6 Reasons To Be Excited For Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time!

We have literal days before the release of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. It’s been a long time coming, this game is something that people have been anticipating for a long, long time. Many people, myself included, never even touched a Crash game since Warped came out in 1998. Everyone could tell there was something off about the next Crash game, Wrath of Cortex. It wasn’t bad, necessarily, but something had inherently changed with the series from that point on. After that Crash started fading into obscurity until he was barely heard from at all. Then came the N.Sane trilogy and Crash was back, plus he looked better than ever! The N.Sane Trilogy was inarguably a smashing success and it brought back into the spotlight, so it wasn’t a complete surprise when Crash Bandicoot 4 was officially announced. Now the game is almost here, and everything we’ve heard about the game since its announcement has been really good. There’s a ton of reasons to be excited, so I thought I’d compile them here!

So let’s get to it! Here are some of the biggest reasons you should be excited about Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time!

Continuing From Warped

I know there are probably some people who enjoyed the Crash games following Warped, but the story turned into something of a mess. It’s About Time is going to set all of that right. The game will be picking up where Warped left off, with a whole new original story. It will ignore all the games that followed the 1998 game and tread its own path. Following their defeat in Warped, Uka Uka is not impressed with Doctor Neo Cortex and Doctor Nefarious Tropy. Through his tantrums, Uka Uka seems to create a hole through space and time that links them to various universes.

Aku Aku, Uka Uka’s brother, senses this and asks Crash and Coco for help to stop them. Together, they embark on a journey to find the Quantum Masks. These masks possess various powers and will help in stopping the villains’ plot to rule the multiverse. The story will feature an alternate universe version of Crash’s old girlfriend, Tawna, and Dingodile who is no longer a villain. Where the story goes from there is beyond our knowledge, but the whole thing has potential at least. It’s definitely more ambitious than the original trilogies and looks like it will have a slightly more cinematic feel to it.

Ignoring the games since Warped probably won’t be a universally praised move, but so far it looks like people are eager to see this new timeline that Toys For Bob is crafting. We can only hope it actually lives up to expectation.

Multiple Playable Characters

So, you may be thinking that multiple playable characters aren’t new to the Crash Bandicoot series, and that may be true. We’ve played as Coco in the past and Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time will allow the entire game to be played as Coco, that part is also true. This time, however, there are more playable characters than ever before. You’ll be able to play as Doctor Neo Cortex, and he will play completely differently than Crash and Coco. Cortex will use his gun to change platforms and he also possesses a dashing ability. The fun doesn’t stop there though. Dingodile will also be a playable character throughout Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time. Based on the trailers it looks like he’ll be using a sort of vacuum as a weapon. Finally, from what I’ve been able to gather, Tawna will also be playable!

That’s a whole lot of different characters and a whole lot of variety! There’s not telling the exciting mechanics all these characters could bring to the table. The Crash Bandicoot series is also known for having excellent level design, if you pair that up with a bunch of unique characters things can only get better from there. Are these characters going to be the only new ones playable? Well, that’s something I can’t answer yet, unfortunately. It’s completely possible there are more characters waiting to be discovered on October 2nd when the game finally releases. For now, we can at least look forward to spinning, shooting, and vacuuming our way through the world of Crash 4.

New Abilities

We’ve had a few moments in the Crash games that change the way we play. We’ve had levels where we run from things towards the camera, levels where we acquire a vehicle, and even under-water levels. None of these were necessarily new powers though. You could also acquire some new abilities. From what I recall there was a super spin, the ability to dash and I think there was even a bazooka at some point. Those are all cool, to be sure but it looks like Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is going to take it to a completely different level. The game is going to play a lot like the original trilogy, it’s a platforming game through and through. These new abilities are going to enhance the platforming in a variety of ways.

These powers are completely out there and seem to stem from the various masks you will be sent to collect on your journey. One mask will allow you to phase objects in and out of existence. If you see a blue aura around certain objects this signifies that the object can be phased in some way. You’ll be able to completely avoid certain obstacles with this power and picking if and when to use it will be an important factor if you want to get through all these new challenges.

You will also acquire power over time, where Crash and Coco can slow time. This will make it easier to jump on certain platforms and can even, presumably, slow enemies down making them easier to kill or avoid. There will be a mask of gravity, that allows you to shift the direction in which gravity flows. We’ve seen this in trailers, with Crash running on ceilings and such. Finally, there will be a mask of dark matter. This mask will allow Crash and Coco to spin like lunatics and glide. It can also be used to break certain objects.

All-in-all we have an awesome variety of powers to use, and mastering them all is going to be a heck of a fun time, I bet.

Multiplayer

That’s right! Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time will have some sort of multiplayer functionality. There’s going to be a four-player mode called Bandicoot Battle. This mode will work as a sort of competitive time trial mode. Another mode, called Crate Combo, will have players competing to break as many crates in a level as possible. There will also be a cooperative mode where players can take turns going through the single-player levels. Until we actually get our hands in the game though it’s hard to speculate on how much fun these games will be. I somehow doubt they’ll be terrible, though.

I honestly can’t say too much more about this section, just because I haven’t played them yet. You can check them out in the Multiplayer Reveal Trailer above though!

100 Levels & N.Verted Mode

Obviously, you should be excited for these! These are going to be the bread and butter of the entire game. We’ve been told that Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is going to feature over 100 playable levels. That’s a lot of levels. It’s more than any of the original three games. Crash Bandicoot featured 28 levels in the N.Sane trilogy, Crash 2 had 27 in the N.Sane Trilogy and Crash 3 featured 33 levels if you include the hidden levels. Now, I could be wrong about this. It’s been a loooong time since I’ve been through these games. If my math adds up, though… Crash Bandicoot 4 is going to feature more levels than the entire original trilogy. How N.Sane is that!? If they’re each as lovingly crafted as the older games were this is going to be the definitive Crash Bandicoot game!

This news alone is enough to make anyone excited for this game, but Toys For Bob took it a step further. Once you complete the game you will unlock a sort of mirror mode called N.verted mode. Not satisfied with just flipping the levels, each of the mirror levels will feature some special design or gimmick that makes them more interesting. Every single level will have this, and it won’t just change be visual changes some of the levels will feature mechanic changes as well. Item locations will change too!

Now, it’s possible I’m getting ahead of myself and that what is meant is that It’s About Time will feature a hundred levels including N.verted mode but I’m hoping that isn’t the case. If so, we could technically look at this as 200 levels, which would be amazing!

Costumes!

That’s right! Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time will feature different outfits for Crash and Coco. Best of all… They won’t be available through microtransactions! They will be fully unlockable in the game, according to a previous trailer. What else can I say about that?

Now You Know Why You Should Be Excited!

There you have it, folks! Six reasons you should be excited about the upcoming Crash Bandicoot game. Will it live up to the hype? Only time will tell, but so far all signs point to a resounding yes. It looks like TFB and Activision have crafted this game with the utmost respect for the franchise. I really think they just want to make the best Crash Bandicoot game that they can, and if all goes well… they definitely have.

Crash Bandicoot 4 will be available on October 2nd for the Playstation 4 and the Xbox One! It’s not too late to pre-order the games, either! Pre-ordering will get you the Totally Tubular skins which is, well, totally tubular dude!