Containing remastered versions of the first three Crash Bandicoot games with a few extra bells and whistles, the N. Sane Trilogy is every bit as fun – and maddeningly difficult – as fans remember.
I have made it no secret over the past year that the Crash Bandicoot series is among my favorite video game franchises of all-time, containing several of my favorite titles ever.
Nowadays, that of course makes Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy an ideal, all-encompassing way to experience the games today. Having grown up primarily on Crash Bandicoot: Warped, the series’ third installment was my first exposure to the series as a young kid, with Crash Team Racing further escalating my interest in the bandicoot from the land down under.
Though Warped was my favorite of the original trilogy and the title I was the most familiar with, I dabbled in all three of the trilogy’s games as a kid, and was thrilled to learn that the games were being remastered back when I was in college in 2017.
It’s been nearly a decade since the initial release of Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy, and the game remains as addictive and fun as ever – especially for a gamer such as myself who has yet to dive into the mind-bogglingly difficult Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
In addition to being a ground-up remake with beautiful, lush graphics and a seemingly reimagined, updated world from what younger millennials such as myself may remember from our childhoods, it has a few other reasons to stay engaged – even for those who completely mastered the original titles.
Despite relics not being introduced until the release of Warped originally, the N. Sane Trilogy retrofits the first two games to add time trials, bringing in a new element of completion to games that were definitely hard enough to fully complete on their own.
Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the game is a smash hit among old-time fans of the series, who get to relive childhood memories with updated graphics and a few added tasks on the to-do list.
Still, this game is insanely fucking hard for those trying to complete everything there is to do – to collect every gem and platinum relic throughout the three games.
This is something I never came close to doing in any of the three original games on the PlayStation, despite the countless hours of my childhood that these games ate up. However, at the age of 30, I am continuing a prolonged quest to fully complete the remastered trilogy – weathering the endless trial-and-error frustrations that come along with it.
While the trilogy is incredibly demanding as a full product, not all of the games within are created equally – with Warped standing out to me as the easiest of the bunch by a good margin, which could also be attributed to the fact that I have much more experience with it than the other two titles.
Warped also stands out as the easiest to complete of the trilogy due to there not being any new tasks to complete outside of Future Tense, a Warped level exclusive to the remastered trilogy. As relics were introduced to the series with Warped, there are no changes to the objectives needed for completing each level.
In the other two games, this poses more of a noticeable challenge, considering that neither of the first two games were designed with time trial relics in mind. This becomes incredibly obvious in the first game especially, which is filled with demanding platformer elements and hazards that require precise timing and often a slower pace to maneuver through a level.
This adds another incredibly difficult layer on to what was already a very hard game, forcing players who just want to fully complete the game to essentially learn how to speedrun it in its entirety, with each level having a demanding platinum relic time.
Now, there is something worth noting when it comes to relics and the topic of completion. Those who are simply aiming to collect all of the trophies/achievements for the game only need to collect gold relics (one level below platinum) in each level. But because I’m a psychotic, lifelong Crash player, I’m aiming for all platinums, an endeavor that will likely take dozens more hours.
When it comes to Warped, most of my objectives are cleared. I’m missing just three relics and a small handful of gems, while having reached gold or platinum on the majority of the 28 relics I have gathered. I’ve mostly put off making progress on Warped lately due to how demanding the rest of the game is, while I still have plenty more work to do in the other two titles.
Warped may contain the last platinum I will achieve in this quest, due to the asinine platinum time for Hog Ride, a motorcycle racing ride in which the player must maintain a single boost throughout the entire race:
A level known for its finnicky controls on the original PlayStation version, none of those control issues were rectified on the remastered trilogy – making this arguably the hardest platinum relic in the entire trilogy.
While Future Tense, not unlike Stormy Ascent in the first game, is an incredibly long, challenging level with gems and relics that are very tough to capture, that is to be expected – with both levels serving as grand finale challenges of sort to both games.
Still, there are several regular levels throughout the trilogy that are likely take hundreds of attempts and hours off of the lives of those who are crazy enough to try and fully finish this game.
Take the gems in Cold Hard Crash, a level found in the fourth warp room in the second game of the trilogy. Already known for its grueling length, the level includes a “death route” as well – a special platform that appears only if you have not died up until the location of the platform.
In addition to death routes being a good deal more challenging than the regular level they are a part of, Cold Hard Crash also includes perhaps the hardest box gem of the series, with a few secret crates along the way only adding another degree of frustration for players that thought they finally got them all.
I’m only missing four gems in Crash 2, and half of those come in Cold Hard Crash, routinely cited as one of the most difficult levels of the trilogy that is just as demanding to grab both the gems and relic on.
A similarly difficult quest for Crash 2 players awaits for the gems needed in Spaced Out, the final regular level of the game. After collecting all of the colored gems, you’re finally able to travel through a five-part multicolored gem path, with each section focusing on a different element of the game that the player must master.
As if this wasn’t enough, the box gem is also maddening – containing perhaps the game’s hardest bonus level while guaranteeing that you’ll be trapped in this stage for quite some time.
It all pales in comparison to the grueling grind that the first game provides – which is why I adamantly suggest that new players begin the trilogy with Warped. Starting it all with the first game is only guaranteeing that you will quit in frustration, possibly with or without some broken controllers and screens along the way.
In addition to having incredibly tight, difficult platforming throughout, Crash 1 thrives in your pain and misery. It’s a game that wants you to question what you’ve been doing with your life, making you wonder if this is really what your definition of “fun” is.
The most cruel way Crash 1 terrorizes its players is with the colored gems – which require the player to complete a level and break every single box without dying. While this is difficult but doable on levels like Toxic Waste and Lights Out, it is downright cruel with a couple of the game’s longer levels in The Lost City and Slippery Climb.
The Lost City draws the majority of my ire on this topic. Despite the fact that I absolutely love the level’s design, music and atmosphere, it takes layers and layers of patience to grind attempts of breaking every box without dying on this stage.
As if the level’s insane length and tight platforming wasn’t enough already, the level also includes hard-to-reach bonus tokens that you only have one shot at getting. Miss it? Too bad, time to exit the level and start from the beginning again.
While deaths in the bonus levels do not count as a death in the regular level, they often serve to throw off the rhythm of getting through the level – with a death immediately after completing the bonus round being just about the most frustrating way to die in any video game.
Making matters even worse for completionists, there’s only so much you can do to dodge the inevitability of having to capture the colored gems – particularly for The Lost City and Slippery Climb, the two that I am still missing.
The colored gems also serve as keys to platforms in other levels that allow the player to collect regular box gems in many of the other stages. If a level doesn’t have a colored gem, there’s a pretty damn good chance that you need one in order to get the regular gem.
In total, 11 of the game’s 26 levels require a colored gem in order to collect all of the boxes – with Lights Out serving as the only colored gem level that requires another colored gem to access the platform. This easily makes Crash 1 the hardest of the three games to complete, and also creates a situation where gems are just as challenging as the relics to collect, while gems are typically the easier of the two collectibles in the other two games.
The aforementioned obstacles are truly just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to all of the ways that this trilogy can frustrate you. Yet at the same time, it remains a fantastic game that is just as addicting as it was for millions of kids upon the games’ original releases in the late 1990’s.
If you’re a gamer who loves platformers and the exhaustive effort of trying to fully complete a game, then the N. Sane Trilogy is absolutely perfect for you. If not, then enjoy these amazing games for how much fun they truly are until they get too frustrating to continue – after all, that’s what we all did as kids anyways.
Leave a Reply