After a year long wait, the orange marsupial is finally crashing his way onto the Nintendo Switch, as well as on the PC and Xbox One. The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy packages together remasters of the first 3 games in the Crash Bandicoot franchise, Crash Bandicoot, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back and Crash Bandicoot: Warped. After years of collective clamoring from fans across the globe, it was a welcome surprise to see Activision and Vicarious Visions team up last year to release the trilogy, and it is phenomenal to see the collection of games running on the Nintendo Switch.
Perhaps the most impressive element of the Nintendo Switch port of the game is that there have been barely any compromises made in order to get the game running on the system. Whilst the graphics have taken a bit of a hit in terms of the textures and the fur shader of our favourite bandicoot, all of the levels have remained unchanged and the performance remains steady at a consistent 30FPS. The resolution of the game runs at 720p whilst docked, and it drops down to 853x480 when in portable mode. The majority of my play-time was spent in portable mode, and I must say, it was really quite special to see the stylized cartoon look of the game pop on a mobile system.
The trilogy of games manages to pack in a hefty amount of content, with the three titles being remastered from the ground up with all of the old art assets being remade. Each level places you in the feet of Crash, jumping and weaving through different linear platforming challenges, as well as collecting apples, smashing crates and finding other hidden collectibles. There are also a number of special levels that introduce unique gameplay elements, such as riding polar bears, motorcycles and jet ski's. The central objective of each level is to either get to the end, or to collect the power crystal at the end of the level. Most of the levels are excellent examples of 3D platforming at its finest, without a lot of the fluff that some of the more modern Mario entries have contained.
Whilst most of the elements of the original release have remained intact, some of them have not. The controls have managed to frustrate, with there being a slight amount of input lag whilst playing in docked mode. Portable mode has been my preferred way to play, as well as using the D-Pad which was the intended control method for the original games. Something that the remasters have also changed are the hitboxes of Crashes feet, which have subsequently made some of the levels a bit harder than the originals (speaking about you Hog Wild), because of the more punishing rounded hitboxes. This resulted in some frustrating moments of rinse and repeat gameplay, playing the same level over and over again, but at least the originals reputation of being challenging platformers have remained.
Fans of the series and newcomers alike are bound to be impressed by the quality of the remaster, and it is a real joy to see the games be remastered for modern consoles. Improvements have been made across the board, with the devs putting in extra checkpoints in certain levels to help the flow of the game, but some levels still remain frustratingly difficult. Being able to play the games in any order was also refreshing, I personally chose to tackle the second game, the first game and then the third. The time trial mode also adds some extra content for completionists, but it would have been nice to have seen a bit more extra content for fans of the series.
In conclusion, the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a very enticing package that will appeal to older and younger gamers alike. The revamped graphics really pop on the Switches smaller screen, and the gameplay holds the test of time and remains fun and challenging, even after all of these years. Crash is back!
Final Verdict: 85/100
+ Excellent remaster
+ Graphics that pop
+ Challenging gameplay
+ A wealth of content
- Some levels remain frustratingly hard