Platinum Difficulty Rating - 5/10Originally released on the Playstation 1 back in 1996, one of the original platformers of yesteryear, Crash Bandicoot, finally gets the modern day remix with the N-Sane Trilogy remaster for the Playstation 4.
This includes Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2 : Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot :Warped, the first 3 titles in the series, but this review focuses purely on the first of the three titles in the box.
The trophy list for Crash Bandicoot is just about moderate in size, and is littered with Gold trophies, which are pretty much the sole focus of the quest towards the Platinum trophy.
The game is very basic in it's design and concept, as you'd expect from a game originally released in the mid 90's. The game is very linear, as you move from level to level, unlocking the next for completing the prior, with a couple of different ways to beat each level along the way, which will be explained later.
The "Cortex N. Capacitated" trophy, awarded for Defeating N Cortex, concludes the initial aspect of the game by running though the 26 stages and 6 additional boss fights for the first time. Trophies are awarded progressively at each point you defeat a boss right up to the N Cortex fight, which signals the completion of the game, and to this point, the game is incredibly easy. This is down to the fact that, all you need to do to complete a level is just reach the end of the stage, regardless of how long this takes you or how many times you die before reaching the end.
However, the end-game takes the game into the moderate levels of Platinum difficulty ratings, down to a couple of key things, hinted above by how you can beat levels in different ways.
The "Ultimate Gem Path" trophy, awarded for Earning 26 Gems, is one of these ways and part of the greater challenge this game presents to the player. Each of the 26 stages in the game contains a gem, which is awarded when the player finds and smashes every box in a level, with the exception of 6 stages, which instead award a coloured gem. The key difference here is that coloured gems are awarded for smashing every box in a level without dying, which is a much trickier feat, and you'll need the coloured gems in order to unlock hidden areas of other levels which award normal colourless gems.
The 6 stages picked to award coloured gems can be tricky not to die on, but once you've managed to collect these, going back over the other 20, which award colourless gems, and subsequently don't require you to smash all the boxes without dying, are much easier to complete. There are a few levels that contain some very well hidden boxes, which you might need to consult a guide for, but the fact you can take a much more relaxed approach and not concern yourself with having to restart after death is a big benefit.
This is what I would refer to as the "lesser" part of the end-game, so much as in the fact that, even though the 6 stages with coloured gems offer a slight degree of challenge, simply for the fact you have to smash every box and not die whilst doing so, the other 20 stages which merely require you to smash every box and finish the level, regardless of how many times you might die, can be completed at a relatively leisurely pace.
A few of the levels contain some very well hidden secret areas, and it can be frustrating completing a level only to find out you were a single box short, to then go back through the level looking for the hidden off screen area, not be able to find it, to then realise the missing box was hidden on top of another box that was above you the whole time instead. It's a very small grievance, but this applies to a handful of the stages within the game, so certainly one at least worth mentioning.
The "Practice Makes Perfect!" trophy, awarded for Earning 26 Relics (gold or better), is what I would call the "greater" part of the end-game, and as a result, is the most challenging trophy in the list by far. In the exact same way each stage in the game rewards a Gem, each stage also contains a Relic, earned through good old-fashioned time trials.
Triggering the start of the time trial for each stage will require the player to beat the stage as quickly as possible, and upon completion, a Relic is awarded depending on how quickly the player reaches the end goal. It is important to note the part of the trophy description in brackets, and that the player only needs to achieve a Gold Relic on each stage in order to fulfill the requirements of this trophy. The Relics are graded from Sapphire, to Gold, to Platinum, so there isn't a need for the player to achieve the best possible time for each stage to unlock the trophy, which is just as well given how tough some of these stages would be if the Platinum Relic was the minimum requirement. This would take the game very close to the territory of 10/10 in difficulty rating.
As it is though, the Gold Relic will suffice, but this doesn't mean to say there isn't a steady challenge to be had here. Some of the stages will require a lot of trial and error, and the level of haste needed will lead to a risky approach and inevitably, a lot of death. The judgement of target times seems to be a little bit imbalanced too, with some stages being easy to finish comfortably under the Gold Relic target time, and some stages requiring a lot of fine tuning and mastery, heightening the level of challenge on offer.
It's also important to mention that, once you trigger a time trial run at the beginning of the level, death with result in an instant failure, and stop the clock, so each successfully posted time will require a deathless run, which increases the difficulty of each time trial. Half of the focus is attempting to finish the level as quickly as possible, whilst the other half is making sure you're frantically dodging death. It can be very hectic at times.
By the time I had finished the game, I had achieved a Platinum Relic on just 5 stages, with 21 Gold Relics elsewhere. I felt like I did well to get Gold Relics on most of the stages, and whilst it's true I only really aimed for the bare minimum in the name of achieving the trophy, it isn't an understatement to suggest that this game's difficulty would skyrocket if the Platinum Relics were mandatory. The Gold Relic times will still present a reasonable challenge, and this is where you'll spend most of your time on the road to the Platinum trophy, going back over stages attempting to shave seconds off previous times.
The remainder of the list can be achieved along the way, and you won't even need to look to earn most of them. There's alot of progression and menial tasks, including the other Gold trophies, which are complete throwaways.
In terms of an estimated completion time, the game doesn't actually track this statistic, so it's difficult to say. It'll depend on to what extent you struggle with some of the most challenging time trials in the game, but even the most difficult ones can be mastered without having to spend too long on them, and I reckon 15-20 hours for full completion is a reasonable enough timeframe for most players.
This isn't Super Meat Boy difficulty levels of platforming, and it can be hard to vouch for the difficulty of a game which can still be finished within 20 hours, regardless of the challenges that lie in wait along the way, which this game does have at times, mostly during the quest for obtaining time trial Relics. It also helps that the most challenging trophy in the game has been toned down to only require the player to fulfill Gold standard requirements, rather than Platinum.
It's almost as if the game wants the player to succeed, rather than push the limits of their skill, which certainly takes the overall difficulty rating down a couple of notches.
Notable Trophies -
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| Cortex N. Capacitated - Defeat N. Cortex. The Ultimate Gem Path - Earn 26 Gems. Practice Makes Perfect! - Earn 26 Relics (gold or better) |
Practice Makes Perfect
Earn 26 Relics (gold or better)
