the blimp (which sets up the events in the sequel). It's a fun little reward for getting all the Gems, but I can't help thinking it would have been better to have gotten something more substantial like infinite invincibility which would have given the game more replay-ability too.

It can be assumed from the fact Cortex's base isn't burning that in the secret ending you simply escape without ever even fighting Cortex meaning the world technically isn't even saved.

The game starts with a world map which, after completing a level, begins to expand and open up new levels to complete. It's very linear with only one level opening up after the completion of the level before it. Super Mario Bros 3 (created in 1988) has a similar but more complicated world map structure and this does make Crash Bandicoot feel a little outdated in the way the levels are laid out.

The actual level designs are linear too, mostly consisting of moving straight forward with occasional forks in the road but this never becomes boring because of the way the camera moves and the paths slightly twist which makes the environments you are exploring feel slightly more alive and real. Even though you are moving forward a lot of the time there is enough going on to make you forget about that and focus on everything around you. Sometimes you'll be moving towards the camera rather than straight forward and there are also quite a lot of 2.5D style sections thrown in which keep the game varied and interesting.

Crash Bandicoot is approximately 50% fully 3D and 50% 2.5D, which is great because it offers two different types of gameplay which switch very often to keep things fresh.

The first levels do an excellent job of introducing the core mechanics and level types featured in the game. For example, the first level is about as standard as a Crash Bandicoot level gets, the enemies here can be jumped on or killed using the trademark spin attack which teaches you Crash's offensive moves, the jumps are easy but allows the player to get a feel for the physics, the Aku Aku masks are plentiful which teaches you about the health system and you can get all of the boxes on your first run through which teaches you about Gems. A player who hasn't ever played Crash Bandicoot would probably go through this level and learn almost every single basic mechanic without even realising, this is a classic example on how you make a first level.

Being a 3D platformer, there are quite a lot of collectibles, the main thing you need to get are the Gems which are used to gain access to the true ending of the game by building a path to the captured Tawna and rescuing her. However in order to get these Gems, you need to break every box in every level.

Within these boxes can be Wumpa Fruit which is the games equivalent of Coins in the Super Mario games, upon collecting 100 of these you'll get a 1-up. 1-ups can also be found on their own in the form of floating Crash icons. Other character icons can be found such as Tawna ones which send you to bonus levels which contain lots of Wumpa Fruit, 1-ups and the ability to save the game, Dr Nitrus Brio icons which serve the exact same purpose as the Tawna icons only with a much harder bonus level instead of the relatively easy Tawna bonus rooms, and finally Cortex icons which give you a key that unlocks a special bonus level somewhere on the world map.

The Dr. Nitrus Brio icons you collect are pointless because they don't give you anything a Tawna bonus level doesn't. It seems a bit strange that there's no real reason to complete them but you can just completely ignore them and still get 100% completion.

Coloured Gems can be randomly found instead of a normal Gem and these unlock platforms in previous levels which you need in order to get all the boxes on these levels. This is where the game introduces backtracking, it isn't possible to play through the levels once and get all the boxes because sometimes you'll need to have collected a coloured Gem before doing so. Remembering which Gems are needed for which levels can be slightly annoying, but luckily it's easy to go through the game getting all the Gems you can and then simply go back to all the levels you haven't got the Gem on and finish it all off.

Backtracking for some people is an annoyance, but for me if it's done well it's good for showing off how much you've developed your skills since the start of the game, upon re-doing some of the older levels in order to get the Gem you'll find you'll be breezing through them when at the start of the game you were moving slowly and having to be more patient. The backtracking could have been handled better in Crash Bandicoot, it's very annoying not being able to get the gem in the majority of early levels, but it's also not the worse example of backtracking I've ever seen.

You can also find Aku Aku masks which are the games health indicator. Crash on his own can only handle one hit before losing a 1-up but having an Aku Aku mask will grant him the ability to take one hit. Having two masks will make Crash able to take two hits and having three masks will grant Crash temporary invisibility as well as a faster movement speed.

You probably won't be getting three Aku Aku masks that much throughout the game so you had better enjoy it when you do.

Crash Bandicoot is quite a difficult game, the later levels in-particular feature some very difficult platforming sections. However this alone isn't what makes up for the games difficulty. As I mentioned before, you need to get all the boxes in a level to get the Gem. But if you get a checkpoint and lose a 1-up after doing so, all of the boxes you broke previous to that checkpoint will come back, which effectively means you need to do every level while not only breaking every box but without losing a 1-up either. Because of these aforementioned difficult platforming sections this can make some levels extremely hard and frustrating to fully complete. What adds to this is that some levels can be quite long and losing a 1-up while in the later sections of the game is very irritating.

The save system in this game is somewhat odd as it uses both a memory card save and a password system. Turning the game off and using one of these methods to load your game will result in the loss of all of your 1-ups but you will keep your progress with the Gems. I figure that the reason for this is that the memory card save feature basically loads a pre-set saved game (the same ones used for the password system) rather than saving your actual game. This is slightly annoying if you're near the end of the game and turn it off only to then return and find you have no lives for the more difficult levels.

Why on earth did games with a password system always make the passwords so long? It really isn't necessary.

You also can't save the game whenever you want, you need to either collect a gem or a key or finish a bonus level in order to save, However I don't think this is too much of an issue as there isn't much of a reason to save without doing one of those things anyway.

The boss battles in Crash Bandicoot are very easy, especially when compared to the actual levels which can be extremely tough. It's a bit disorientating to go from a difficult level to a boss which can be beaten with minimal effort. However some of the bosses do have some interesting mechanics, particular ones that stand out are Ripper Roo in which you need to memorise his jumping pattern and time 'Big TNT' crates to explode when he's next to them and Dr. Neo Cortex where he shoots multiple lasers at you which do different patterns, but the green ones can be hit back at him. It can be quite tense when multiple types of lasers are on screen and you really need to pay attention. But other than that the bosses are quite lackluster.

Some levels require you to backtrack through the level, running towards the camera rather than away from it, and these sections are bad because the camera simply doesn't move back enough. This means you'll often be falling down pits or getting hit by enemies unfairly because you can't see them. There aren't too many levels where this happens but it's irritating when it does. The levels where you're supposed to be moving backwards are fine because the camera is positioned so you can see things close to the screen, so it makes it all the more irritating when the camera doesn't do the same thing when you have to move backwards and backtrack in certain levels.

Not only is Ripper Roo the most interesting boss mechanically (in my opinion) but he's also my favourite villain in the first Crash Bandicoot game. What's not to like about a crazy kangaroo in a straight jacket?

One thing the game does well is that the level themes stand out from each other. This is because most of them have a particular gimmick which changes how you play the levels somewhat. For example, the ruins themed levels feature moving platforms and timed platforms that move in and out, the native levels feature a lot more vertical movement than other levels (by making you climb up the fortress using spinning platforms and bouncing boxes) and the laboratory levels feature switches which change and move obstacles offering elements of puzzle solving (which probably could have been expanded on more). This is another big thing (along with the varied camera perspectives) that keeps the game from getting repetitive. Some levels also have one off gimmicks like the 'Wild Hog' and 'Lights Out' levels which have a vehicle section and a section where you need to use Aku Aku masks to light up the area but it only does it temporarily. There's something mechanically different about each theme rather than it just being visual.

Throughout the game there are some very obscure secrets that I feel are right on the verge of being slightly too out there to be acceptable. I like games which feature hidden secrets but the secrets have to be able to be found by discovering clues or by studying your surroundings closely for subtle indications of where the secret is. Crash Bandicoot does have these clues but they are sometimes quite far-fetched. An example of this is in the level 'Up The Creek' where you hit a explanation mark box which triggers something to change in the level, but rather than making a box outline solid (like in every other level) it spawns some boxes which previously weren't there at all and not only that but to get to these boxes you have to backtrack through the level slightly making it even more difficult to figure out. Luckily this is probably the worse example of this, but there are some others which are a bit obscure too. Like walking backwards to discover platforms appearing from nowhere in the level 'The High Road' and jumping between enemies at the bottom of a pit which would normally take a 1-up from you in the level 'Heavy Machinery'.

In the secret area of 'The High Road', not only do you need to walk backwards to discover platforms that appear when you stand on them, but there are also gaps in the bridge which you can't see, meaning you just have to jump and hope you land on solid ground.

The enemy designs are visually varied, ranging from tortoises and other wild animals and plants, to blobs of goo, evil scientists and scary arms trapped in cages. Each enemy has some sort of different mechanic, like the aforementioned tortoises which can be jumped on to reach longer distances, bats which will constantly spawn unless you kill the two leaders, natives which can't be killed using the spin attack or by jumping, but can be killed using a mixture of the two and a lot more. Again, this adds a lot of variety to the game and it's great that the enemies match the level themes rather than there being a lot of enemies constantly being re-used.

Overall the graphics are great, especially when compared to other games coming out at the time like Tekken and Ridge Racer which went for realism and as such have dated more in terms of visuals. It's easy to see why this vibrant game was a stand out title at the time. Although when compared to newer PlayStation games it does look more dated, but not off-puttingly so at all.

This is one of the hardest sections of the game, you need to time your movements around a floor which disappears, an electric gate which turns on and off and an enemy who runs towards you hitting you with electric every couple of seconds. Very irritating to get all the boxes on.

There's a bit of variety in the level themes, going from the standard grassy levels, to a stream, native fortresses, decaying ruins, strange almost otherworldly bridge levels and scientific installations. The issue with this is that a lot of the time, the game will stick to blocks of the same level themes rather than breaking them up a bit more. A lot of the early levels are grass ones, a lot of the middle section are ruin themed levels and a lot of the later stages are scientific installations. It can become slightly dull and hinder your sense of progression but this is helped a lot by the variety in level designs from a gameplay perspective.

One of the best things visually is something I touched upon earlier, it's how the levels all seem alive because of the subtle camera motions and by the moving environments. If you look close you'll be able to see insects flying around, moving water, bubbling slime and all sorts of little attentions to detail in the games backgrounds. It's great and is part of the reason the game still looks good today. Just adding that slight bit of movement into the environments stops things looking static and boring. I also like the small details in the game's backgrounds, like being able to see the islands you'll be going to later in the game when you're high up in certain levels.

The piranha plants from Super Mario Bros. even make an appearance!

The characters all look great too, Crash himself is particularly expressive because of his idle animations, his celebrations when completing levels and his facial expressions when doing general movements. Cortex and N. Brio also look great, being the stereotypical mad scientist and Frankenstein's monster-like sidekick and all the boss enemies are unique and fun to watch during their fights.

The controls are perhaps the biggest problem with Crash Bandicoot (either that or the checkpoint system), it's not that they're bad on paper, the button layout is perfect and everything feels natural in that regard. The X button makes Crash jump, square makes him spin and the d-pad makes him move. It gets the job done but it is somewhat lacking in depth for a game made in 1996. If you look at Super Mario 64 (released in the same year as Crash Bandicoot), there was a lot of different and advanced moves you could pull off like wall jumping, punching, sliding etc. It makes Crash Bandicoot's control scheme look very basic and simplistic in comparison, though admittedly that control structure is more suited to a open level design rather than a linear one like Crash Bandicoot's.

If Tawna is at the end of every bonus room just standing there, why doesn't Crash just 'save' her there and then? Or is she a figment of his imagination...

Crash has two forms of attack, jumping on enemies and his spin attack. Some enemies require you to use a certain attack and using the other one won't harm them at all, this adds a bit of strategy in working out what the best way of defeating your enemy is. You'll need to obverse the enemy patterns and work out which form of attack is best and then attempt to defeat them using that attack or get around them.

The issue with the controls is that at times Crash can feel slippery, and in a platformer that requires a lot of accurate jumps this is detrimental. It's especially a problem when you move and spin at the same time and Crash will continue to move during his spin animation even if you let go of the d-pad.

Jumping can also be awkward for a similar reason. Crash will continue moving slightly after letting go of the d-pad meaning you have to let go early to compensate for that and it takes a while to get used to and can be particularly annoying in sections where you need to do multiple jumps in a row. It also forces you to stop and start a lot during general movement because it's difficult to compensate for the delay during multiple quick jumps.

Some levels feature a lot of moving platforms and you'll be constantly moving up. One mistake and you'll fall and have to start the process all over again.

General movement can feel slightly stiff at times, rather than feeling like you can move Crash around the 3D environments smoothly, it almost feels like he's locked to moving left, right, up and down. Although you can move diagonally there's hardly any need to and it feels a bit clunky to do so.

Even after saying all that, I wouldn't say the controls were bad, just flawed and in need of fine tuning. It just feels like you can't fully trust the controls not to mess you up which isn't good in a game which is all about precise controls and where the stakes are so high if you lose a 1-up.

The music in Crash Bandicoot is great. It's memorable and will stick in your head, the main theme in-particular is very good at that. Although the music is good, it does sound a bit poorly produced and minimal in some places, sometimes there isn't a lot going on musically apart from the main melody, which sometimes works and sometimes doesn't. Another stand out track for me is the Wild Hog music, which is upbeat and matches the game and level perfectly.

Weirdly, there are only two vehicle sections in the game, both of which have you riding on a warthog who dashes forward. These are some of my favourite levels and it's a shame there aren't a couple more levels like this.

The sound design is really good, most actions have a dedicated sound to them, like bouncing on and breaking boxes, collecting and spinning Wumpa Fruit, enemies make different noises and collectables all make noises too. It makes every action you do feel like it gets an actual response from the world around you and nothing sounds out of place. Even in the calmer levels which don't have a lot of music, the sound design makes it so that the game never feels empty.

The voice acting was all done by one person, Brendan O'Brien, and it's actually very good, for some reason Cortex's voice sounds low quality, as if it's been compressed, but this may have been done on purpose to make Cortex seem more sinister. Cortex sounds very very threatening and N Brio sounds like a lunatic which matches his character perfectly. Crash doesn't say very much at all but when he does, his voice reflects his clumsy but heroic and determined attitude.

What exactly are these creepy creatures in cages? Failed experiments created by Cortex? We'll never know.

Crash Bandicoot is a good 3D platformer and it's worth playing if you like a challenge. It has several flaws with the checkpoint and saving system, controls and bosses, and these let the game down. It becomes an annoyance rather than a challenge at times to complete the levels without dying and it takes away from the fun when the cause of death is because of the controls being slippery.

The controls and level select screens feel a bit basic when you consider it doesn't really do anything that hasn't already been done by Mario, but I suppose the main charm and selling point upon it's release was that it was fully 3D. Although it's good, you can tell it's an early PlayStation game.

6/10

Pros

- Good graphics (especially for the time), there is lots of movement in the backgrounds which makes the environments seem more alive.

- Level themes all introduce gimmicks which makes the differences between the areas not just aesthetic.

- Mix of 3D and 2D gameplay creates variety even when the level themes are the same.

Cons

- Sometimes there are too many of the same level themes in a row (or in close proximity to each other).

- Could be considered a little bit basic (when looking at control scheme, world map and level progression) when compared to some other games coming out at the time.

- Checkpoint system is flawed and creates frustration rather than it being a fun level of difficulty.

- Controls can feel slightly slippery at times when performing certain actions.