Late to the Party: Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

ow that the character is over 24 years old, Crash Bandicoot has amassed a generation of fans that look at him with the same reverence as Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog—he’s a household name among Generation Z. On that token though, beyond the remastered releases and cameos, just how relevant is the property today’s gaming climate? Ironically enough, one of the biggest attractions the marsupial had over its competition was its sense of exclusivity, both in terms of gameplay difficulty and the platform brand the property wore heartily on its sleeve.

Interestingly, the Crash Bandicoot property made its bread and butter on appealing to the public as the coolest outlier on the market with the PlayStation, but as the years have passed, the marsupial mascot has evolved into a far more accessible franchise. That sentiment couldn’t be more apparent than the latest entry from developer Toys for BoB, and publisher Activision, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.

With the success of the remastered trilogy, the developer was tasked with releasing a new sequel that would invoke the initial spirit of Bandicoot’s PlayStation outings, and thankfully, Toys For BoB answered that call with a game that successfully caters to everyone like no other entry before it, and is easily the best Crash game to date.

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QCF: Skylanders: Super Chargers

 don’t make it a habit of comparing video games franchises to movie ones, but in this case, I couldn’t help but feel that the contrast that came to mind was an appropriate one to make—are any of you familiar with the Rocky series? I mean, I would hope you all are, but even if you’re not, there’s one fact about the franchise that’s universally known by the general public; the number of sequels it has, and which ones are the good ones.

It works out when it comes to setting the tone for this review because I think the movies, and their respective role as sequels within the continuity of Rocky help serve as a definitive allegory to the Skylanders series of video games.

The original Rocky is Spyro’s Adventure, and Rocky II is fairly comparable to Giants, Swap-Force is just barely up to par with Rocky III, and Trap Team is the same Magnum Opus for the series that Rocky IV is.

The latest entry to the series that pioneered the Toys-To-Life genre in video games is Super Chargers, Vicarious Visions’ second contribution to the franchise after Swap Force, and much like the aforementioned comparison, it’s a lot like Rocky V.

Super Chargers is an unnecessary sequel that hardly adds anything to the Skylanders formula, only working to show its age, and dwindling sense of appeal instead.

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QCF: Skylanders Swap Force

emember when you landed on those Card-playing mini-game spots that were scattered through various overworld maps in Super Mario Bros 3. that required you match three pieces of a Mushroom, Fire Flower, or Power Star? Yeah, and if you ever stopped the button press on the wrong piece to whatever you first choose, you would have this swapped abomination of Mario sin that awarded you nothing—Well, that’s the newest gimmick in the latest Skylanders entry.

A main entry into the franchise developed by Vicarious Visions entirely this time around, the Skylanders team is aware of Disney and Nintendo even are now dabbling in the toy craze that Activision and Toys for Bob have introduced to us back in 2011 and Skylanders has to do a little more than make them bigger. That’s where Swapforce comes in, the 2013 sequel encourages players to break the newest toys to join the line in half, and interchange them into different combinations.

While the notion of Portal Masters getting to play Frankenstein sounds like a promising one, the Pandora’s Box of seeking out and buying the new figures is starting to wear out its welcome, and it’s a shame too; considering all of the other improvements make it the best game yet otherwise.

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