Nikoderiko: The Magical World (Multi) Review

We have a new game to review! It's an indie 2D/2.5D/3D platformer--a mix of all three, really! It's Nikoderiko: The Magical World, and the SuperPhillip Central verdict is here.

 Crashing the Country

Allow me to preface this review with something most likely obvious from glimpses of screenshots and/or trailers of Nikoderiko: The Magical World: I'm going to mention the words "Donkey Kong Country" and "Crash Bandicoot" quite a bit throughout this review. When the inspiration is so intense and palpable, it's somewhat difficult not to, especially since Nikoderiko wears its clear inspirations on the main character's rolled up sleeves. That said, does Nikoderiko: The Magical World do anything to cast aside as just being a clone of these two games rolled up into one unique title? 

Despite being derivative, Nikoderiko: The Magical World can be a wheel-y good time occasionally.

Nikoderiko: The Magical Journey has no intention of hiding where it's cribbing its ideas and concepts from. Between collecting letters in levels that spell out "N-I-K-O" to hidden barrels that blast its players into secret bonus areas to perform tasks such as "collect all stars", "defeat them all", or "find the key" for golden trinkets, you sort of have to admire the development team's chutzpah in how brazen and blatant it all is on the Donkey Kong Country side, particularly Tropical Freeze. Then, there's aspects like picking up barrels, treasure chests, and other objects to chuck at enemies or breakable walls, once more to reveal secrets. 

Two secret bonus barrels like this one are cleverly hidden away in each level. 

Not to leave out a certain former PlayStation mascot, Nikoderiko: The Magical World takes aspects from Crash Bandicoot as well, putting players into somewhat seamless transitions from 2.5D gameplay to 3D, either running away from the screen or towards it, Crash-style. There's also purple diamond collectibles, one in each level, to obtain as well, though these don't have asinine conditions like some Crash games where you have to backtrack through somewhat significant portions of stages to collect them. So, Nikoderiko has THAT going for it, at least.

Now, I might not be playing fair to Nikoderiko: The Magical World, as it's not necessarily a detrimental thing necessarily to be derivative. In fact, combining the gameplay styles and dimensions of a 2D/2.5D platformer like Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze with Crash Bandicoot is unique all to itself. Most of the time in the levels, even, it's done in a clever enough way. 

Niko and the other playable character, Luna, play similarly to one another. Though it was preferable to play as Niko to hear all the voice lines and quips the mouthy mongoose had to offer in levels, whereas with Luna, she's silent as can be. That notwithstanding, it might be preferable for some players to control Luna if they don't want to hear dialogue whilst platforming. Your mileage may vary there.

Move over Donkey Kong--Niko is coming for your "king of swing" title!

Regardless, both characters have the same move set. They can jump, hold out a glider to float carefully to the ground or across chasms, they can slide, they can ground pound (though if you're holding a direction while smashing the ground, you'll end up sliding in the direction you're holding, which often results in unwanted hits, deaths, etc.), and they can also jump off walls--though this feels rather "sticky" for lack of a better term. 

True to the game's heavily-DKC-inspired form, couch co-op is available for two players to enjoy the game together. The pros are that players don't share a pool of lives (there aren't lives in this game to speak of, for one), and they have separate tallies of hearts, the health meter of the game. Thus, two well in tune players can say, "We both have one heart left, so while we have this moment of peace, why don't you take a hit so you can come back with two hearts?" It's harder in boss battles to cheese in this way, but still very much possible.

Co-op shows flashes of fun alongside flashes of frustration, too.

Nikoderiko: The Magical World is indeed a challenging game regardless. Sometimes checkpoints are further away from each other than I'd like in certain levels, and some levels in general go on for far too long. Whereas other levels feel like you blink and they're over. That said, levels are generally well designed, offering plenty of opportunities to display some platforming prowess with well telegraphed but also hidden secrets, too. Generally if something looked curious to me during my playthrough, checking it out would usually result in my being rewarded for said curiosity, which is seldom a bad thing in a game like this. 

The level variety is often enjoyable, as well, delivering plenty of unique ideas and creative concepts usually executed at the very least competently and at best really well. One level featured a Crash Bandicoot-esque scenario where a flying dragon chased Niko as I ran towards the camera in this 3D affair, while later in the level the dragon returned, though this time pursuing Niko as he rode a DKC Returns-style rocket barrel. Another level took our mongoose hero and heroine down into the ocean depths, giving both a black silhouette cast against the blue background--again, DKC Returns and Tropical Freeze-style. The deep waters of the level weren't too friendly, but they were remedied with a little help of a seahorse-like animal buddy that could fire a laser to defeat foes with ease.

This dragon doesn't wish to dance, so I suggest you keep moving forward, Niko.

Like Donkey Kong Country (are you tired of the mentions yet?), Nikoderiko: The Magical World sports an assortment of animal buddies as mounts. The aforementioned seahorse is one, while others include a frog that burps up fireballs to eliminate enemies, there's a bat that serves as a flapping-good time for flight, and also a Yoshi-like lizard that chomps up foes and can regurgitate them back at other baddies. Though, the latter is a bit janky to say the least in execution.

If you've seen it done in Donkey Kong Country, you'll most likely see it
(and done marginally worse) in Nikoderiko: The Magical World.

And really, that's a lot of what Nikoderiko: The Magical World is--a janky experience, or at least quite unpolished. Between glitches where my character couldn't pull out their glider for whatever reason, to camera chaos in co-op where the camera just wouldn't pan in an appropriate-enough position that would work for either myself or my co-op partner, the problems with Nikoderiko: The Magical World are plentiful. Small things like characters and objects on the world map not having their textures load quickly enough (at least on the latest Xbox Series S build) so they'd look incredibly "off" aren't immense problems, but put on a pile with everything else, they do--in fact--add up to be quite bothersome.

Otherwise (and that's not a play on the composer being David Wise--and the music is unfortunately just serviceable this time around, on that note), Nikoderiko: The Magical World is a jack of two trades and a master of neither of them. The Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot segments of the game are done better by the originals instead of this imitation of both. That isn't to say THIS game isn't worth your time. There are hardly enough Donkey Kong Country-inspired titles to exactly say that we're embarrassed with riches here in this department. Though, if you DO crave something of the DKC style and MUST play something, if you haven't already touched either Kaze and the Wild Masks, Marsupilami - Hoobadventure, or Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, look into those games first before trying Nikoderiko out. All three of those are preferable (and somewhat more original) experiences to at least me.

[SPC Says: C]

Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy (PS4) Review

For the final review of July on this final day of July, we have a SuperPhillip Central review from Bean, who we haven't seen for a while. This is his review from his full play-through of all of the games featured in the Crash Bandicoot: N. Sane Trilogy for the PlayStation 4.

A Proper Crash Bash

Crash Bandicoot originally raced on to the scene twenty years ago on the original PlayStation console. It was the story about an Aussie animal that was given sentience thanks to a pair of sinister scientists, Dr. Neo Cortex and Dr. Nitrus Brio, in their plot to take over the world using an armada of mutated minions. Crash escaped, but his girlfriend didn't, so he wound up going on an adventure to get back to the lab and save the day. He did and wound up starring in two critically and financially successful sequels before licensing issues would take him from top tier mascot to looking like he was a John Cena cosplayer. Activision, who had gained the Crash license through their merger with Vivendi, saw the fan interest in bringing the Bandicoot back to his prime old self and put Vicarious Visions on the job to remaster the popular PlayStation trilogy with the N. Sane Trilogy for the PS4. I'll say right now that the company did a very faithful, even if not totally accurate job at remaking these classics... for better or worse as you'll find out.

Crash Bandicoot shows us his fantastic Indiana Jones impression.

The goal in all three Crash Bandicoot games is to run and jump your way through stages while breaking every box along the way both in the main levels and usually a bonus path to find inside said levels these to earn yourself a gem at the end. In the original Crash Bandicoot, these were the only collectibles to worry about. However, what made them so hard to get in the original and not the sequels was that when you lost a life even after breaking open a checkpoint box, every crate would be back and unbroken. This meant you had to do a no-death run of every stage just to earn a gem, and that wasn't the easiest task in the world back in the day. In this remaster, the game has mercifully been toned down as you can now go through and die at checkpoints as much as you want... unless you're going for one of the game's rare colored gems. Those levels still require you to do a no-death run of the whole stage in one try lest you be rewarded with a screen that tells you that you were almost perfect except that you died. Ouch.

Some hazards in levels can drive the player a little batty. (Sorry, not sorry for the pun.)

One of the most frustrating things with the remaster is that the original source code was apparently lost. This means that physics were changed up in spots. In Crash 1's case, this is definitely to the disadvantage of the player as Crash does not get as much air on his jumps, and therefore, does not get the same distance on them either. Couple that with shadows that aren't as pronounced, and you have one-third of a remake where it's both tougher to gauge and land your jumps correctly. Even worse, physics issues will also pop up if you land on the edges of platforms. Things that could be easily done in the original, like running on ropes in the infamous bridge levels, now are nail-biting exercises in frustration. Yes, I was able to get through these stages fine without resorting to this tactic, but it never feels right to be safely on a platform only to find yourself running forward and be pushed off into the abyss. On the positive side of things, this is the only part of the trilogy where I felt things were off, but you still take a game I thought was mediocre for one reason and keep it that way for another.

No matter the dangers, Crash always rushes onto the scene!

But that all changes the moment Crash 2 begins. The point-to-point world map system is dropped in favor of small hubs that have five portals for quick access. Crash himself gets a few new moves like the ability to do both long and high jumps with a combination of pressing circle (or R1) and X. Even better, if the player presses Square to spin immediately after doing one of these two types of jumps, Crash will either get more distance or height on his leaps. Knowledge of all of these moves are required to get both gems and the newly-added crystals. The crystals themselves are the main collectable to make progress in this game and will usually be right out in the open in the second half of levels. Other additions in this one include alternate paths, secret exits, and a couple of non-platforming vehicle stages.

Levels where you're rushing towards the camera can take a little getting used to and require some memorization.

I'm a fan of the Death Routes which are alternate levels that the player must once again reach by not dying in the level up until that point. These areas usually offer a higher degree of skill to complete, and in one specific case, Crash will be forced to slip and slide through an icy chamber to hit a switch only to be forced to go all the way back to the start to be able to break every box in the stage. Oh, and did I mention this area is filled to the brim with Nitro Boxes, green crates that explode the moment you come into contact with them? Yes, this game expects a lot from the player and the backtracking in some levels can go overboard at times, but it's pure platforming fun and my favorite entry of the trilogy.

Crash 3 or Warped, depending on which part of the world you're from, continued to add to the Bandicoot's arsenal when you beat bosses as you'll earn new special abilities like a double jump or glide spin to once again make it through levels easier. It also added Crash's sister, Coco, as a playable character originally although she is playable in all three titles in the N. Sane Trilogy thanks to Vicarious Visions. Unfortunately, while Warped has some of the best platforming stages in the entire trilogy, it also goes overboard in terms of its gimmick levels.

This time around, no matter the game, Crash's sister Coco is available to play as.

I mentioned Crash 2's vehicle stages, but they weren't as prominent as they are here. This game throws them in early and often. Jet ski tracks, motorcycle races where you have to get 1st, airplane dogfight stages where you have to shoot down blimps, a couple of swimming stages. You have all of these new moves at your disposal, yet it feels like more than a third of the game takes you out of platforming and throws you into these kind of levels. It's a bit frustrating, but it's not a total dealbreaker, although I will say the jet ski levels feel a little more loose or tight depending on what kind of turn you're trying to make. It's still a fun game overall, but the final part of the trilogy could've been the best instead of a step down from its more fun predecessor thanks to these abundant and unnecessary gimmick stages.

The majority of Warped's levels have various gimmicks to them, for better or worse.

The final new addition in Crash 3 were relic race time trials. In these, you would hit a stopwatch at the beginning of the stage and go through levels as fast as you can. Certain boxes would be converted into a yellow color with a number on them from 1-3. Break those boxes, and the clock would stop for that amount of time as you kept going along. Sapphire, Gold, or Platinum Relics would be handed out depending on how fast you were... pending you were fast enough to earn one in the first place, that is. Vicarious Visions knew players enjoyed this and decided to also add these time trials into the first two titles as extras for trophy goals. Once again, they really don't feel right in Crash 1, but once you beat the final boss in Crash 2 and earn a Speed Shoes upgrade for faster movement with the press of the R2 button, it feels great. Your jumps again go farther with this active, so you might as well get your inner-Sonic on and race to the finish! Another obvious but necessary inclusion is the ability to save anywhere on the map or in hubs in all three games. It's just a shame the load times when going into the game or stages last a bit longer than I'd like to see.

Crash gives this boss encounter a spin and seems to be succeeding. 

Still, the whole N.Sane Trilogy does a faithful job of recreating two very fun games and the original Crash as best they could be in terms of both upgraded visuals and sound. I had a fun time going through these titles again this month for the most part, and really, a compilation set like this for the Bandicoot's 20th Anniversary is a no-brainer for any and all Crash fans to pick up. With its successful debut worldwide, who knows if this will lead either to a new entry in the series or perhaps another compilation set with a certain purple dragon? It's absolutely N. Sane that it took this long for the series to go back to its roots, but I'm definitely glad it did.

[SPC Says: A-]

Top Five Desired PlayStation IP Revivals for E3 2016

E3 is next week, and the carnival of fun, excitement, and occasionally utter stupidity will consume the industry. Last night, I posted the five Xbox IP that I would like to see revived come this E3. Tonight it's the PlayStation's turn, having me name the five long, lost franchises of yesteryear that the PlayStation fan inside me would absolutely love to see get the revival treatment next week.

5) Wipeout

Fans of high speed futuristic racing haven't had much to satiate their hunger and thirst for a new racer in the direction of Wipeout. The last entry of the series arrived with the PlayStation Vita's launch, and brought its fast-paced weapon-based combat with it. Just imagine the series in glorious high definition on the technological beast that is the PlayStation 4. You can go ahead and skip Wipeout being on PlayStation VR, Sony, unless you provide a complementary barf bag with every purchase. Regardless, though the traditional developer of the series is no more, that doesn't mean a new developer can't take its place for a new Wipeout.

4) Ape Escape

We haven't seen the Ape Escape franchise in a while. The last run-in with the PlayStation brand's mischievous monkeys was a throwaway tech demo for the PlayStation Move peripheral for the PlayStation 3. I yearn for another traditional Ape Escape game, venturing around colorful platforming playgrounds, discovering locations of the titular apes, and figuring out efficient ways to capture them. Sony's Japan Studio has some good stuff coming with The Last Guardian and the new Hot Shots Golf, but I'd love to see them deliver a satisfying new entry in the Ape Escape franchise.

3) Syphon Filter

Gabe Logan is growing restless on his extended vacation away from doing secret missions and starring in video games in general. Not only did the last Syphon Filter, Logan's Shadow on the PSP, end with an unresolved cliffhanger, but the third-person shooting, mission-based gameplay that the series executed so brilliantly is greatly missed by many fans. Once a strong PlayStation IP in the PS1 and PS2 days, Sony has left the series to rot. Now's as good a time as any to bring Gabe Logan, the Agency, and everything else that made the Syphon Filter series so engaging back.

2) Jak and Daxter

Jak and Daxter is a bittersweet series for me. The first was a wonderful collect-a-thon 3D platformer, and then Naughty Dog lost the plot horribly, making a try-hard, cringey, edgy, Grand Theft Auto-inspired turn for the series, a total turn-off for me personally. Jak 3 brought a more worthwhile game, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss the cartoon innocence of the original, or the collect-a-thon formula. We already have one PlayStation platformer with guns in it, and that's the wonderful Ratchet & Clank, so why not have a more skill-based, precision-platforming Jak and Daxter instead? Just keep Naughty Dog away. Please.

1) Crash Bandicoot

What else could it be? Another franchise once under helm by Naughty Dog, Crash Bandicoot has been with Activision for more than a decade now. With the next Skylanders game supposedly having the PlayStation brand's former mascot in it, that certainly can't be all the Crash news for this E3... right? While I don't think Naughty Dog is the right fit for either Jak and Daxter or Crash Bandicoot since its focus is more on AAA blockbusters in present times, that doesn't mean another worthy developer couldn't revive the bandicoot currently on hiatus. We'll definitely know for sure come next week. Fingers crossed!

Greatness Comes in Threes: Best Trilogies in Gaming - Part One

The trilogy-- in movies it's a common occurrence with hugely successful blockbusters whether it's Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Toy Story, or Back to the Future. Trilogies are also pretty common in gaming as well, but at the same token, an actual good trilogy is a completely different matter. This new article series details some of the very best trilogies that our hobby and industry have been able to create in its much shorter lifespan. This first edition delves into pure platformers, one of gaming's oldest genres.

The Super Mario Bros. NES Trilogy:

Super Mario Bros. (NES)
Super Mario Bros. 2 (NES)
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)

We start off this list of terrific trilogies with one of the most prolific trilogies in gaming, perfect for the series's 30th anniversary this year, Super Mario Bros. Now, whether you prefer the Doki Doki Panic with Mario clothing Super Mario Bros. 2 or what in the West we know as The Lost Levels, this trilogy is of magnificent quality. We all know how Super Mario Bros. is a testament to brilliant game design, and we received something akin to an official ROM hack (perhaps not the best choice of words here, but work with me) with The Lost Levels, offering poisonous Mushrooms and warp pipes that sent players back multiple words that throw the once sacred rules of the original SMB right out the window. Then you have one of the greatest 2D platformers of all time with Super Mario Bros. 3, which delivered themed worlds, auto-scrolling levels, multiple unique yet brief levels, and new power-ups into the fray like the Super Leaf. the Tanooki Suit, Hammer Suit, Frog Suit, and fan favorite Kuribo's Shoe.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Trilogy:

Sonic the Hedgehog (GEN)
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (GEN)
Sonic the Hedgehog 3 (GEN)

We move from a slower video game icon to a much faster one, one that definitely ruffled Nintendo's proverbial feathers with its marketing campaign. Sure, blast processing was a made-up buzz term, but there is no denying that Sonic the Hedgehog is a trilogy that brought with it blazing fast speeds, multi-path levels, cool boss fights against then-referred-to-as Dr. Robotnik, and beautiful stages. The original Sonic wasn't so much about speed in half of its levels (speaking about Marble Zone, Labyrinth Zone, and the final zone, Scrap Brain Zone). It was a well rounded title with equal parts pure speed and equal parts precision based platforming. Sonic 2 introduced a partner for Sonic, Miles "Tails" Prower, introducing cooperative play to the series. The game also nearly doubled the amount of zones for one lengthy adventure.

Finally, Sonic the Hedgehog 3, my personal favorite, gave the world Knuckles the Echidna, one of the series's best soundtracks, fun special stages levels, and eventually would be the gateway to playing Sonic 3 and Knuckles with a special cartridge attachment a la Sonic & Knuckles. Even without that, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 on its own is a masterful 2D platformer that brilliantly brought speed and careful platforming to the forefront of Sonic's game career.

The Crash Bandicoot Trilogy:

Crash Bandicoot (PS1)
Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back (PS1)
Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped (PS1)

Another rival to Mario's platforming crown who also didn't mind slinging dirt and throwing shade towards the plump plumber in his marketing campaign, Crash Bandicoot was the platforming hero of the original PlayStation. Unlike strictly adhering to a 2D plane, the minds at Naughty Dog gave their bandicoot character levels that had him moving in levels away from the camera. The perspective was over the shoulder and directly behind Crash. There was also 2D sections more akin to platformers of the time. The first Crash Bandicoot game was one of the highest selling games on the PS1, despite having the most issues with it from a gameplay and 100% completion point of view. The sequels made it less of a headache to unlock all of the bonus content available within the game, and they were more well designed overall. Crash Bandicoot remains in hiatus since multiple attempts to bring it back from its current IP owner, Activision, though big honchos at Sony have expressed interest in reviving the IP for new generations and fans of the old games to enjoy.

The Ratchet & Clank Original Trilogy:

Ratchet & Clank (PS2)
Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando (PS2)
Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal (PS2)

The Ratchet & Clank series is one of my favorites from the PS2 generation of home consoles, much more, it's one of my favorite PlayStation franchises in general. The original Ratchet & Clank is a little hard to go back to if you're familiar with its two sequels due to the fact that the strafing mechanic wasn't included in the series until Going Commando, making it much easier to keep a foe in view while avoiding their attacks with some side somersaults simultaneously. Going Commando, my favorite of the series, introduced the ability to level up weapons, adding to their power and functionality in the process. Up Your Arsenal brought with it the capability of leveling up weapons multiple times, throwing in even more replay value than the series already had with it. It also brought players the masterful Dr. Nefarious, who is a villain that outshines plenty others in the series.

The Donkey Kong Country SNES Trilogy:

Donkey Kong Country (SNES)
Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest (SNES)
Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble (SNES)

Rare's Donkey Kong Country trilogy on the Super Nintendo is a fantastic trip through 3D rendered sprites and backgrounds. The highlight here is Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest, which brought with it two excellent characters to play as, Diddy and his girlfriend Dixie Kong, a wide array of amazing levels full of secret goodies, bonus stages, and well hidden DK Coins to collect, and the series's best ambient and atmospheric soundtrack yet. The other Donkey Kong Country games are no slouches either, mind you, with the original DKC creating the familiar formula of the franchise, though it's a bit dated in comparison to the latter two titles. Meanwhile, while Donkey Kong Country 3 didn't offer an astounding soundtrack like the first and second games, it did offer the best overworld in the series with plenty of secrets tucked away, levels with inspiring one-off gimmicks to them, such as Ripsaw Rage, where Dixie and Kiddy Kong must outrun an ascending saw through a vertical scrolling stage among the innards of trees.

The Mega Man X Original Trilogy:

Mega Man X (SNES)
Mega Man X2 (SNES)
Mega Man X3 (SNES)

Despite a good portion of the series not being up to par, I generally prefer the Mega Man X sub-series of Mega Man games to the Classic ones. The Mega Man X series had much more intense action, a greater difficulty, more to do in most of its games for some sizable side content, and a more appealing art style to me personally. Mega Man X hit the Super Nintendo with 16-bit graphics, animal-themed Robot Masters known as Mavericks, a more serious story, the ability to upgrade X with armor parts via Dr. Light's hidden capsules, and secret items called Heart Tanks that boosted X's energy. Mega Man X2 added more to the series with a much loved and resourceful midair dash upgrade, obtainable Zero parts, each guarded by one of a trio of X-Hunters, that affected the ending of the game, and Mega Man X3 would introduce huge unlockable armor for X to move around in, one of four special armor upgrades where only one could be equipped, and the ability to play as Zero, albeit in a much limited way. While X3 is what I consider the weakest of the SNES trilogy, all of the Mega Man X games on the Super Nintendo deliver action-packed gameplay, masterfully designed levels, and amazing art, spritework, and music.

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What trilogies of gaming history do you believe are the best of their kind? Let the SPC community know by posting your thoughts in our comment section!

Review Round-Up - March 2014

Baby Mario, along with players like us,
dropped into the world of the Yoshis.

Now it's time for the REAL Review Round-Up for March 2014. We started off retro with the original, the classic, The Legend of Zelda. Its old school difficulty and sometimes obtuse design put Phil off a little bit, but the game still opened up a dungeon treasure chest and acquired a 7.0 score. Tappingo on the 3DS eShop, a game with a resemblance to Picross, also solved its way to the same score. Just realize that we're not saying Tappingo is as good as The Legend of Zelda. It's a fool's errand to compare games from totally different genres. We're rating these games based on competition in their own genres. 

Speaking of going retro, Nintendo gave us a nostalgic twinge with NES Remix, scoring an 8.0. Also on the Wii U eShop was F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition. Unfortunately, most kart racers speed past this disappointing (and aggravating) cartoon racer. Next up we revisited Yoshi, but this time we took a vacation at his brand-new digs with Yoshi's New Island, a game that hatched an 8.0 score. 

Three more platformers rounded out our productive month: Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (8.5), Crash Bandicoot (7.0, reviewed by Bean), and DuckTales Remastered (9.0). Overall, it was a fun month of games to review. It was a varied selection of titles, and we hope you enjoyed taking a look at them with us. April is all about the PlayStation Vita (with some other non-Vita games thrown in for good measure). Please look forward to this month of reviews!

The Legend of Zelda (NES, Wii U VC, 3DS VC) - 7.0

Tappingo (3DS eShop) - 7.0

NES Remix (Wii U eShop) - 8.0

F1 Race Stars: Powered Up Edition (Wii U eShop) - 3.5

Yoshi's New Island (3DS) - 8.0

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile (PS1, PSN) - 8.5

Crash Bandicoot (PS1, PSN) - 7.0

DuckTales Remastered (Wii U, PS3, 360, PC) - 9.0

Scrooge McDuck's back from an extended hiatus,
and his adventure was worth its weight in gold!

Crash Bandicoot (PS1, PSN) Retro Review

This past Wednesday we took at look at Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, a charming PS1 era platformer. Now we take a look at what is the system's most well known platformer, Crash Bandicoot. Bean gives us his opinion on the game with this retro review.

Crash Course

Way back before Naughty Dog was making cinematic-oriented games, they were a company that was struggling to find a direction for themselves. Mark Cerny, who at the time worked at Universal Interactive Studios, liked the promise that the team had and asked the studio to try and put that ability into making a new platformer. Many had tried to compete with Nintendo's series in the past, but at the time, only Sonic the Hedgehog had seen any semblance of lasting success. It seemed an odd move, but there was one advantage the team had. The game would not be a simple side-scroller, but a 3D-based one instead. The game, of course, would be none other than Crash Bandicoot, and it would be one that Sony quickly signed on to their Playstation in order to compete with Nintendo. How was this first game that helped put Naughty Dog on the map? You don't have to answer that. I will.

Crash Bandicoot has the titular character mutated into his hero-to-be self by one Dr. Cortex and the sinister scientist's Evolvo-Ray. The animal is subjected to a mind-control experiment from another invention known as the Cortex Vortex, but this machine fails, and the marsupial is tossed out with the trash. During his time in captivity, the bandicoot found a love interest, so I guess we have our standard save the world and get the girl plot that this genre is famous for!

As stated earlier, Crash Bandicoot isn't a standard platformer. The game focuses on platforming in 3D, even in levels that look like they would be traditional, 2D side-scrolling stages. The object of the game is to not only reach the end of the level, but also break every box in your path along the way. This is actually easier said than done in a lot of cases as a good many levels offer a decent degree of challenge to them, whether it be with enemies placed in spots that will hinder your movement or stage hazards that will cause you to plummet to your doom in no time at all. It's certainly not an easy task considering the decent variety in levels and sometimes the not so decent flaws that come along with it.

There's plenty of level types to get going through. Standard stages see Crash running forward through a jungle environment and dealing with the local wildlife such as crabs or aggressive plants. To combat these annoyances, you have the old-school ability to hop right on their heads with the X button or go and use Crash's patented spin attack by pressing square instead. In some cases, you'll have to use both techniques in tandem to be able to take down an enemy. For instance, one level early on in the game sees Crash trying to scale a wooden fortress. Along the way, he'll run into tribesmen that are carrying shields. If you try to spin into them right off the bat, you'll be bounced back until you're most likely pushed right into a pit. That said, if you jump direct on top of a tribesman at first, he'll raise his shield to block you, giving players a chance to spin him out of the way. I do like how it's pretty easy to tell which enemies you'll need to do this on. It's something a lot of platformers, even today, can get wrong at times. Yeah, I'm looking right at you, Sonic: Lost World.

Again, the variety of levels you'll go through in this game's three islands is a nice thing. Even better, many of these types get more than a one-and-done treatment, and I think it's good to refine what you have instead of throwing in everything and the kitchen sink. Platforming on moving lilypads, climbing temple structures, running towards the screen to avoid getting squashed by a giant boulder, and hopping on a hog for a little animal buddy stage, these levels will are generally fun and manage to get the whole fun factor thing down right. There are two examples, though, where I found that not to be the case. These are the bridge and darkness levels.

The former will see you doing thin platform jumps, with some of those breaking almost instantly on you if you mistime your jumps in any fashion. To make matters worse, there are parts in both bridge stages where planks will be invisible until you walk right up to them. This happens at the start or end, depending on which bridge you're on. I absolutely loathed going through Road to Nowhere and falling to my doom after reaching a hidden path just beyond the goal as you have to make a few leaps of faith to cross planks. Miss one jump, and bye-bye boxes. Did I mention that checkpoints in this game don't save your boxes broken progress as they all respawn? Yeah, you have to clear these in one go, or you might as well just back out and start the stage over.

The issue with the darkness levels are that there is that the terrain itself will get in your way more often or not. Taking place in a castle, some parts to these stages have you jumping around doors that I had Crash get stuck on a few times. The worst level in the game, Fumbling in the Dark, is one where you have to jump around doors four times in succession and angle yourself to the sides of the room to both break the level's first few boxes and not fall into the giant pit in the middle of the area. The moment Crash gets caught on the wall, his momentum just halts, and you will fall into said pit more times than you'd care for. As a guy that already can't stand darkness gimmicks to begin with, mixing in more frustration due to a geometry glitch is something I could have done without. Luckily, Naughty Dog agreed as other entries in the series would not have you platforming against the game's physics engine. Good.

So you're going through and breaking boxes, but what's the point? Well, your reward for making it through a level with every busted box is a gem. Most of the time, these will be simple silver-colored ones that do nothing but increase your percentage progress, but there are a few stages that offer a better reward. By making it to the end of those, you'll receive a colored gem. You see, some levels have paths that would otherwise be inaccessible until you earn these crystals. This does make you have to do some forced backtracking to clear out the small number of boxes you were previously missing, but these paths are generally easy enough to get through. I can't get too annoyed with this, but I will say that I wish the gem paths would have occurred in levels beyond the point where I earned them instead of in previous ones.

Boxes themselves have plenty of goodies inside of them. Aside from the game's version of coins known as Wumpa Fruit and extra life ones, there's also a floating mask known as Aku Aku. This magical mask grants Crash the ability to take an extra hit or two depending on how many crates of Aku's you can find. If you get three without taking a hit, you'll turn invincible. Not only does this allow you to plow through enemies like there's no tomorrow, but you'll also tear through boxes and see an increase to your speed. It's only a temporary thing before it reverts back into its level two form, but it's nice when you can earn it. The last item that you can get from boxes are tokens of either Crash's girlfriend, Cortex, or his assistant. In levels where they appear, they always show up in threes. Collect all three, and you'll be able to enter into a bonus round. Depending on which three tokens were collected, you can either collect quite a few more lives and instantly make a superfluous save or get sent to a more challenging area. The two Cortex ones will unlock hidden levels if you can make it to the end of them.

The goal of all this is to get through all three of the game's islands and put a stop to Cortex and his army of both natives and mutants. That said, the bosses in this game are so basic that it's almost a wonder if they were just tacked on for the sake of having them. Most involve you just slowly dodging obstacles that will have no chance of hitting you even on an off day and only take a handful of hits before going down. Even Dr. Cortex himself is simply a matter of dodging his slow-moving chemical concoctions while spinning the correct one back into him. If there's one flaw that Naughty Dog has had over the years, it's that they're usually unable to design an engaging boss encounter.

In the end, I left feeling satisfied but also thought there were enough flaws to keep me from outright recommending it. It has some interesting design decisions at the very least, even if those decisions are a mixed bag. Thankfully, the foundation that was established with this game would be built upon in future installments. That said, Crash Bandicoot is a respectful first attempt at creating a game in a genre that was trying to take off in the mid-90s. As such, I do think it's worth your time, but I won't be surprised if you some of you Crash and burn after playing this game.

[SPC Says: 7.0/10]

- Bean