As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
General
- After so many years of waiting... CRASH IS BACK!!!
- The amount of love and care Vicarious Visions has put into recreating each level is astounding. You can tell they studied Naughty Dog's original games in excruciating detail. They even went so far as to recreate the original game covers in the new style for complete authenticity. And they look incredible.
- Naughty Dog has praised the N. Sane Trilogy. Yes, you read that right. Naughty Dog, previously staunch believers that Only the Creator Does It Rightnote , praised a Crash Bandicoot game not developed by them. Possibly the highest honour that could be bestowed upon Vicarious Visions and a fitting recognition of the care and effort they've put into the games.
- Coco is Promoted to Playable and officially an Action Girl with her ability to play almost any level from any game and use all of Crash's available skills.
- To amplify the awesomeness, how does she do this? By hacking N. Tropy's Time Twister contraption, using their own weapon to kick their butts back and forth in time.
- Note that Coco is more than just a skin of Crash, they've given her the same amount of characterisation and animations as him throughout the three games. She even has almost as many death animations as Crash (which is also an impressive case of slapstick).
- The intro cutscene when you open the game, which features a machine that takes Crash from a very well-reconstructed version of his low-poly PlayStation self to the new remastered PlayStation 4 version.
- N. Sane Trilogy was the #1 selling game
on the European PSN for June 2017. The really impressive part is that the game was released on June 30, the final day of the month. In other words, Crash Bandicoot sold more digital copies than all the other games in the chart did the whole month in one day. It even managed to retain its top spot in the European video game sales in general well into the following month, fending it off from titles such as those plus the highly anticipated launch of Splatoon 2 on the Nintendo Switch. Such a performance is definitely a good sign for those looking into the future of the franchise.- The N. Sane Trilogy's own release on the Switch almost exactly a year later propelled it back to the #1 spot worldwide.
- N. Sane Trilogy managed to be #4 in the US for June 2017 including both digital and physical copies, again with only one day of sales. The only games beating it were Tekken 7, Injustice 2, and Grand Theft Auto V.
- Keith Webb, who was one of the people involved in Crash Twinsanity, congratulated Vicarious Visions on the success of the game and not only encouraged a remake of Twinsanity, but hopes he and other ex-devs can be involved. Whether you loved or hated Twinsanity, it's still another neat testament to the N. Sane Trilogy's success that someone behind it is giving approval of it.
- While there is a Broken Base surrounding it, for some, at least, the fact that the game is appearing on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC via Steam is nice. What makes this especially notable is that while the Crash series had been multiplatform before, this is the first time any form of the original three games are appearing outside of the PlayStation consoles.
- The backstory behind the ports is itself this: one particularly dedicated developer decided to take the first level of Crash 1, port it to the Switch over the weekend, on his own time, and then show the finished product to the rest of the dev team the following week. That's right - the passion of a single guy is the reason the ports even exist at all.
- The fruits of that single employee's labor over a single weekend: As of May 2019, the title became the second best selling third party game on the Nintendo Switch in America. The only title to surpass it in sales in that time was Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle.
- The N. Sane Trilogy was completed in only a year and a half, by a team of 40 employees. That is nothing short of miraculous, and very in-line with the development history of the original three games taking place within a year of one another.
- The fact that this game's massive success paved the way for a remake of the original Spyro the Dragon trilogy certainly qualifies.
- The success of this game has also led to not only a remake of the series' first spin-off, but also the release of a brand new game two years later. Crash is truly back, and he's here to stay!
Crash Bandicoot (1996)
- Seeing Cortex Castle in all its HD glory is something that must be seen to be believed.
- Watching Tawna knock out a Lab Assistant is breathtaking. Even though the rest of them overwhelm her after that, it's still impressive.
- For that matter, if you go to Tawna's Bonus Stages via collecting her emblems, it's hinted that she escaped Cortex's grasp in time for every one of them. You can tell this because Cortex has to go right back up and grab her again. Not bad for someone who took an HD remake to get a major role again.
- The fans asked, and they received: Stormy Ascent is now available as a DLC level pack.
- One of the reasons Stormy Ascent was Dummied Out of the original was that its bonus stage was bugged and couldn't be debugged in time. As a consequence, there was nothing available to use for the remake. Meaning that the bonus stage in the DLC is something Vicarious Visions created from scratch! And it's an excellently hard bonus stage, putting your jumping and timing skills to the ultimate test, worthy of Stormy Ascent.
- During the boulder levels, Crash and Coco will initially appear panicked and scared, occasionally looking back to the boulder and looking forward again temporarily looking more scared. However, if you get to the last boulder without dying, both drop the panicked look and run the final section without looking terrified at all. This also applies to "Crash Dash" and "Crash Crush" in Cortex Strikes Back.
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back
- The final battle against Cortex is given a little more context: when Coco reveals his plans, Cortex grabs the crystals and runs, forcing Crash to come after him. Cortex is the first villain of the series to nearly accomplish Villain: Exit, Stage Left.
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped
- Coco using a fruit bazooka. Notable because it shows that this time she also shares Crash's skillset.
- Though the remixed music is definitely worth a mention both here as well as in the Awesome Music section, special note goes to the remix of Dingodile's theme. The general fan response is that the new version is actually better than the already heavily beloved original.
- Pura the tiger comes in to help Coco with the second stage of the N. Gin fight. Amusing in and of itself, but Pura attaches to Coco's ship with a massive cannon attachment and effectively takes over as the gunner during the second stage.
- Coinciding with the trilogy's multi-platform release, Warped received its own Brutal Bonus Level: Future Tense. A completely original level, entirely created by Vicarious Visions!! And if general fan opinion is anything to go by, it's every bit as good as (if not outright better than) anything Naughty Dog could have made themselves. Finally, someone other than the creator did it right!
- Well, the basic idea is actually taken from an Dummied Out Crash 1 level, "Waterfall". Even so, taking the Dummied Out level and bringing it to a full experience almost as a homage is awesome in itself.
- According to the developers, the level is conceived to be beatable if you try it at the start of a brand new game. But if you intend to 100% it, you must beat Warped first, because you will need the power ups to do so! The level clue is clear:
- The "Future Tense" DLC is free. Of course, it's partly graphical and speed updates, but that means the level itself is free content instead of paid like "Stormy Ascent" was.
