So after so many PS3 game ports to the PS4 (seeing as backwards compatibility isn't a thing for them yet), we now get a trilogy of PS1 games, but not quite in their original state. For those of you who don't know, Crash Bandicoot was for a while, a PlayStation character and had a good run with them for a while. Unfortunately due to the rights belonging to Vivendi Universal, he wasn't a PlayStation exclusive for long and spent many years being multi-platform under a number of developers and publishers including Traveller's Tales, Radical Entertainment, Universal Interactive Studios, Vicarious Visions, Eurocom and Activision just to name a few. But of course as most of us know, it was also the Spyro games that were also going the same way as Crash and as such, both franchises ended up with Activision who have had success with the Spyro spin-off series, Skylanders. So at one recent E3, Sony in their press conference announced the return of Crash after everyone's disappointment that he didn't make it into PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale (alongside Spyro). And the end result would be a remake of the first three games in the series. A lot of us were hyped about it, but I personally wasn't. The reason being is because I never grew up with PlayStation as I was more Nintendo, although nowadays I'm a gamer for all or most platforms out there. But having said that, I missed out on playing the original games (with the exception of the small sequence in Uncharted 4) so I chose to give this a try and I got to say, I'm impressed. So let's dive in:
Crash Bandicoot
So with these games so far being the oldest of the PS4 ports, its no surprise that the developers went ahead and made these games from the ground up, but still retaining the best parts about each game as well as the fact that you can now save your progress, find checkpoints and enjoy the game with PS4 graphics and new dialogue from past voice actors. So the first game has us see the titular protagonist be subjected to experiments by an evil doctor to see if he can become a mutated monster. The experiments fail and Crash is able to escape, unaware of a female bandicoot that the doctor is prepping to experiment on next. And following suite with the Mario games (and other games that follow a similar plot), Crash makes it his goal to save the female bandicoot from the doctor before she turns evil and does so by going through a series of levels, jumping and breaking crates, collecting fruit and defeating a whole array of enemies along the way. And I basically summed up the gameplay in a nutshell. So the first game I like. It feels like playing Donkey Kong Country if the game was 3D with some 2D elements and you don't pick up the objects. I may get some backlash for comparing it to another game, but I really do enjoy playing this game. Its a lot of fun and I can see why it had such an impact on everyone's childhood and the PS4 enhancements make it even better. 9/10
Cortex Strikes Back
Following from the last game, the evil doctor called Cortex stumbles upon a cavern of crystals. Believing that they hold immense power, he decides to plan world domination and hopes to use the crystals to brainwash the world to do his bidding. In doing so, he manipulates Crash into finding the crystals for him and Crash does just that, unaware of the doctor's true intentions. Gameplay largely remains the same in this game, but most of the levels end with Crash collecting a crystal and allowing players to explore a hub prior to completing each level. Crash also has some new abilities such as performing a body slam and jumping higher than before. So the game is more or less the same as before, but with a new story and some new twists and turns, its still a very good game. It may even be superior to the first game, but I'll let you be the judge of that. 9/10
Warped
As the name implies, this game is all about time travel. So following Cortex's defeat (again), he is confronted by the true mastermind behind the crystals, a being called Uka Uka who recruits him and his colleague Doctor Nefarious Tropy and they travel through time to find crystals and gems. One year later, Crash and Coco (Crash's partner in crime and the second playable character in game) are also sent to travel through time to stop the trio of villains before the timeline is shattered. So like before, the game has you collecting crystals in every level while the time machine serves as the hub for the game. Along with all the usual gameplay elements that the series is known for, players are rewarded gems and relics in each level when certain conditions are met and rather than get your typical game over screen, players can now choose to continue where they left off or simply quit. So when this game initially came out, it got critical acclaim for how great it was with some even calling it the best 2.5D platformer game out there. And yeah I agree. Its a very good game that keeps giving us what we love about the series and its just a really good game and one that ends this compilation on a high note. 9/10
So I've played a number of compilations and for the most part, they are all in their original states. Which isn't a bad thing, but when you get it for PS4, you'd expect the graphics and so forth to show some improvement. Now as these games are very old games and probably wouldn't look great on the PS4, I'm glad that they chose to remake the games because they all look very well done. And hopefully this will be the way to go for remaking PS1 games so I can't wait. Really hope we get Spyro soon, but we'll see. 9/10
No comments:
Post a Comment