Oh man...I am so excited to play this game when it arrives tomorrow (although I won't be able to play it until Saturday due to being stuck at work until midnight on Friday). I loved the original three games back when they originally came out on the PS1 (Crash 1 was ok, but Crash 2 and 3 were games that I played over and over again), and when they first announced this remake/remaster collection of the original trilogy I was quite excited. The day that Amazon put this collection up for pre-order, I swooped in to make my order and started counting the days until June 30th arrived!

Hopefully this collection does well enough that we end up seeing a Crash Team Racing (CTR) remaster/remake along with a proper Spyro The Dragon Trilogy remaster/remake.

@shadowknight508: can you imagine a crash racing game with online play.

They need to do it. Everyone will buy

@glots: I'm the same. The difference between 30fps and 60fps is very noticeable and in a perfect world I would love everything to be 60 but as long as it's stable, I don't really care.

Played some 6-8 levels of the first game now and it's totally Crash. Whatever that's a good thing or a bad thing depends on the player 'course, there's a heavy nostalgia factor involved with my own experience.

It can be frustrating as fuck, though, just like it was 20 years ago. I'm starting to struggle with the current level and having 15 lives seems about as good as nothing having any lives at all, because I die so often.

I'm enjoying my time, but I can totally see the Quick Look where Jeff repeatedly says "This fucking sucks." with Brad going "Yeaaaaah..." afterwards. I don't know what Ben's catchphrase is yet, so I can't picture his reaction. The comment section will probably consist of people saying "Crash always sucked, Mario 64 was way better."

My neighbour had all the games, so I used to play them at his place like 17 years ago. After that I only played a little of the first one on ps3 a few years ago and thought the digital/d-pad movement was awful. I have some nostalgia for it, but I also think it's a Sonic style thing where if you couldn't play Nintendo's games, you had to champion your own mascot as hard as possible, and it was never all that great a platformer. I'm gonna leave the remakes to my ps1-raised friend.

Edit: Having said that, the videos of those Crash 3 levels are hittin my nostalgia hard all of a sudden

I have been playing the game all day. I have only played Crash 1 but it's fantastic so far.

"'allo, guv'na! Oy'm Ben Pack! Oy'm over 200 centimetres tall, Oy am!"

I love platformers like this, ones that funnel you into specific, skillful platforming with less of a focus on roaming/collecting

It makes speedrunning more fun, and the actual drive for me to go back and get the gems/relics is more substantial as a result of it not feeling incredibly overwhelming

I think it may be my specific taste, but my favorite Mario game is Super Mario 3D Land on the 3DS, which actually has a somewhat similar structure to the Crash games in this sense

I also forgot how fucking hard crash is, having just gotten a little bit past the second boss. But I love that, too many platformers start easy and don't get truly hard until the very end. Modern AAA game design has definitely nerfed the difficulty on a lot of games, so it's satisfying to return to something as unforgiving of Crash

You might say....

It's the Dark Souls of platformers

I hate myself!

@secondpersonshooter: Interesting, when I played 3D Land I also made the Crash comparison. It felt focused, just like these games. There's a place for big open areas in 3D platformers, but there's a nice spot open for this style, too.

Is this a generational thing? I remember thinking Crash was like a lamer, wannabe Sonic when his games came out.

@bocckob: YOU'RE A LAMER WANNABE! Imo crash 3 holds up better than any sonic game.

Sonic and Crash are very different other than the fact that they are platforming mascots. Crash isn`t about speed the way Sonic is and his tone is goofy/dumb rather than the more cool guy/attitude thing Sonic was going for.

Crash 1 is rough. Which makes sense since it was one of the very first 3D paltformers (The N. Sanity trilogy version improves the game a lot). Crash 2 and 3 are great though and still hold up surprisingly well.

Played Crash 1 for like 4 hours straight. I'm actually doing a lot better than I thought I would. Managed to get the green gem on Lost City (break all boxes without dying) and I'm just past Heavy Machinery now. Absolutely loving it so far.

Every crash game holds up better than any sonic game

@heltom92: wait so there are still some levels you have to get all boxed and not die in? I have been managing to get all boxes even if I die so far.

The Crash game always felt like budget titles to me. The kind your second aunt would buy for you when she heard her cousin she hasn't seen in years now has kids, and you never see or think about her again after meeting her but you still have this video game.

True story... except it was Bubsy 3D. Crash isnt that bad.. I'm sorry for drawing the comparison. She also got me Punky Skunk. Thats almost child abuse I think.

@pompouspizza: Yeah. For clear gems all you need to do is break all the boxes but for levels where there is a coloured gem e.g Lost City, you need to break all boxes without dying (you can die in the bonus stages and repeat as many times as needed though). There are 6 coloured gems in Crash 1.

Literally half the reason I bought this thing. Other half was wanting to relive my childhood. Very pleased so far and praying Spyro and CTR happen (in that order, because I play CTR once/year anyway).

@frostyryan: As a Sonic fan, I'll go along with the "Modern Sonic is all bad" narrative. I don't entirely agree, but I'll take that ride with you.

But this bullshit about Sonic ALWAYS being bad? Fuck that. Fuck aaaaalllllll of that.

Anyway, I want to get this to play with my wife at some point. Crash is a huge part of her childhood. Might wait for a price drop though? We were already playing the originals on PS3.

COOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

@heltom92: oh okay, thanks for that. Do you know if the time trials count towards 100%?

@pompouspizza: I would assume so. At least in crash 3 you had to do time trials to unlock secret/more levels

Bought it, playing it. Load times as pretty long, but that's my only complaint. It looks great, and plays exactly like they used to. Kind of thinking this is the best way to "bring Crash back" in the year of our Lord 2017.

Also, what updates they did do are greatly appreciated. Crash 1 had a lot of warts, and things like being able to get all the gems while also dying and redo bonus stages make the game much more playable.

Edit: Hey, so I know it's not likely, but wouldn't it be cool if they also did this for the first three Spyro games?

I'd say that the potential success of this game might make that more plausible, seeing how both Crash and Spyro are under Activision's wings. Though I wouldn't mind Vicarious Visions doing a completely new Crash either (or that remastered CTR).

Started playing Crash 2 and it's been a blast so far.

This except I won't go along with Modern Sonic being bad either. A couple bad games doesn't poison an entire franchise, or Crash would be lying in the ground as well.

I was hoping for a remaster like master chief collection with the exact same controles and physics with new paint. But it turned out more like what I expected; perfectly remade level designs but the physics and game play is ever so slightly off. Any issues I have with how the game feels is the same kind of tiny details that fighting game fans would have in a re-release.

But if you're someone who hasn't played crash in a long time this is an awesome game, I highly recommend it.

Ps: load time could be better

I played it for a little bit last night. First impressions are wow this is a really nice looking game. Yeah, you're welcome for that sterling analysis. I've only played the first one, though. Looking forward to Warped since that is the game I remember most fondly.

I'm enjoying the game so far. I still remember getting both Crash Bandicoot and MLB Pennant Race with my ps1 for Christmas of '96!

Just hearing the music has brought back so much nostalgia. As a kid, I usually just put in the code for 100% and played any level I wanted. Trying to go through each level correctly has made me realize just how difficult some of the first game was.

I have about 5-6 levels left and then I'll work my way to Crash 2. I think I rented it once as a kid and that was it.

Does this game have an old graphics mode or is it only the new stuff?

@hayt: no old game graphics. They rebuilt this without the original code so they couldn't even if they wanted to. It would have been a cool addition.

@alistercat: Fair enough too. Looks like a lot of work went into it.

I really really really really really reeeeeeeeeeeeeeally REALLY hate that save/load function. Having it on the same screen where square is save and X is load is confusing. Im constantly saving over saves when I dont want to when im trying to quickly load hunting gems.

Does crash 2 have abilities you gain throughout? I don't remember. I'm asking because I wanna try and tackle the time trials as they come. I am NOT 100%ing the first game though...fuck that. Some of those stages were hard as hell.

Man, going from 1 to 2 is staggering. It's funny how this is a full remake but they kept crash 1 as frustrating as it was when it comes to the level design. I actually kinda respect that.

@frostyryan: You get a run when you beat the final boss, so it`s probably a good idea to put those time trials on hold until you get that.

I have now finished Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, which I decided to start the collection with. As a setup for this post I'll note that Crash 3 was my very first PS1 game together with Gran Turismo 2 and therefore I have played it to bits, probably a lovely 1000 hrs if not more, but who's counting. I am now 26 years old and it has been 19 years since Crash 3 was originally released. You could say most of my life I've been playing Crash. Crazy.

Anyway, I guess I'll start with something positive... Game looks nice. Original music (although rearranged and reproduced) is intact.

Ok, now, for those who are saying the game feels exactly the same as the original, what in the world have you been smoking? Game only feels close to original physics in the levels you play as just Crash, just the regular levels, and even that's not spot on. When you move on to stuff like the underwater levels, there is more input lag and momentum to your movement than there ever was in the originals. The bike levels' physics are so over-the-top exaggerated compared to the original's that I wanted to turn the game off, and what is up with the weird landing effect after jumping? That wasn't in the original.

Also absolutely horrendous is the movement in the levels where Coco rides the tiger (apologies, as a hardcore fan I should have the names of these levels memorized, but I don't). I am able to finish these levels in the original games with 20 seconds or something, no problem, I used to farm lives like that when my younger brother ran out. Here the physics and input lag so get in the way that it is just frustrating to get used to it. Sure the the graphics are 4K next to the PS1's, what, let's say 576i in Pal territories, but hey, maybe let's not start yet another argument of gameplay vs. graphics...

Another thing that really bothered me was that they couldn't keep the original camera movement from the dinosaur chase levels when you step on the bonus ("?") platform and it takes you to the bonus area (and actually I'm sure this is the case in some other regular Crash levels as well). They had that stuff figured out in the original games where the camera just pans and follows the platform the whole way to the bonus area. Here in this version it does a quick fade to black... Guess it shows how technically impressive the original games were on the PS1.

To continue with the small nitpicking, in the level select zone ("The Time Twister"), when stepping on the numbered button, it lights up blue, in this remake it does not.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore this collection. I thoroughly enjoyed playing through Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped again, and I will definitely do 100%, as well as do 100% on the first 2 games.

Guess I will try to end on a positive note and say that the game does indeed look very nice, I especially enjoy the modern shadows in levels like the later tomb ("Tomb Wader"?) one where you have to keep the, I'll call it a firefly, with you to keep the environment lit. New voice actors have done a great job, and I really like some of the updated, detailed looks of the characters, especially Neo Cortex.

All in all, I hope I didn't come off as a complete hater-critic-fanboy (even though I probably did anyway), because I'm surely none of those things.

I'm hoping for a Crash Team Racing remake-remaster next, Mario Kart needs a competitor anyway.

Thanks for reading, internet. Bye.

Maybe its me, but I don't remember it being this hard when I was 7. Its mind-numbingly hard at times. I thought the analog stick would help in 1, but its actually worse. I enjoy it because of the nostalgia and its also a game both my wife and I can play together, but man does it bring out the worst in me

@reputatsioon: I agree that the games don't quite feel like their PS1 counterparts. Something is ever-so-slightly off and it is sometimes causing deaths that I don't feel should have been deaths, or - somehow more annoyingly - causing me to slightly miss boxes that I should have hit. And no, it's not that my nostalgia's bad, I have played Crash 2 and 3 countless times over the years and I still pop them in a few times a year.

The gimmick levels have always ranged from "meh, let's just get this over with" to "this is annoyingly bad".

Anyway, this is by no means a bad way to play the games, but if someone were to ask which Crash game they should play in 2017, I'd still steer them towards the PS1 classics version of Crash 2 on PS3.

The first game is way harder than the other two. Most of the difficulty for Crash 2 and 3 lies in 100 percenting them.

Some people mare saying the hitbox for crash in these games is a "pill" instead of just a box or cylinder, meaning the hitbox has rounded edges at the top and bottom making it way easier to just slip off the edge of platforms. Also, that enemies have weird hitboxes in general, from being mapped directly to the models, or being way too big, or in the case of fire, the hitboxes disappearing before the fire graphic disappears.

It's all stuff that could be easily patched so I hope they get around to it. Way too many people are mindlessly defending this thing, or calling it better because it's more "challenging" (when it's really just unreliable). Apparently the game did really well and has Activision at least considering Crash as a viable product again, so getting this stuff correct now seems pretty important... lest we end up with another "Wrath of Cortex" down the line.

I believe this.

Some of these jumps feel just BARELY in reach

I was very into Crash Bandicoot when I was a kid. Turns out I still like it a lot.

@reputatsioon: I'm a massive Crash fan and I'm overall thoroughly enjoying this collection, but I agree with everything you've said here. It just feels kind of off. I play these games often so I know for a fact that I don't struggle this much with them on the PS1. Especially the underwater levels in Warped, where the movement seems really messed up.

Also, something you didn't mention that really bothers me is how long it takes for the level globes to load after stepping on the buttons in the Time Twister. That stuff was really snappy in the original so I'm shocked that it's so sluggish here.

Now that I'm officially through all 3 games, the only real complaint I have about the Trilogy is the load times. They go on waaaaaaaay too long. As a programmer, I know this likely isn't that feasible, but if there was some way they could patch it a la Bloodborne to cut the load times by a few seconds, I would be thrilled. Other than that, these games hold up much better than I expected, and I was happy (although infuriated at times) to be able to play Crash 1 for the first time. This is pretty high up on my GOTY list, and I wish all remasters/remakes had this level of effort and attention to detail put into them.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: I really really hope they do a Spyro Trilogy or CTR remaster next.

"Cortext Strikes back" and "warped" play a lot smoother and are far more rewarding than the first, but that's most likely because these games were released consecutively so obviously the second and third one would have improved on first. While I am surprised how well all games hold up, some of the levels in the first one, especially the bridge levels, were fucking infuriating. I feel as though they are incredibly and unnecessarily hard. I only learned how to get through them through trial and error. It's completely doable, though I have to say the amount of patience and precision it requires is astounding. Was the first game originally this difficult or am I just incredibly horrible at this? Other than that, the rest of the game is extremely fun and smooth. I don't remember having this kind of goofy fun in a while.

Plus, as an adult I have a far greater appreciation for just how much thought went into these games back when they came out. The amount of nuance in the gameplay and how well they work with the level design is amazing.

I still have Crash 1 waiting for me to go back in, not sure when that'll happen. Crash 2 I'm one level (and the last boss) off from beating and Warped ended up being the first game of the bunch I finished. 3 is still my favourite of the trio, excluding those motorcycle levels. It's just fun to play and feels better than the other two, especially the first game.

I'm glad this has sold super well. Hopefully they'll either get to make a new Crash or remaster something else like Spyro.

Had a blast with this, even managed to 100% Crash 2 which is something I've never tried before. Went on to do everything I could in 3, but I guess I need to get Gold Relics to get the last gem, and I haven't gone back to clean those up. Don't know if I'll ever attempt this with Crash 1 though, playing some of those levels without dying for the gems seems bad enough, I don't want to think about doing those levels fast without dying.

I really hope they do CTR and Spyro, like everybody else apparently. Specifically just having CTR with Online, I could play with my overseas friends who also grew up playing CTR for the first time, and that would be amazing.