Crash Bandicoot Trilogy: Remastered

J. Marston

First trailer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fbO2-egZ3U

When it was first announced, I was giddy but seeing it now, it just seems off somehow. Crash's model especially. Dunno.

Sonics2k

Looks like I'm off to buy a PS4.

Digital Solitude

Emulators sonics?

Needless imo, no one I know misses the Crash series, the first game is fairly poor anyways, as is the third.

CiDeRmAn

The third was the best of them, pity they didn't inside Crash Team Racing as well.
The first one is fun but very limited, certainly not in the same class as Mario 64, and none of the Crash titles are as interesting as Banjo Kazooie, also on the N64.

Sonics2k

Digital Solitude wrote: »

Emulators sonics?

Needless imo, no one I know misses the Crash series, the first game is fairly poor anyways, as is the third.

Meh, there's a few decent looking games coming out for the PS4 over the next year, namely this and FFVII. My PS3 from release is dying quickly and will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

Also DS, pretty sure that's blasphemy. Crash games were brilliant fun.

Digital Solitude

Sonics2k wrote: »

Meh, there's a few decent looking games coming out for the PS4 over the next year, namely this and FFVII. My PS3 from release is dying quickly and will need to be replaced sooner rather than later.

Also DS, pretty sure that's blasphemy. Crash games were brilliant fun.

You'll have Bloodborne too!

I think they're fun but they really aren't great

SeantheMan

Digital Solitude wrote: »

You'll have Bloodborne too!

I think they're fun but they really aren't great

Yeah , a lot of these companies are going for nostalgia value as opposed to working on new IPs.
I don't think there's ever been a few year (prob the last 3) with the same amount of remasters.

Retr0gamer

It's a good move remastering these games and I'm guessing it cost Sony an absolute fortune to get the license for it. The majority of people playing games now grew up with Crash.

The only problem is the Crash games were never that good. They're decent and perfectly playable but compared to the likes of the better platformers like the sonic and Marios of the world they are really lacking. Even on the PS1 they were outclassed by the likes of Tomba and Klonoa. Crash just got their first.

Gonzo

never played any Crash title, at the time I was far too busy playing Super Mario World on the SNES and later on Mario 64. Might give these remaster's a shot when they released.

gooch2k9

Spyro(original trilogy) would have benefitted from e remaster better than this. It'd suit the more open-worldness of it.

The bits where it wiped from old to new visuals didn't always look better after the wipe.

madcabbage

I'd only play it to ride the polar bear, those levels cracked me up!

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's a good move remastering these games and I'm guessing it cost Sony an absolute fortune to get the license for it. The majority of people playing games now grew up with Crash.

They didn't need to get the licence for it, the trilogy is being published by Activision and developed in-house by Vicarious Visions. The publisher owns the licence through its merger with Vivendi and their previous merger with Universal back in 2000. I'm pretty sure the Spyro licence is in the same boat as Insomniac and Naughty Dog were originally on the same Universal lot and made similar deals with the company in their early days.

Varik

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It's a good move remastering these games and I'm guessing it cost Sony an absolute fortune to get the license for it. The majority of people playing games now grew up with Crash.

Doubt it, more likely Sony and Activision testing the waters. Even if people were shouting and cheering at events it's not guaranteed to sell any way decently.

They spent as little as possible.

Retr0gamer

It might have been easy to get activision on board but Universal own the rights to the crash character. I'd say the delay in getting a crash remake has been negotiations with universal up until this point. I doubt they let Sony have it for cheap. Whatever you can say about the original games quality this is going to be a massive seller to the now grown up generation that started with crash ( I feel so sorry for them :P )

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It might have been easy to get activision on board but Universal own the rights to the crash character. I'd say the delay in getting a crash remake has been negotiations with universal up until this point. I doubt they let Sony have it for cheap. Whatever you can say about the original games quality this is going to be a massive seller to the now grown up generation that started with crash ( I feel so sorry for them :P )

Nope, as I said above, Universal owned the rights until they merged with Vivendi in 2003, becoming Vivendi Universal Games. Then in 2007 Vivendi Games merged with Activision at which point the licences were absorbed into the publishing label of the newly formed Activision Blizzard, where they have remained.

There's definitely still a relationship with Sony though as Skylanders did see the Crash related content have a period of exclusivity on the Sony platforms for a month or so with the Crash Starter Pack.

Varik

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It might have been easy to get activision on board but Universal own the rights to the crash character. I'd say the delay in getting a crash remake has been negotiations with universal up until this point. I doubt they let Sony have it for cheap. Whatever you can say about the original games quality this is going to be a massive seller to the now grown up generation that started with crash ( I feel so sorry for them :P )

If Gizmo stuff wasn't enough.

https://twitter.com/amboyes/status/729198412592078848?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Retr0gamer

That's me told!

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

That's me told!

Heh, it was all new to me too except I was more surprised Sony themselves didn't own the licence given its association with the Playstation brand. Evidently all the faffing about with the Crash licence between Naughty Dog and Universal was what led Sony to eventually buy the studio outright so that they wouldn't be in the same situation again with Jak & Daxter down the line. Worked out kinda well for them in the long run I think.

Penn

I've seen some people online complaining about how Crash himself looks.

What the hell do they expect him to look like?

heebusjeebus

Penn wrote: »

I've seen some people online complaining about how Crash himself looks.

What the hell do they expect him to look like?

PS4 should be able to render him better!

Retr0gamer

gizmo wrote: »

Heh, it was all new to me too except I was more surprised Sony themselves didn't own the licence given its association with the Playstation brand. Evidently all the faffing about with the Crash licence between Naughty Dog and Universal was what led Sony to eventually buy the studio outright so that they wouldn't be in the same situation again with Jak & Daxter down the line. Worked out kinda well for them in the long run I think.

Strange to see their humble beginnings because before crash they made nothing but absolutely crap. Say what I will about the quality of the game crash was a technical marvel on the ps1.

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Strange to see their humble beginnings because before crash they made nothing but absolutely crap. Say what I will about the quality of the game crash was a technical marvel on the ps1.

Yup and made all the more impressive when you consider there were only two programmers on the game. Hell, this bug still makes me shudder every time I read about it.

Retr0gamer

There was a good retrogames article with the coders. It's one of the few ps1 games that use high res mode and yet it gives a pretty solid 30 fps despite the use of a lot of texture maps.

readyletsgo

Penn wrote: »

I've seen some people online complaining about how Crash himself looks.

What the hell do they expect him to look like?

Like the skylanders Crash TBH. I was very put off by that trailer. It looks good tbf, but I won't be buying it.

gizmo

Retr0gamer wrote: »

There was a good retrogames article with the coders. It's one of the few ps1 games that use high res mode and yet it gives a pretty solid 30 fps despite the use of a lot of texture maps.

Oh, got a link? Not familiar with the site at all and wouldn't mind giving that a read.

Retr0gamer

It was in the retrogamer magazine (stupid autocorrect) don't think it's one of their free articles.

Frisbee

Really looknig forward to this. Sure, the games weren't great themselves, but even for the nostalgia alone I'll be getting this on release. Hopefully if it's successful we see CTR following.

gooch2k9 wrote: »

Spyro(original trilogy) would have benefitted from e remaster better than this. It'd suit the more open-worldness of it.

Happier seeing Crash, but as above with CTR, hopefully if this is successful we see a re-master foe the first couple of Spyro games. Would love to play Gateway to Glimmer again.

Varik

Can't remember who it was but there was an article with a quote from another developer (not related to ND) speaking about his thoughts when crash was shown first for the PS1 and how their use of polygons completely outclassed the contemporary approach they were using at the time.

Retr0gamer

They used a mix of textured and Gouraud shading to reduce memory usage so they could get High res working at a decent framerate. They also heavily used the Playstation's ability to stream data while the game was playing which wasn't typical for the time (The PS1 had a terrible CD drive but he streaming ability gave it a massive advantage over the likes of the Saturn with it's much faster drive for large open games and even later on managing to outclass the Saturn in load times in many cases).

Their animation was excellent as well, deforming the polygons rather than using key frame jerky animation. Naughty Dog at the moment are pretty much the best in the business at animation, I'd go so far to say they outclass most Hollywood CGI work considering their animation in game can't be situation specific and employs extremely clever AI routines.

ItsHoggie

gooch2k9 wrote: »

Spyro(original trilogy) would have benefitted from e remaster better than this. It'd suit the more open-worldness of it.

The bits where it wiped from old to new visuals didn't always look better after the wipe.

Now that's a remaster I could get behind,
Or a Jak & Daxter one

Paully D

Released in 9 days.

Any hype or interest in this at all?

Retr0gamer

I'll buy it because it's cheap but the Crash games are b tier platformers especially the first one. Quite like the third one though.

J. Marston

Looking forward to it. Enjoyed the games immensely when I was younger.

Apparently you can play through all 3 as Coco Bandicoot now, for whatever that's worth.

Retr0gamer

If she controls a little differently it would be a nice bonus.

Penn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

If she controls a little differently it would be a nice bonus.

No difference in controls or abilities. Think she does a butt-slam rather than a full body-slam and that's basically it. Unique death animations and the like.

I can't wait to play this. Loved the originals and everything I've seen about this remaster shows that they've just nailed it.

Phoenix Wright

Have this pre-ordered for 40 euro at Smyths. Is there any place where I can find a physical copy at a cheaper price?

Penn

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

Have this pre-ordered for 40 euro at Smyths. Is there any place where I can find a physical copy at a cheaper price?

Maybe Argos but I doubt it'll be too much cheaper. Likely won't know the price until day of release either.

Retr0gamer

Penn wrote: »

No difference in controls or abilities. Think she does a butt-slam rather than a full body-slam and that's basically it. Unique death animations and the like.

I can't wait to play this. Loved the originals and everything I've seen about this remaster shows that they've just nailed it.

Pity. Would be great to have a luigi type character to change it up.

I wonder if the fixed the annoying idle spin I'm the first game. It was updated in the later games.... i think. So many needless deaths over that.

J. Marston

Coco gameplay...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed3RyjC6GyY

Just an aesthetic change by the looks of it.

Looks like a really well done remake though.

SeantheMan

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'll buy it because it's cheap but the Crash games are b tier platformers especially the first one. Quite like the third one though.

40e isn't really cheap though considering what ye can get for that price these days (new games on sale all the time)

Penn

SeantheMan wrote: »

40e isn't really cheap though considering what ye can get for that price these days (new games on sale all the time)

I think the hours it would take to complete the game make up the difference though. The three games and especially the third one, you could put some hours into them even just making half an attempt to collect as many of the non-necessary crystals/gems/relics as you can.

I know I'll probably be a lot better at the game now than way back when just due to experience and better hand-eye co-ordination etc, but from what I remember to get most of the crystals/gems/relics will take a good few attempts at each level, and there's 3 games worth now (including time trials for the first two games where there wasn't before).

I was a bit surprised when I heard the price at first, but I think compared to some of the money I've spent on other games, both new and on sale, I'll get the value from it at that price.

Retr0gamer

SeantheMan wrote: »

40e isn't really cheap though considering what ye can get for that price these days (new games on sale all the time)

40 euro for 2 okay games and one very good game (and the okay ones are still worth playing) with updated graphics, I'd still call that a bargain.

Especially compared to what Activision will likely charge for COD MW remake

Phoenix Wright

Retr0gamer wrote: »

40 euro for 2 okay games and one very good game (and the okay ones are still worth playing) with updated graphics, I'd still call that a bargain.

Out of interest, which of the three is the one very good game you are referring to? Based on videos I have watched on YouTube and some threads on Reddit, people generally view Crash 2 as being the best of the three.

I'm not sure I agree with that though - I personally thought Warped was far better.

Retr0gamer

I'm with you, I thought Warped was heaps of fun with some great level design. 2 was a more refined version of the first.

Penn

Yeah I preferred Warped as well. Though there is something to be said for the simplicity of CB2.

Phoenix Wright

Penn wrote: »

Yeah I preferred Warped as well. Though there is something to be said for the simplicity of CB2.

I'm looking forward to seeing how both of them fare next week. I never owned the first game growing up, really struggled with it on ePSXe.

Penn

Phoenix Wright wrote: »

I'm looking forward to seeing how both of them fare next week. I never owned the first game growing up, really struggled with it on ePSXe.

I imagine CB1 will be easier than the original anyway just by virtue of the fact it's designed for analog sticks now rather than D-pad only. In fact I think that applies to the second game too, although I don't remember it being as difficult as the first.

Retr0gamer

The first game had the world's dumbest save system and a idle spin that carried you forward. Fix them please.

Also the bridge levels we god awful gauntlets of dick move design.

Penn

Retr0gamer wrote: »

The first game had the world's dumbest save system and a idle spin that carried you forward. Fix them please.

Also the bridge levels we god awful gauntlets of dick move design.

Didn't remember the bridge levels, had to check youtube. Yeah... They were not fun...

Paully D

I'm sure it's probably just an error, but I popped into an Argos a few minutes ago and typed the name of the game in to see what price they are selling it at.

It came up at €38.99 and they also had 8 in their stockroom available. From past experience, Argos don't list games that you can't purchase there and then, but I could be wrong on that. I didn't try to purchase it so I'm unsure if it would have worked or something would have popped up on their end telling them not to sell until Friday.

As there's not much hype around this and staff may not be on to it, it may be worth popping into your local Argos and chancing your arm.

brianregan09

Its not on the website