Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time First Look

With 18 titles under his belt, not counting the recent remaster, it’s pretty safe to say that Crash Bandicoot hasn’t really gone away. But outside of perhaps Crash Team Racing, our favourite 3D platforming marsupial hasn’t exactly been the same either, has he.

What most of us fans have really wanted is a return to the glory days of Crash games when the series was still in Naughty Dogs more than capable hands so the recent remaster trilogy helped to scratch an itch that’s been many years in the making.

Enter developer Toys For Bob who, along with Epic’s Unreal Engine 4, seem intent to bring Crash Bandicoot back to the masses with a direct Sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped in as big and bold a fashion as possible with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

The It’s About Time sub-title isn’t just about our fan dreams come true, it also has to do with the threat Crash and friends will be facing. It seems Cortex is back again, this time with a pal of his own on a quest to conquer the multiverse and all space and time while he’s at it.  The concept of time will play into the new powers you can get through the use of Quantum Masks, much like Uka Uka except with different abilities to help you conquer the levels. You’ll be slowing down time and popping items in and out of levels as you go, adding to the platforming dangers.

It looks as though Toys For Bob is going all out with Crash’s newest outing.

Visually, the game is already looking cartoonily gorgeous and thoroughly expressive with the character animations. There’s also going to be five playable characters, three of which will sport their own levels tailored to their movesets. For the Crash purest, there’s a retro level mode which will give you a limited number of lives, just like in the original games, and you’ll have to acquire more in the levels while the modern mode throws unlimited lives your way but has a death tally counter.

Inverted Mode is looking thoroughly cool at the moment. Slightly similar to a Mirror Mode, Inverted Mode will let you replay levels with different perspective shifts and rendering techniques that looks stylish as hell already. You could be tasked with adding colour into a black and white world by splashing paint all over the place or just run through a neon inspired wonderland of death. This mode already looks like it will be adding more playtime to a series that already has quite a bit just by having to collect gems though the different levels.

Jumping onto the customization bandwagon, the game will be featuring a bunch of different skins for you to outfit Crash in. According to Toys For Bob, the game won’t feature microtransactions as the skins will be unlockable through play and completing challenges.

Now all of these new additions are well and good, but what really matters is that Toys For Bob gets what made the Crash series so good: the fun but harder than we actually remembered platforming. Cause jeez, is Crash Bandicoot hard. Something I’d forgotten until I played the recent remaster trilogy again.

Judging by the gameplay trailers that are out, Toys For Bob may just have this down too. The classic Crash level design staples are already in place, from the side scrolling to 3D perspectives. The pixel perfect jumping looks like it’s made the transition to the new game in tact as well and coupled with the new movesets presented by the new powers, some insane timing and precision platforming will be getting platform fans hands rather sweaty. And I for one can’t wait.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time launches on PS4 and Xbox One October 2^nd, 2020.

This first look is written By M. A. Ligocki

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time First Look is Due for release October 2^nd, 2020 for PS4 and Xbox One.

Did you enjoy reading our preview of a game before the game gets its final release and its final version? if yes, click here to find more early previews.