Video Game / Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

N-hanced, N-tranced and ready to dance, Crash Bandicoot is back!

"Three incredible games, one crazy marsupial, lots of Crashitude."

— Better With Crashitude Trailer

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy is a remake of the first three Crash Bandicoot games developed by Naughty Dog for the PlayStation. It was released on June 30, 2017 for the PlayStation 4, and on June 29, 2018 for Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam.

The N. Sane Trilogy features updated graphics and optimization by Vicarious Visions, the studio behind Skylanders and several previous Crash Bandicoot games for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2. The Nintendo Switch port was handled by Toys For Bob, the original Skylanders developers and the ones who developed the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, while Iron Galaxy Studios handled the PC port.

It has been followed up in 2019 with Beenox's Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled, a remake of Crash Team Racing, completing the series of remakes of Naughty Dog's Crash games.

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The N. Sane Trilogy provides examples of:

All three games in general

• Achievement Mockery: Various achievements in the games are earned either by Crash getting himself killed in specific ways or doing something that doesn't help him. For example, using his spin attack on an extra life, or missing enough boxes so that Crash gets knocked out at the results screen.
• Achievement System: There is an Achievement system available for all three games where you can unlock achievements based on doing certain things in the game, such as beating specific bosses or getting a certain amount of gems.
• Actually Pretty Funny: While some of the idle animations are tamer versions of his usual Butt-Monkey status, Crash himself actually seems amused by and laughs at some of them.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Every game featured has at least one instance of this; see the individual games below for what exactly each one brings.
  • Coco's increased playability comes with added characterization that wasn't there beyond the original games; she's more expressive, becomes a badass on par with Crash, and has added motivations.^note Going back in time to help her brother in the first two games when she was originally only playable in Warped.
  • Nearly every cutscene in the game features this in some way. It's most obvious in the original game: while the PS1 cutscenes were so basic that kindergarten puppet shows looked impressive by comparison, in the remake it's a fully animated cutscene that includes moments such as Crash's view inside the Cortex Vortex and Tawna knocking out a lab assistant. The ending of 1 and 2 also include quick shots that dovetail right into the opening cutscene of their sequels. Even just the fact that the characters have much more complex rigs means that the animation can be much more expressive than it used to be.
• Adaptational Badass: In addition to being Promoted to Playable, Coco has had her moveset expanded not just from the third game, but from all past playable appearances in the series in general, as noted under Adaptation Expansion above.
• Adaptational Early Appearance:
  • Uka Uka has replaced Crash and Neo Cortex in the game over sequence for the first two games.
  • Fake Crash now appears in the background of certain stages in the first two games as well as the third.
• Adaptation Personality Change:
  • Coco was originally the Straight Man to Crash's silliness. Here, while still intellectual, she can be just as goofy as he is, making faces while taking selfies, and performing her brother's dance.
  • Nitrus Brio was merely nervous during the first two games, which was the reason for his stuttering. Here, he's depicted as being slightly crazy, prone to laughing mid-sentence while his head moves around, which is especially noticeable in his first scene in the second game.
  • N. Gin's personality here is similar to his personality mid-flanderization, around the time of Nitro Kart. In the original games, he was rather inexpressive and robotic, and the later games eventually made him completely insane with a Split Personality and a tendency for Suddenly Shouting. Here, he's more expressive than the original games, but he's definitely not as insane as he is in the later games.
• American Kirby Is Hardcore: As usual for the series, Crash is redesigned for the Japanese cover art◊ so that he looks more cute and cartoony.
• Art Evolution: The appearances of several objects have been updated to fit the better graphics. Character models this time around have only four fingers while previous editions had five.
  • The characters are also far more animated this time around, especially in Warped's Time Twister cutscenes, the scenes before and after the boss fight, and even some background elements.
  • Bonus rounds in 1 and 2 now have weather to match the climate instead of being one of three potential generic ones. "Road to Nowhere" and "The High Road" have fog/mist in their stages, the cliffside bonus round is modified to be either jungle or mountain depending on your location in 2, et cetera.
• Ascended Glitch: The original versions of Crash 2 and 3 had a bug known as "glitch high", which let the player jump even higher than a slide jump could take them (done by sliding, then jumping and spinning at the same time). The glitch was recreated in this collection's versions of those games.
• Ass Kicks You: Instead of slamming her face into the ground like Crash does with his bellyflop, Coco instead launches downward in the form of a Mario-style Ground Pound.
• Author Appeal: Vicarious Visions really seems to like Fake Crash, as they have a history of featuring him in whatever Crash project they work on. Normally a background character, he played a major role in both N-Tranced and Skylanders Imaginators. Fake Crash returns again here, but rather than just appearing in three levels of Warped, he also shows up in a few levels in the previous two games.
• Badass Adorable: While Coco has always been somewhat capable on her own, here she can traverse levels just as well as her big bro, without losing any of her cuteness; if anything, her new animations, such as her doing the Crash dance, make her even cuter.
• Big Ol' Eyebrows: The fur above Crash's eyes is in a league of its own, so much that it's mentioned in the trailer:
  1 Legendary Hero... 2 Epic Eyebrows... 3 Remastered Adventures.
• Bowdlerise: Like in Skylanders, the Crash Dance's pelvic thrust was replaced by Crash (or Coco) doing the Running Man.
• Bragging Rights Reward: Platinum Relics in general remain this in all games, but relics in general are this for Crash 1 and 2. Collecting them is no easy feat considering how much more platform heavy their levels are, but your reward for collecting all of them is a single trophy. Thankfully, they are optional in 1 and 2.
• Call-Forward: Uka Uka is now featured in the Game Over screen for all three games as opposed to just Warped, although the first and second games have him hidden in shadow. This is likely in reference to Uka Uka being the Greater-Scope Villain of the entire trilogy and the reason for Cortex's actions in the first and second games before Uka Uka made himself known in the third game.
• Calling a Rabbit a "Smeerp": Oh, those fruits you are collecting that look like apples or mangos? They're wumpa fruits.
• Compilation Re-release: The game consists of a collection of the first three Crash Bandicoot games, albeit with updated graphics, new voice acting, and other new additions.
• Creator Cameo:
  • Coco's laptop has stickers of both the Vicarious Visions and Naughty Dog logos. Coco also carries a phone with her that has the Naughty Dog logo on it.
  • The Naughty Dog logo appears on a meteor that flies in front of the camera in the intro to Crash 2.
  • In other versions, however, the Naughty Dog logos are gone, while the Vicarious Visions ones remain.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!:
  • In the Save/Load screen, Square is Save, and X is Load. However, 98% of games have menu selecting (including saving) mapped to X, so you might accidentally load when trying to save. Luckily, there's an autosave.
  • Some players who go back to playing 1 after playing 2 or 3 for a while may end up forgetting that Crash's body-slam and slide-kick attacks are absent, and so fruitlessly try to perform these moves a few times before remembering they aren't available. While this is true to the original trilogy as well, here the effect can be felt more easily.
• Dance Battler: Coco's version of the spin is stylized like a pirouette.
• Developer's Foresight: One of Coco's Idle Animations shows her shooting photos with her smartphone before it starts emitting smoke and then blows up. However, that explosion has a hitbox, and it can make TNT crates explode.
• Downloadable Content: Two hard Marathon levels were released as DLC.
  • Stormy Ascent, a cut level from the original game, was polished and officially made available, unaltered from the original save for the addition of a bonus level.
  • Warped recieved Future Tense, the first new level built for the original trilogy's gameplay in over 20 years. It is very loosely inspired by a test level in Crash 1, but with a completely different theme and incorporates Crash 3's various powerups into the level design.
• Dreamworks Face: Crash, on the cover of the game.
• Evil Gloating: In all three games, Uka Uka appears to deliver the player their game over screen if they run out of lives. He did this in the original Warped too, but thanks to his far more detailed and expressive facial animations, Uka Uka's mockery and laughter are much more pronounced.
• Game-Over Man: Uka Uka, as mentioned above.
• Hard Levels, Easy Bosses: As usual, the bosses can't really compete in difficulty with the actual levels, although some bosses have been tweaked to put up more of a fight.
• Heroic Mime: Despite Jess Harnell coming back to voice Crash after Mind Over Mutant and Skylanders Imaginators, Crash has mostly returned to this instead of the unintelligible blabbering. Coco is similarly limited to grunts in gameplay, though maintains her dialogue in the cutscenes for Crash 2.
• Hurricane of Puns: Many of the achievements run with the series tradition of words that sound like they start with "N", and the ones for defeating bosses are puns on their names ("Ripper Ruined" for Ripper Roo, "Koala Konked" for Koala Kong, etc.).
• Idle Animation: There are a number of them for both characters, and even ones that involve multiple factors as Easter Eggs (like one where Crash and Aku Aku play volleyball with a Wumpa Fruit, or Crash and Coco doing the Crash Dance together).
• Informed Species: Somewhat averted for Tiny. He now has faint brown stripes on his back and on his forearms, making him look a little bit more like a Tasmanian Tiger.
• Insistent Terminology: Before the gameplay reveal, there was a lot of confusion over whether the trilogy was being remastered or remade. Vicarious Visions insisted on it being a remaster, even though by their own admission the original source code of the PlayStation trilogy is too old to work with, and they had to rebuild the games from the ground up, making them technically remakes. Eventually, they settled on calling the N. Sane Trilogy a "remaster plus".
• Iron Butt Monkey: Crash replicates all his many deaths and Amusing Injuries as well as some new ones. Coco is only a relatively toned down version herself.
• Loads and Loads of Loading: If there's one thing that many fans and critics have criticized the game for, it's the long loading times. Entering levels in the Warp Room takes much longer than it did in the original games, and starting the game for the first time invokes a lengthy starting sequence including un-skippable logos and loading screens immediately after the title screen. The PS4 version was later patched to more or less cut the load times in half, with the later console releases similarly having downplayed load times.
• Mythology Gag:
  • While promoting the game at E3 2017, Vicarious Visions recreated the old Crash Bandicoot costume, complete with the trademark hole in the teeth, exactly like the one from the classic '90s era commercials (the original was too decayed to use). He even carried around a megaphone and got into a dance-off with Sonic the Hedgehog.
  • Crash has new commercials featuring the trademark face-in-teeth suit.
  • The loading screens contain hints, and Aku Aku floating in the background. This hearkens back to the original game's Japanese release, in which he would give you hints upon finding his mask.
• Nerf: It has been observed that Crash's (and Coco's) collision hitboxes have been tightened up compared to the original PS1 games. This makes certain exploits that players could use, like standing on your heels over a pit for extra margin in a jump, or running along the ropes in the bridge levels in Crash 1, are made more difficult to perform. This ensures that despite the various Anti-Frustration Features added in this version, the skill required of players in 3d platforming is still quite high.
• Power-Up Food: The Wumpa Fruit is a downplayed example. They don't give special abilities, but they do give extra lives if you collect 100 of them.
• Promoted to Playable: While Coco was already playable in the third game, in this game, she is playable in any level of any of the three games (minus underwater, motorcycle, and boss levels), rather than just a few levels in Warped. This is an even bigger step up compared to her playability in The Wrath of Cortex and Mind Over Mutant.
• Recursive Reality: In the PlayStation 4 version, Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher appear on Coco's laptop in the intro of Crash 2, and Nathan also appears in a photo for the intro of Warped. Nathan's own series had a cameo of the original Crash Bandicoot game in Uncharted 4 with an arcade-style version of the first game, as well as a findable Wumpa Fruit Treasure. What makes the laptop cameo this trope is that the scene Coco watches on her laptop is Nathan and Elena getting ready to play Crash Bandicoot.
• Retraux: The opening of the game shows low-poly crates from the original trilogy being pumped through a machine that modernizes their graphics. Then Crash shows up, in his original low-poly form, and jumps in.
• Revival: Most definitely. It would be nine years since the last Crash Bandicoot game (eight if you count Crash's appearance in Skylanders Imaginators). The developers have noted if the N. Sane Trilogy does well enough, they're ready to create a new Crash game.
• Scenery Porn: The level layouts remain the same, but the jump to the PS4's graphical capabilities really allow for the Trilogy's scenery to become gorgeous. Water textures are more flowing and realistic, jungle areas are lush and colorful, sunsets are absolutely stunning, and light patterns are taken into account including shadows, better flickering lights, and, in the case of Heavy Machinery, even radiating heat lines.
• Shot-for-Shot Remake: Gameplay footage shows that the remake looks exactly like the original, right down to the art style, only with updated graphics and a few quality of life changes.
• Shout-Out:
  • This promotional artwork for Christmas mimics the poster for National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.
  • If you look closely at Coco's Idle Animation where she pulls out her laptop, the website◊ she's browsing is actually the Crash Bandicoot subreddit, which the developers have admitted to frequenting and taking feedback from.
• Slapstick: Just like in the original.
• Slapstick Knows no Gender:
  • Since Coco is now playable in almost any level, she's subject to the same dangers and Amusing Injuries that Crash is, but some of her death animations aren't quite as brutal as some of what Crash has to go through. For instance, while getting Squashed Flat by a pillar results in Crash being compressed to just a head with shoes, Coco's death animation for being killed the same way instead results in her vanishing completely, leaving behind only her laptop, which emits sparks. Some other arguably more graphic deaths however, like being crushed by a boulder, electrocuted, or clubbed into the screen, are indiscriminately merciless for either of them. For most animations that don't translate to Coco, she'll simply default to her standard animation of turning into an angel and flying off.
    • This is mostly an Enforced Trope: outside of her levels in Crash 3, Coco was never intended to be a playable character as the time and budget wouldn't allow for it. It wasn't until certain members of the team "protested" by making her playable in Crash's levels anyway that she was given the full treatment, but as this was late in development, there wasn't time to give her as many death animations.
  • One of Coco's original death animations is also changed. When riding Pura, Coco may crash into an object and be sent flying, resulting in Circling Birdies (but with crates), until Pura falls from the sky onto her lap and licks her. Originally, Coco would appear dazed, Pura would approach her, then she'd fall unconscious.
  • If you miss too many crates in the first game, Coco will be pummelled by the boxes she missed the same way Crash is. She also gets trolled indiscriminately by Warped's Time Twister when trying to enter Crash-exclusive levels, trying to enter the warp only to fall flat on the ground the exact same way Crash did when trying to enter Coco-exclusive ones in the same game.
  • It is worth noting some of her move set has even been amplified to be more slapstick like her brother: her Ground Pound counterpart, in place of the stomp she had in The Wrath of Cortex, just has her land flat on her ass.
• Stock Sound Effect:
  • Averted here. In the original games, Ripper Roo's laugh was taken from the Hyena in Lady and the Tramp, and Cortex's lab assistants were basically voiceless apart from letting out a higher-pitched version of the Howie scream when defeated. Now Ripper Roo is voiced entirely by Jess Harnell, and the lab assistants have additional screams and grunts provided by Dwight Schultz and Maurice LaMarche.
  • Played straight with Hog Wild/Whole Hog's level music, which adds stock sounds to an already frantic tune, ranging from a BONK to a coo-coo.
• Super Not-Drowning Skills: Justified with Coco, since her "death" animations in the jetski levels of the original Warped show that she's at least able to stay afloat in water without drowning, unlike her brother. Whenever Coco falls in water in a level where she wasn't originally playable, she doesn't drown, instead she just floats in the water, much to her confusion. The only level where she'll actually drown is in Tomb Wader.
• Time Travel: The reason why Coco is playable in the first two games. She hacks the Time Twister from Warped to send herself back in time to aid her brother in his first two adventures. The fact that this doesn't change the plot creates a Stable Time Loop.
• Title Scream: Highlighting one of the three games causes Cortex to say the game's name. When it gets to Crash 3, Uka Uka yells "WARPED" in the same over-the-top manner that Clancy Brown did.
• Took a Level in Badass: During the boulder levels in 1 and 2, the first few boulders will always have Crash or Coco with their more panicked look. If you haven't died by that point, the final boulder will have them return to their usual Determinator demeanor instead of the panic.
• Trouser Space: When Crash earns a crystal, gem, or relic, he'll either pull it out of his pants, knock it out of his ear, or burp it out. For Coco, she either pulls it from her pocket, finds it stuck to her back, or conjures it with her laptop.
• Updated Re-release: Aside from what one could consider these, the later releases of this collection are essentially this, including the patches and DLC right on the disc (or cartridge in the case of the Switch version). Even later copies of the PS4 version are set to get this treatment.
• Video Game Remake: What these games technically are, despite claims that they're remasters.
• Vocal Evolution: Back when John DiMaggio voiced Tiny the tiger for Nitro Kart, he sounded pretty much like Bender, but with a deeper growling voice. Now, for the trilogy, his tone has been refined to the point that John's almost unrecognizable, and it's incredibly close to Brendan O'Brien's original performance for the character.
• What the Hell, Player?: Coco isn't quite as patient with player errors as Crash is. Waste time or lose a life as her often earns you a Death Glare. If you fail to collect a colored gem as her in Crash 1, she outright throws a temper tantrum and turns her back on you.
  • Also, when Crash drowns, it sometimes sounds like he's trying to say "you are the devil"
• Who's Laughing Now?: Like the original version of Warped, the Time Twister will reject Crash from entering Coco-exclusive levels in a slapstick manner while his sister hops through. Since Coco is now also playable in both Warped and 2 and there are Crash-exclusive levels in both games, vice versa can also happen this time; Warped has Coco fall flat on her face, while 2 has Coco smack into the wall in the back of the portal while Crash jumps through.
• Your Size May Vary:
  • While her Naughty Dog model was slightly taller or at least more upright than Crash, Coco is now the smaller sibling like in later games.
  • Some of the boss models are less oversized than in the originals, similarly matching up to the characters' heights in later games.

Crash Bandicoot

"This bandicoot will be my general, and he will lead my Cortex Commandos to world domination! This time, I shall reign triumphant!"

The game that started it all. Doctors Neo Cortex and Nitrus Brio, in a bid for world domination, create two machines inside Cortex Castle: The Evolve-O-Ray, which turns any animal into an anthropomorphic, intelligent and strong creature, and the Cortex Vortex, which turns those same animals into mindless slaves through brain manipulation. A bandicoot, Crash, is selected to serve as the general of these "Cortex Commandos", but a malfunction leads to Crash escaping and fleeing from the castle. But the doctors have another specimen, Crash's girlfriend Tawna. Aided by the native mask spirit, Aku Aku, Crash must traverse the Wumpa Islands to get back to Cortex Castle, save Tawna, and put an end to Cortex and Brio's scheme.

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• Absurdly Short Level: The Great Hall, the penultimate level prior to fighting Cortex, can be completed in seconds if you don't bother to unlock and play the gem route.
• Achievement Mockery: There are achievements for spinning away an extra life ("I Meant To Do That!"), missing enough boxes to render Crash or Coco unconscious ("The Box That Broke the Bandicoot's Back"), and getting eaten by one of the land-based man eating plants ("Feeeed Meeeee!").
• Adaptational Badass: Downplayed. While Tawna's still the Damsel in Distress, she manages to knock out a lab assistant while being held in Cortex's lab, right before the rest of them surround her. In the original, the shot simply had two of them holding her arms to keep her from escaping. The bonus levels also show that she escaped many times, and that Crash arrives at the exact moment she's captured again.
• Adaptation Expansion:
  • In addition to adding several Anti-Frustration Features to the first game, the time trials from Warped are present. Plus, Coco is playable despite not even appearing in the game originally.
  • The level Stormy Ascent was cut of the original due to being too difficult and not completely finished (the bonus level was missing and some bugs needed fixing). It was eventually released as initially-free DLC for the N. Sane Trilogy (it was put in the base game completely free on the PC/ Switch port), 21 years after the original game's release.
  • All of the bosses except Cortex^note Cortex instead has a scene reminiscent to the opening scene of the second game after his defeat now have updated defeat sequences:
    • Papu Papu now collapses backwards, after which Crash uses his belly as a trampoline.
    • Ripper Roo makes his way to the front platforms and falls into the river, ultimately plummeting down the waterfall.
    • Koala Kong gets up and gets ready for another fight, but gets carried off by a mine cart.
    • Pinstripe, after destroying the reactor, falls behind the table.
    • N. Brio now stumbles back and falls out the window, attempting to fly before falling.
• All Animals Are Dogs: The boars in Road to Nowhere and The High Road have a tendency to sit down and pant like dogs.
• Anti-Frustration Features: The original Crash Bandicoot has a lot of these, to help curb some of the unfair Early-Installment Weirdness it had:
  • You can now save on the map screen like in 2 and 3, and the game features autosave. Sounds like a small feature, until you remember that in the original game, you could only save after completing a Bonus Round or collecting a Gem or a Key. Not only could those tasks be extremely difficult, but each one became inaccessible in a level after completing it for the first time!
  • Related to the above, save games now remember how many lives you had, meaning you no longer would get up to The High Road, save, turn off the console, then come back after dinner to be snapped back to four lives.
  • The top of the screen shows how many crates there are in the level as well as how many you've broken so far, a la Warped. There's also a counter at the end, much like the later games, though the "Great, but you missed X boxes" screen still appears.
  • Bonus levels don't give you only one chance anymore; they now open portals near the final token leading to the bonus levels, and you can try again until you succeed or run out of patience. This is balanced by the fact that the boxes in the bonus stages are now required to obtain the Gem, making several Gems more difficult than expected^note Crates in Crash 1's bonus stages are more numerous than in the games after it, not to mention their placement; many of them feature long sections of crate bridges. Luckily, dying in Bonus Rounds doesn't remove a life, which would otherwise void No-Death Runs for the coloured gems.
  • Similarly, dying won't make the box counter reset like you could in the second and third game, compared to the original where your box count would not be recognized if you lost even one life. However, this only applies to clear gems; colored gems still have to be earned the hard way like in the original. What helps is that if you die before hitting the first checkpoint box, you don't need to leave and re-enter the level anymore.
  • For side-scrolling sections like the Bonus Rounds and Heavy Machinery, Crash can only move left and right. In the PS1 original, Crash still had full 3D movement, meaning the player could accidentally run off the stage, or get forced off by an exploding TNT crate.
  • Hints are included during the game's loading screens, and are specific for each level. For their more obscure secrets, such as in Temple Ruins' invisible box bridge that only appears when you step on them, the loading tip will allude to it.
  • The Pause screen now has the status menu present in Crash 2 onwards, including the colored Gem slots. The original game simply displayed "PAUSED" at the bottom of the screen.
  • Bounce crates have had the number of bounces required to break them reduced from ten to five, much like in Warped, and their "picky" behaviour has been removed so that you don't get nine bounces instead of ten for seemingly no reason. This makes them significantly easier to deal with them when they're in crate bridges like in the Bonus Rounds.
  • The boulders chasing the player character now destroy crates (like in the second and third games) rather than bouncing over them, making getting Gems in those levels much easier.
  • The geometry of Island 2 has been mirrored, so that now holding right always selects the next level no matter which island you're on. In the original game, Island 2's level progression was the only one that ran right to left, meaning that if you held right expecting to go from Island 1 and straight on to Island 3, you'd get stuck bouncing back and forth between Islands 1 and 2 until you realized the error.
  • A very minor one: at the end of Road to Nowhere is a Red Gem that leads to a secret invisible path with last remaining crates in the level. In the original game, you would have to jump back across the formerly-invisible yellow planks of the bridge to exit the level via the vortex and bank the crates, while in the remake, there's a second vortex near the crates for you to use instead. This isn't entirely unprecedented, as the Upstream level did this with its post-level Gem path, even in the PS1 original.
  • In "Toxic Waste", the paths leading up to the mobsters throwing bouncing barrels now have an indented/damaged floor in sections. This tells the player exactly where the bouncing barrels that were much-maligned in the original game will land.
  • The Stormy Ascent DLC also adds a warp panel on the world map which links N. Sanity Beach to Stormy Ascent, and thus cuts down on some of the backtracking needed when traversing the map (many of the Island 1 Gems can't be acquired without a coloured Gem from Island 3). While this is less useful for PS4 players who never bought the DLC^note as described under Downloadable Content below, it is now a free download and will remain so, Switch and Xbox One players will always have Stormy Ascent included with the game.
• Art Evolution:
  • The creepy prisoners from Slippery Climb, who were originally just a pair of eyes with a single arm coming out from between the bars, are revealed to be lanky old men with white beards, since they're no longer hidden in shadow.
  • The Blob Monsters that N. Brio makes with his chemicals now have faces, instead of just being featureless spheres. Also, stomping on them now causes them to squirt goo at Brio, which now justifies why his health goes down when you beat them.
• The Artifact:
  • Due to updates described above in Anti-Frustration Features, the "boxes missed" screen becomes this. You'll still have to see it at least six times for the levels you need colored gems for.
  • Averted with Tawna's bonus rounds. While their original purpose - being able to save the game - is gone, they were simply updated to serve the same purpose as bonus rounds in later games, to be a break in the action.
• Bottomless Magazines: Averted this time with Pinstripe's Tommy gun, as he is seen reloading it as he moves from one side of the room to the other, leaving him vulnerable.
• Bowdlerise:
  • A very slight and easy-to-miss case with Pinstripe and his goons. At first glance, their guns seem to be completely untouched. However, looking closely at the bullets they fire shows that they have fins on the back of them, making them look like very tiny missiles rather than conventional bullets. Considering such a thing does exist, and are even more destructive than conventional bullets, however, it could be considered a parody of the censorship all its own.
  • In the original game, Tawna was toned down in-game compared to her concept art. Here, she's further toned down, becoming less curvaceous. She's still plenty curvy, but less so.
• Call-Forward:
  • Due to the fact that Coco never made so much as an appearance in the original version of the game, her playable appearance here can be seen as this.
  • Fake Crash makes appearances in N. Sanity Beach and Heavy Machinery if you beat the game 100%, whereas in the original trilogy, he didn't show up until Warped.
  • The normal ending in the original showed Crash and Tawna reuniting on top of Cortex's blimp. Here, before this happens, we quickly see the beginning of the intro to the next game with Cortex falling to the ground after his defeat.
• Characterization Marches On: Tawna has been given some much-needed revisions to her character, as her depiction in the original was of a ditzy cheerleader who outshone Princess Peach as a Damsel in Distress object:
  • From a design standpoint, the Buxom Beauty Standard aspects of her design have been toned down with a more realistic (even for a Bandicoot) curvature and sporting a T-shirt instead of a crop-top.
  • In her intro cutscene, she's shown successfully knocking out one of Cortex's goons before being surrounded by an overwhelming swarm of them. In the original she was only held by her arms and made no attempt at trying to free herself. In the ending cutscene, she and Crash enjoy the sunset together, and in the 100% ending they actually show some loving affection for one another and share a kiss.
  • At the end of Bonus Rounds, rather than standing there to present your completion percentage, she is now taken away by Cortex to explain why Crash doesn't just grab her there and run. This does mean that she gets captured again at least fifteen times, but she is able to make it back to the Bonus Rounds again entirely on her own.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: The opening cutscene shows Tawna knocking out a lab assistant before the others surround her and overwhelm her with numbers.
• Damsel in Distress: Despite Curb Stomp Cushion in effect, Tawna suffers this more than the original; instead of randomly appearing at the end of the bonus rounds for no reason, the updated bonus rounds now have Cortex stealing Tawna away before Crash can reach her.
• Developer's Foresight: Heavy Machinery has a secret area that you can reach by jumping down a pit between two enemies, leading you backwards and then taking a platform back up. If you know where the secret is, you can now jump down the pit to where the exit of the secret area is!
• Downloadable Content: Stormy Ascent, the infamously difficult unused level from the original game, was released as a downloadable Brutal Bonus Level, free for its first 30 days and for the odd promotion. Since the game's ports for the PC and Nintendo Switch, where it was part of the core build, it became and remained a free download again for the PlayStation 4.
• Early-Bird Cameo: In a sense; the collection not only retains Fake Crash's cameos on Warped, they actually added a couple to this game as well, in N. Sanity Beach (on one of the temple steps) and Heavy Machinery (inside of a pipe).
• Grandfather Clause: The post-level "Great, but you missed X boxes!" sequence is left in for Rule of Funny despite being made irrelevant by the Anti-Frustration Features listed above.
• Guide Dang It!: The hint for Temple Ruins averts one instance but the advanced lighting from the original makes that hidden area visible from the normal path, doubly averting it.
  • Singly averted with Jaws of Darkness, as its hint is about something else but it's played straight with The High Road, where the secret area is by way of an invisible broken bridge that is fully Behind the Black.
• I Meant to Do That: The literal name of one of the achievements, awarded for spinning away an extra life, which most often occurs by accident otherwise.
• Kaizo Trap: An accidental example may come in the battle against Ripper Roo: if you happen to mistime your jumps and land on a Big TNT crate just as Ripper Roo is defeated, the crate will carry Crash away, which will lead to him dying if it happens at the bottom of the screen, since Crash will fall off and drown.
• My Name Is ???: After Brio ingests his chemicals, causing him to Hulk Out, the name on his health bar disappears and is replaced with "?!?"
• Mythology Gag:
  • Concept art of Tawna's original appearance included bangs which didn't make it to her final design. Her revamped appearance gives them back.
  • The redone intro cutscene for the first game shows eyes coming from cages labeled "koala" and "potoroo" (implying they're the pre-evolved Koala Kong and Pinstripe). Among them is a cage labeled "tiger", seemingly a reference to Tiny Tiger, who was planned to appear in the first game but was cut.
  • The notorious "Stormy Ascent", cut from the original game because the level had a bug that made the bonus round inaccessible and because it was too difficult ^note  and only accessible through Game Shark, is now available as paid DLC (or included for free in the base game if you own the PC/ Switch port of the game)
  • During the "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue, it notes that Koala Kong went to Hollywood and landed a movie deal of "universal proportions"- back when the franchise started, Universal owned it (thanks to corporate consolidations and mergers, Crash (and Spyro, for that matter) ended up with Activision).
• Nerf:
  • Zigzagged with Papu Papu. At first, the Japanese version of his battle is now the default: 5 hit points instead of 3, and faster swings. However, there's the removal of most of his invincibility frames. The original game gave him a very long period of invincibility that extended well into his next attack, forcing you to dodge him for a while before going in for another attack. Here, his invincibility ends immediately when he slams his staff again, potentially making the fight faster than the original despite the extra hits. His final attack is also nerfed, as he now slips backwards rather than fall forward.
  • Inverted: In the original game, Pinstripe's invincibility frames in the first phase of the fight ended after he started moving again, so you could keep spinning him to get him into his second phase almost immediately. Now, his invincibility lasts until he shoots and reloads again, forcing you to fight his first phase normally.
  • Another inversion: While the Brio fight is largely the same, there are some changes that make him quite a bit harder. In his first form, the room is smaller and his aim with the pink potions is much better, making them harder to dodge. In his second form, he moves much more slowly and will damage you if you're too hasty, which means you have to wait a few seconds until he gets closer while in the original, the waiting time was much shorter.
• No-Damage Run:
  • You have to do this to earn colored gems — if you die even once, the box counter at the end shows as an iron crate rather than a ? box. You even get a screen saying "Nearly perfect... but you died" if you get all the boxes but die in the process.
  • Just like in the original games, these are enforced during the Time Trials, which remove the Checkpoint boxes.
• Shout-Out:
  • The trophy for earning 10 gold or platinum relics, "Could Go...All..The..Way!", is a reference to a quote by sportscaster Chris Berman.
  • "Feeeed Meeeee!" is for getting eaten by one of the Venus Fly Traps, and is a reference to Little Shop of Horrors.
• Suddenly Voiced: Originally, Tawna and Koala Kong didn't make so much as a peep. Here, they at the very least have grunts provided by Debi Derryberry and Fred Tatasciore, respectively.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Crash now has unique animations based on how many boxes you miss in a level. Missing 40 or more produces a frequent enough stream that it knocks the poor marsupial unconscious. Doing so earns you the trophy "The Box That Broke the Bandicoot's Back".
• What the Hell, Player?: If you get all the boxes during a colored gem level but die, a screen shows up with "Nearly Perfect... but you died!" Both Crash and Coco will look around confused for a moment before glaring at you. It's the one time in the original series Crash will get angry. Coco also gives you a Death Glare when she gets up after being knocked unconscious by 40 or more boxes. This also happens if you accidentally (or perhaps deliberately) miss the gem after collecting the boxes.

Cortex Strikes Back

"If we don't have any friends left on the surface, then we'll need to find... an enemy."

After being defeated by Crash, Cortex comes across the Master Crystal beneath the ruins of his former castle. One year later, Cortex returns asking Crash for help from his new spaceship lair. It appears he's turned over a new leaf and now wants to warn Crash of an impending natural disaster which will destroy the Earth when all the planets align. Earth's salvation lies in crystals. Cortex already has the Master Crystal, but for it to work properly, Crash must collect for him the twenty-five Slave Crystals still on Earth's surface. Standing in his way is N. Brio, who wants to stop Cortex's plans by any means necessary.

---

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The time trials that first appeared in Warped are present here. As a result, the crystals and gems now appear on the sides of the level entrances instead of on top, to make room for the relics. Plus, Coco is playable here as well.
  • Like the first game, most bosses now have new defeats:
    • Ripper Roo gets his head stuck in the ground. When he pulls it out and collapses, his hair is gone.
    • When Komodo Joe hits Komodo Moe for the third time, they end up getting knocked out in a pile.
    • Once N. Gin is flung out to space, he's sent flying to the side rather than disappearing, allowing him to logically return for the sequel.
  • From a plot perspective, Cortex's final boss battle now has him visibly holding the Crystals, and the end of the tunnel has the Cortex Vortex, shown in the level's intro. This helps add the context that Cortex is fleeing through the tunnel to power up the station, rather than taking place in a tunnel in space for no apparent reason.
• Adapted Out: N. Gin's Badass Boast in his boss fight's end is omitted, so he screams in terror instead.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • One of the most common complaints about the game were the jetpack levels, which were clunky and difficult to control for a lot of fans. The game now includes an option to invert the controls specifically for the jetpack levels, meaning that Crash will move up instead of down when the player hits up, and so on. You can also control them with the shoulder buttons this time around (R2 to move forwards, L2 to move backwards), which is a lot more intuitive.
  • Because the game gives hints during the loading screens, several cases of Guide Dang It! can be avoided. For example, the hint when entering Turtle Woods is "Be kind to the boxes to earn a special gem." This clues the player in to the fact that they're supposed to avoid breaking any boxes in order to earn the Blue Gem.
  • Replaying boss levels is made much easier here. Originally, boss levels were replayed by holding triangle while Crash travels up to the next Warp Room. Not that the game ever tells you that. Here, the Save/Load screen, rendered useless by the fact that you can now save anytime with a touch of the L2 button, is turned into a portal that leads to the boss fight.
  • Bounce crates have had the number of bounces required to break them reduced from ten to five, much like in Warped, making it significantly easier to deal with them when they're in crate bridges. This was also applied to Crash 1.
  • Originally, the only way to ever reach the Secret Warp Room was from taking one of the secret exits, as exiting a level from that Warp Room will just take you back to the Warp Room of the level's normal entryway or the level of its activation.^note i.e. exiting from Snow Go's secret route will take you back to Warp Room 1, exiting from Totally Bear will take you to Warp Room 3 (Un-Bearable) etc. Now, once you have reached the Secret Warp Room from any of the secret exits, you can use the Warp Room's center platform to exit and revisit that Warp Room at anytime from under Warp Room 1.
  • As there were already numerous techniques that made speed-running much quicker in this game, the Sprint Shoes from Warped are given after beating the Final Boss. This makes the Relics somewhat easier to get.
  • TNT crates blink like they did in Crash 1, and Nitro crates have a brand new glowing effect. Both effects are visible in darkness, making it easier to tell where these crates are in the dark levels. This was also added to Warped.
  • The camera in the river levels is slightly altered, allowing you to actually see the mines ahead of you, making the timed gems significantly easier. Additionally, if you trigger the timer, dying simply resets it instead of removing it, unless you break another checkpoint before dying.
• The Artifact: Averted here. The game now allows the player to hit the L2 button at any time while in the Warp Room to save their game, so what was once the Save/Load screen, a blank wall that activates once the player stood in front of it, becomes the portal to the area's boss.
• Call-Forward:
  • Like in the first game, Fake Crash now appears here after 100% is achieved in the levels The Pits, Crash Crush, Hang Eight, Ruination, Cold Hard Crash, Rock It, and Totally Fly.
  • Also like the first game's normal ending, the 100% ending now shows part of the destroyed station falling to Earth, setting up Uka Uka getting free at the start of Warped.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • In the original, the Red Gem in Snow Go was notorious for being acquirable without entering its secret area by bouncing off of a seal or performing a Slide Spin Jump off a nearby Arrow Crate and then belly-flopping to grab it. Now the floating Red Gem is positioned further up, making it only accessible the intended way through the secret entrance.
  • It was possible to get the box gem in Road to Ruin without entering the secret area by either spinning the first opossum of the level at the ! Crate on the other side of the gap, or simply using the Slide Spin Jump exploit to make it to the other side. In here, the platform has been moved back ever so slightly and, combined with the faster speed at which Crash falls, it's impossible to get to the other side outside of the intended way.
  • Averted with Ruination; the Slide-Spin-Jump exploit still works to some extent, so it's possible to get to Ruination's Green Gem path without collecting the Green Gem from "The Eel Deal" first.
• Lost in Transmission: Some of Cortex's dialogue when speaking to Crash through the hologram is muffled by static. These muffled lines are actually bits of dialogue that are no longer relevant due to changes made to the game. For example, Cortex used to say "Use the platform to deliver the crystals to N. Gin", but since bosses are now accessed through portals, and not the platform, the static covers up part of the dialogue to have him just say "Deliver the crystals to N. Gin."
• Nerf:
  • Inverted: Komodo Moe's weapons now stick in the ground longer and still hurt upon touch. His throwing them around the room is also in a new pattern that now affects the whole room rather than just 75% of it.
  • Another inversion: N. Gin's final phase now attacks platforms at random rather than staying in a set pattern, now requiring quicker reactions to hit him.
  • Cortex now flies slowly enough that catching up to him is far easier. He also visibly panics when Crash is close enough to spin him, removing the guesswork in when you're able to hit him.
• Shout-Out:
  • Two of the achievementts for earning gold/platinum relics are "Kick the Tires!" and "Light the Fires!", which together reference a quote from Top Gun.
  • The trophy "Hang In There, Maybe!" for finding the secret exit in the level Hangin' Out refers to the famous Hang in there, Baby motivational posters.
  • In the PlayStation 4 version's intro, when Coco's laptop battery dies, she was shown watching a video of an Uncharted 4 cutscene, specifically the one where Nathan tries to beat Elena's high score in the original Crash Bandicoot.
  • With the updated graphics, the hammer-wielding lab assistants in the levels Diggin' It and Bee-Having bear a strong resemblance to a certain Plumber Boy.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Once again, Crash can jump up and down on Polar's head in the Warp Room to earn some extra lives, but now doing so also earns you the trophy "A Helping Paw".
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Instead of just randomly fighting Cortex like the original, Coco revealing Cortex's plans is shown to cause Cortex to grab the crystals and run with Crash in pursuit. If Crash can't beat him before he makes it through the portal in his boss run, Cortex effectively manages to do this. And his plan also succeeds.
• Violation of Common Sense: One of the secret warps that are hidden inside levels requires you to jump on top of a pile of Nitro boxes, which normally explode instantly the moment you touch them — with nothing other than a vague loading screen hint telling you that those particular ones are completely harmless.
• What the Hell, Player?: Just like in the original, if you haven't collected any crystals yet, Cortex will chew you out if you complete (or leave) a level without collecting its crystal. Doing it three times earns you the trophy "Cortex N. Furiated".

Warped

"None have dared to fail the great Uka Uka even once! But you, Cortex… you have failed me TWICE!"

After Cortex's second defeat, his spaceship crashes into a temple which frees the evil mask spirit, Uka Uka. Uka Uka reveals himself as Cortex's master and berates him for losing the gems and the crystals to Crash. Since Cortex's failure actually ended up freeing him, Uka Uka allows the doctor to aid him once again. They recruit Dr. N. Tropy to create the Time Twister, a warp room which will let them access alternate time periods so they can gather crystals from the past, and even the future! Sensing great danger, Aku Aku warns Crash and Coco about this plot and they race to the Time Twister. It's up to the Bandicoot siblings to travel through time, collect the crystals, and thwart Dr. Cortex for a third time running.

---

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • Coco is now playable in almost every level in the game as opposed to just a few. The exceptions are boss fights (other than N. Gin), underwater levels, and motorcycle levels. Conversely, Pura and Jet Ski levels, as well as the N. Gin fight, are still exclusive to her.
  • The audience in the Tiny fight, despite no longer booing when he gets hit, is much more involved. Doing the corner glitch during the lion attack will result in them throwing cheese at you, fighting it normally results in them doing the wave, and when Tiny is defeated, they pelt him with tomatoes. Cortex also no longer just sits there during the fight, but reacts to the fight and is furious when Tiny loses.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Orient Express and Midnight Run give Coco her new move-set from the fully playable levels, allowing you to move to Pura much faster.
  • Finishing one of the motorcycle levels without earning any of its items (relic, gem, or crystal) now presents you with a retry screen, meaning you don't have to sit through getting thrown back to the Time Twister and then re-entering the level before you can try again. It can still get annoying if you want to retry because you got one item and narrowly missed another, but it's still a welcome help.
  • TNT crates blink like they did in Crash 1, and Nitro crates have a brand new glowing effect. Both effects are visible in darkness, making it easier to tell where these crates are in the dark levels. This was also added to Crash 2.
  • The Fruit Bazooka can be aimed faster, shoots further, and will shoot through Wumpa fruit that are in the way (but can still be used to shoot and collect Wumpa fruit, if you aim directly at it), making it even more useful and reliable.
• The Artifact: The game allows the player to hit the L2 button^note which is used for the Bazooka in the main levels at any time while in the Warp Room to save their game, but leaves the Load/Save screen from the original game intact but without function. Instead, this is now where you first meet Coco face-to-face and gain the ability to freely switch between her and Crash with a push of the R2 button while in the Warp Room.
• Ascended Glitch: The cheesy method of avoiding Tiny's lion stampede (standing in the top left corner) not only returns, but is acknowledged by the audience watching the fight, who will start throwing cheese at Crash.
• A Storm Is Coming: A new addition to the intro. When Uka Uka is freed and Crash, Coco, Polar, and Aku Aku hear his Evil Laugh echoing in the distance, the sky starts to dim and a storm starts brewing.
• Awesome Aussie: Dingodile is this, being the only evolved (hybrid) animal to sport an accent of the continent he's native to, which seems to make him all the more badass. What's even better is that this time, he's portrayed by Fred Tatasciore.
• Badass Adorable: Take a note during the N. Gin boss. Coco is the pilot and attacking N. Gin in the first stage. The second stage? Pura the tiger comes in with a massive cannon attachment for Coco's ship, now giving her extra firepower.
• The Bad Guys Are Cops: The police cars in the motorcycle levels. With the remastered graphics, the slogan on the side of the vehicle can now be read, and it's "To Destroy and Catch Bandicoots".
• Bottomless Pit Rescue Service: Aku Aku serves this role in the motorcycle levels.
• Brutal Bonus Level: "Future Tense", the new original level from Vicarious Visions now available as a DLC. A run can be completed without finishing the game, but getting the box gem and the Hard Path gem absolutely requires the use of every single ability Crash gets throughout the game.
• Demonic Possession: Uka Uka occasionally possesses Cortex by forcibly attaching himself to Cortex's face. This is especially notable just before the final battle, where — like in the original Warped — he does it seemingly for the sole purpose of being able to have arms to angrily gesticulate with.
• Easter Egg:
  • Performing an Idle Animation that results in Crash either covered in wumpa fruit juice or tied up in his yo-yo in front of Coco will cause her to laugh. Doing the Crash dance in front of her, however, causes her to do the dance as well.
  • During Tiny's boss fight in the original game, if you stood in the top left corner of the arena when Tiny releases the lions, you could avoid being eaten by the lions entirely. The same glitch is now present here, but if you do it, the audience will throw cheese at Crash. In other words, you're being chastised for using a cheesy strategy.
• Edible Bludgeon: The Two-Headed Lab Assistant enemies from the level Double Header now carry cooked turkeys as weapons rather than wooden clubs.
• Happy Dance: Crash of course has his trademark dance, and now Coco does it too upon earning gems and relics.
• Meaningful Background Event: A hint on how to enter Hot Coco has been added to the level Road Crash, in the form of a bird smacking right into the entrance signpost.
• Metropolis Level: In addition to the original Future Frenzy and Gone Tomorrow levels, the remake adds the level Future Tense, where lab assistants driving flying cars can be seen in the background in addition to all the skyscrapers.
• Mythology Gag:
  • The Achievements for earning the relics ("Buckle Up, Boys, Buckle Up!", "Is There a Problem, Granny?!", and "Boo-yah, Grandma! Boo-yah!") are all quotes from a pair of old Crash Team Racing commercials. See them here and here.
  • The license plates of the enemy drivers in the motorcycle levels read 96-17. 96 refers to the release year of the first game, and the 17 refers to the release year of the N. Sane Trilogy.
  • The original Warped contained a demo of Spyro the Dragon (1998), which was accessed by inputting a code at the title screen (Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, Square). Hovering over Warped at the title screen of the N. Sane Trilogy and inputting the same code plays the trailer for the Spyro Reignited Trilogy.
• Named by the Adaptation: The penguin that appears in Dingodile's boss fight, Penta. Penta originally appeared in the Crash Bandicoot manga, and was a secret character in Crash Team Racing, but it was originally unclear if the penguin present here was Penta or just some random penguin. Beating Dingodile earns you the trophy "Penta's Revenge", confirming it to be him.
• Nerf:
  • N. Tropy on rematches. The first fight plays almost identically as in the original, but with the Death Tornado Spin you get for beating him, you can now fly over and hit him before you're supposed to. In the original, even spinning him while he's not tired will result in Crash getting disintegrated, and waiting on his platform will result in him killing you anyway; both of which tend to not occur on any average player, which is probably why Vicarious Visions missed on this one.
  • N. Gin's second form suffers from the much slower attack pattern he now has. However, his first form now changes altitude as well as moving left and right, so his machine guns can now attack the bottom of the screen in addition to the top.
• Produce Pelting: Performed during the Tiny battle. If you try hiding in the corner during the lion charge section, the audience pelts Crash with cheese. After Tiny is defeated, the audience starts throwing tomatoes at him.
• Production Foreshadowing: With the announcement of the Spyro Reignited Trilogy, the original code to play the Spyro the Dragon (1998) demo in Warped was given functionality through a patch, and it now plays the new Spyro trailer. However, even before that patch, putting in the code would cause the cursor on the menu to disappear, which seemed to indicate that something Spyro-related was in production.
• Production Throwback: The beginning of the N. Tropy battle theme is slightly altered to emphasize the part that went on to be the main rhythm of Tropy's battle theme in Crash Bandicoot 2: N-Tranced, which was also made by Vicarious Visions. Since this happens in a remake of a game that came beforehand, this can also count as a Call-Forward of sorts.
• Rings of Activation: Crash and Coco are teleported into the Time Twister in beams of yellow rings.
• Shout-Out:
  • The trophy "Your Moment of Zen" is a reference to the recurring concluding segment on The Daily Show.
  • In the PlayStation 4 version's intro cutscene, there's a photo of Nathan Drake sitting on a shelf next to the fireplace.
  • The hint for Future Tense indicates every power-up must be used by spoofing Spider-Man's Catchphrase: "With great powers come great opportunities".
• Suddenly Voiced: In the original game, albeit only this game, Coco was The Voiceless. In this version, however, she makes gameplay grunts uniform with her roles in the other two games here.
  • Aku Aku is also suddenly speaking, whereas he only ever said his noted catchphrase, "Boodabaga," in the first two games.
• What the Hell, Player?: Running into a bomb or a Nitro crate in Coco's jetski levels now causes her to give you an accusing Death Glare as she is floating in the water.