Like with the Ratchet & Clank games, the Crash games (and the Spyro games too, still) are iconic Sony classics that I'd always thought looked/sounded neat but had never sat down to try before. I did a bit of retail therapy for myself last Friday and got a bunch of good PS1 games for 300 yen a piece, and Crash 1 and 3 were a part of that trip (gotta still find Crash 2 XP). I polled my friends on what they wanted to see my stream last Sunday, and Crash 1 beat out Ace Combat 3 (another game I got during that trip), and I ended up playing through the entirety of the Japanese version of Crash Bandicoot 1 over the course of a little over 3 hours on stream.
The premise for Crash Bandicoot is pretty simple. Crash is an experiment of Dr. Neo Cortex who escapes, but Cortex kidnaps his girlfriend and so Crash has to defeat Cortex to rescue her. Very standard "Save the girl, save the world" kinda stuff. It's a setting that works fine for the action, and the character designs are fun (and VERY polygonal X3). The gameplay is a 3D platformer of the early 3D era, and that shows in many ways including the low polygon count mentioned earlier. The game is kind of a 3D 2D game, as you're mostly only going either forward & away from the camera, or going left and right, but you aren't ever actually running around a 3D space Mario 64-style. This can lead to some quite awkward and wonky platforming at times, but Crash has pretty tight controls and a clearly defined shadow beneath him. The biggest problem I ever had playing it was that I think the D-pad on my controller is dying ^^; I think now is time to mention the differences between the English and Japanese versions of the game (granted even the American and PAL versions have differences), as there are MANY and they are significant beyond a few new (and often not as good) music tracks. There are far more bonus stages, and that amounts to way more extra lives and way more save points. Aku Aku gives you tutorial hints in just about every level you pick him up in, so the game actually just tells you about stuff like the colored gems, keys, and tips for killing bosses. There are generally a lot more extra lives in stages, and many platforms have been widened to make the timing on many jumps far more forgiving. The level order has even been shuffled around a fair bit to give the game a smoother difficulty curve. Some levels (like the second boar-riding level) have been outright removed. All this is ultimately towards the goal of making the game easier and more enjoyable, and I think they succeeded big time in that endeavor. While some parts felt a bit wonky, the game overall had a really fair-feeling difficulty to it, and I always felt like I had enough lives to feel safe experimenting and failing (I still beat the game with over 70 lives). I'm really glad that I streamed it, because a lot of my friends watching had played the English versions before quite a bit, so I was able to get perspectives on just how different this version of the game was. Verdict: Recommended. Crash Bandicoot 1 hasn't aged perfectly, and the controls and level design will likely be quite frustrating to some (especially those who aren't fans of platformers in the first place), but I really enjoyed my time with it. The Japanese version makes the whole game's difficulty curve far more forgiving and more fun as a result. It might be heresy to some who love the original English version, but to someone who wants Crash 1 that doesn't kick your teeth in quite so hard, I think this is a great version to play.
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AuthorI'm an avid gamer who likes to detail their thoughts about what they play in the hopes it might aid someone else's search for a game to play. Archives
April 2024
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