I may not be alone in thinking that Crash Bandicoot kinda lost his way after Naughty Dog moved away from the character and he became a cross-platform property. The PS2/Xbox era games may have their selling points, but in my eyes they lacked the same polish and appeal that the initial trilogy and Crash Team Racing had. The release of the N. Sane Trilogy in 2017 certainly helped revitalise Crash, updating and remastering the original trilogy for modern systems. That remaster did well enough to justify an official fourth entry in the series, retconning the events of the games post-Warped and moving Crash’s adventures forward once more.
The game begins with Uka Uka trying to free himself, Neo Cortex and Doctor N Tropy from their prison. This results in a hole being ripped open in the fabric of space and time (we’ve all been there) where Cortex and N Tropy find they are linked to the multiverse. A nefarious plan is hatched, but fortunately for all of space and time Crash is once more on hand to save the day.
The good news is that Crash 4 is a solid game, mixing the best of the old approach with all the benefits of modern game design. And the best part is, you have the option of picking which approach best suits your needs. The Modern style returns you to the last checkpoint if you die, whilst the Retro mode gives you a set number of lives and leaves you to it.
There are a bounty of unlockable items and alternative play styles which expand on the core gameplay and provide additional character skins for Crash and Coco. Unlockable content is subject to meeting a variety of objectives for each level. This can include reaching the end without losing more than three lives, finding hidden gems, or smashing all the crates. In addition, you unlock Time Trial mode on completion of a level, and N.Verted mode does as it says on the tin, inverting the level and giving you access to even more gems. And if that wasn’t enough, you can also unlock Flashback Tapes if you complete certain levels without dying. These take you back to recordings from the 90s as Crash takes on a set of challenging side-scrolling levels, all accompanied by Neo Cortex’s droll commentary. And on top of all of THAT is a co-op mode. It’s a positive bounty of content, and the best part is that none of it feels extraneous or tacked on. Sure, you don’t have to indulge in absolutely all of it, but the option is there if you want to.
As for the main game, Crash controls well but a targeting circle is provided to help gauge your jumps and likely landing spot. This feels a necessary addition given the frequent changing of perspective that happens in many of the levels. And yes, that does include some classic-style “running towards the camera being chased” levels.
In almost every other respect this is not all that dissimilar to those original PS1 games – or more appropriately, the remasters from the N. Sane Trilogy. Crash, Coco and the other three controllable characters have all the expected moves such as spinning (that’s a good trick), ground slams and the usual jump/double jump option. The extra characters have a few of their own exclusive moves, but let’s be honest, you’re going to spend most of your time as Crash.
A new feature is Quantum Masks. These give you extra powers which are necessary to complete a number of levels. This includes the ability to make objects tangible or intangible at the press of a button – and requires a wee bit of mental and controller dexterity to pull off in some places. Later levels give you additional masks with other abilities which we’re not going to spoil here. Suffice to say that it increases the variety available across each set of thematically linked levels, but also carefully rationed to make sure you’re not repeating yourself too often.
There was every chance that Crash 4 could have been a terrible mistake. Thankfully, it’s anything but. There’s an absolutely massive number of things to do in addition to simply completing the levels, and fully caters to fans of the original trilogy. Many levels are not without their challenges, and the difficulty level is perhaps higher than that of the original games. With that said, many of the frustrating moments are borne out by my own ineptitude or feeling the need to rush through a level rather than a specific problem with the game design. And despite that, I kept coming back for more. Proof indeed that Crash 4 offers a winning formula.

Summary

There was always a risk that Crash 4 would disappoint. Luckily that is far from the truth, and Crash 4 proves to be an extremely competent modern platformer.

9/10