Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy: Warped!

Crash Bandicoot 1 – 2: Cortex Strikes Back – Warped! – 4: It’s About Time (Part 1) – (Part 2)

Finishing the trilogy today!

Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped!

This guy scares the biggest enemy we've had so far. That
usually means nothing good.

The game begins after the good ending of Crash 2 – the one you get by collecting all the Gems and beating Cortex again. The diminutive scientist’s space station explodes and crashes onto the planet, striking an old temple. Out of it comes an evil spirit known as Uka Uka; if you’ve played the rest of the N. Sane Trilogy, you may recognize this mask as the guy who threateningly says “Game Over” when you lose all your lives. Cortex has been working for Uka Uka this entire time, first by making the animals into smart but docile soldiers, and second by making Crash gather magical crystals. The evil mask was the one trying to enslave the entire planet all along. In an attempt to do it right this time, the mask summons a new, blue-skinned scientist with a clock theme…

Sounds important, I should listen to what Aku Aku is sayi-
Oh, the Bandicoots adopted Polar? Awwwwwwww!

And so we begin in the medieval era, with frogs that turn
into people if they kiss Crash, and lab assistants behaving
as if they were at the renaissance fair.

The wind turns on Wumpa Islands. Aku Aku immediately knows what’s up. The guardian mask of the islands (now voiced by Greg Eagles, whom you might know as Grim from The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy) tells the Bandicoots about the villainous Uka Uka. He teleports the two to the Time Twister. This floating base owned by Cortex’s new scientist ally will allow the villains to hunt down the Crystals across past eras, since we’ve already found them all in the modern day. It’s up to Crash and Coco to get the Crystals (and the Gems) first, beating out their enemies. Oh, that’s it? We’re doing a Time Heist? Let’s go! I can't wait to see the endgame of that!

Behold! The thing that's easiest to find!

Once more, every level has a Crystal that’s easy to find, and Gems that can be a lot trickier. There’s always one of the latter that can be collected by breaking every Crate, but alternate routes and other bonus challenges can also yield them as reward. There’s now 47 Gems to find! Perhaps even more relevant, though, is that Warped! was originally the first game in the trilogy to include the time trials that gave relics to players that completed them, in Sapphire, Gold or Platinum variants.

Time and Activities

Every timer-stopping crate becomes a time management
puzzle. Do I have enough time to break that crate? Does it
really save me a few seconds?

After clearing a level the first time, you unlock its Time Trial. When you replay it, you can grab a clock near the start; this will change some crates across the course so that, when broken, they’ll now stop the timer for 1 second or more. It becomes a mad dash to finish the level (without dying) fast enough for a time that grants one of these relics. In the N. Sane Trilogy, they were retroactively added to Crash 1 and 2, but it’s only here that they’re properly explained. Warped! is the only game in this trilogy in which the Relics are necessary to get some of the Gems; the first Special Gem you can find requires that you find 10 Relics in order to open its path.

Good thing you don't lose lives trying over and over
during a Time Attack mode in these games; however,
this means no checkpoints, either.

You want my two cents? I do appreciate games that have time attack modes. It’s a great bonus for those who want to hone in their skills and who want to learn a game inside and out, and truly master it in the end. After all, a platformer’s levels are always the same; it’s up to the player to learn the patterns, the paths, the rhythm, and the sequence of actions. Time Attack modes are fine… as a bonus. I do NOT have that kind of appreciation when they become mandatory for completion of the base game. Their existence demands dedication far beyond what should be asked of a player just casually playing through; therefore, they should be reserved only to those who WANT that additional challenge. They’re usually on the side, not part of the main course, for a reason. You get a new reward, which is either a whole new level or a new entrance to one previously visited, at every 5 relics, up to a limit of 25 – which means that you’d better get good.

And yes, for unlockables, only the lowest, Sapphire relics matter, so it isn’t that bad - but it does still imply having to beat the base game twice, basically. Though you could argue the other Crash games were already doing that due to the requirement of Special Gems to access more Gems and smashing all the crates in most levels.

They have dragons??!?

This was the first game in the series where Coco was truly playable, though she was limited to specific levels; the remaster expands this so she can be used in most of them. However, she retains her personal adventures: She gets to ride a jet-ski and break crates all while dodging enemy ships and other floating bombs on her way to the exit. The animal-riding stages belong to her; she jumps onto the back of Pura, a cute tiger cub, and they run atop the Great Wall of China. She loves the kitty, and he loves her back; see him land in her arms and licks her cheek when she falls.

My heart – they’re adorable!

Nice jacket there, buddy!

There are many more variants of levels to be found here. Crash can visit the seafloor, occasionally equipping a vehicle that also lets him shoot at obstacles and enemies ahead. Or he can jump on a motorcycle and partake in a race against several lab assistants; in those levels, he cannot get the Crystal unless he crosses the finish line in first place. (However, no matter your final position, if you broke all the crates, you’ll get the Gem.) Yet another new type appears later: A dogfight where Crash or Coco, piloting a plane, has to shoot down several zeppelins. All calculated, there’s almost an equal ratio of platform and special levels.

Once again, I like that the bonus stages actually take place
in, or near, the level you were already playing.

The outrun levels annoy me in this one, because I feel
like the obstacles coming your way are a little harder to
see before they arrive.

I feel like the platforming stages have more design freedom. Crash 1’s stages were 3D or 2D, with bonus stages always in 2D, but the two types were never mixed up significantly. Like in Crash 2, the stages of Warped! will occasionally switch between 3D and 2D for segments. The prehistoric levels in Warped! even integrate the “chase” parts, where Crash or Coco will be hunted down by a large, angry dino.

In total, Warped! has 30 levels, excluding boss fights, which makes it the longest of the three. Like its predecessor, levels are unlocked by batches of 5, and you can play the current batch in any order you’d like, allowing you to switch if you’re stuck. I greatly enjoy that idea, even though I’m too much of a knucklehead to follow that advice. I know what to expect difficulty-wise by now, so I will replay a level until it’s beaten, no matter how many times I see Uka Uka's grinning Game Over mug, dammit!

Dingodile, huh? Probably just another boss. Probably not
important. No way he'd come back later, right?

Brand New Acrobatics

Something else is new in this game! After defeating a boss, the Bandicoots are granted an extra physical ability, which can make the rest of the game much easier – and those abilities may be necessary to progress later. The causes the siblings to release a shockwave when they body slam the ground; it can destroy multiple Crates at once, and even some that are out of reach and cannot be destroyed any other way. Speaking of, the body slam, even prior to this skill, was the only way to destroy the new steel-reinforced wooden crates.

Spin! As long as you can!

The second is a classic double jump. And the third, the Death Tornado, is uniquely suited to our heroes, as it allows you to prolong the duration of their spin if you keep pressing the spin key/button. In midair, the prolonged spin allows Crash or Coco to glide after a jump. Combine that with the double jump, and the Bandicoots’ air game becomes unmatched. I would say that these skills make the game too easy, but they are only useful in straight platformer stages which, like I said, are only half the game.

The fourth ability switches things up by giving the Bandicoots a bazooka that shoots Wumpa fruits. Cool new way to defeat enemies and destroy crates from afar, even the pesky Nitros!

The Arabian... Uh... Days, I guess. Beware of upside-down
scorpions hanging around.

Owing to the time travel story, we have a nice variety of stage themes here. Periods visited include the prehistoric era, Ancient Rome & Egypt, the Arabian Nights, China when the Great Wall was being built, the medieval times, the 1950s, and the future. Neo Cortex, N. Gin and Uka Uka have a new ally, Doctor N. Tropy, the inventor of the Time Twister we are currently using to wreak havoc across all of time; and yet, he is only the third boss. After we defeat Tropy, we are warned by Cortex that the Time Twister could become unstable now that its creator has been defeated.

The funny part is that defeating this guy grants us a skill
that will make him much easier to beat him again, if we
replay that boss battle afterwards.

For a tiger cub hailing from ancient China, Pura is
surprisingly skilled at piloting spaceships!

Well! Doesn’t matter, we have more Ns to beat! After a grueling fourth world, we square off against N. Gin again. This boss battle is almost a shmup, with Coco at the commands of a ship, shooting bits and pieces off of her rival scientist’s machine. When the enemy returns for a second round, Pura (yes, the babby tiger!) comes in with an even bigger cannon to help Coco finish him off. Well that was friggin’ amazing!

After five more levels, it’s time to challenge Cortex and Uka Uka. This fight is clever; since Aku Aku is busy fighting his own enemy, Crash is left with only one HP to defeat the scientist. Both fights happen on the same arena, so we have to dodge the battle between the masks, to boot. A tough battle, eventually won. However, you are reminded by Uka Uka that this isn’t over; the villains didn’t get the Crystals… but they could still get the Gems and win.

One arena, two fights. Come on guys, pick a lane!

Therefore, you’ll need to hunt down the rest – and that does imply chasing the Relics. sigh But! The fifth and final skill, which you earn for beating Cortex, allows Crash (or Coco) to run faster than before when you’re holding down a button/key. (That feature is also unlocked in the other two games, where Relics are NOT necessary – but hey, at least this new skill makes them easier to obtain in all three games…)

Final thoughts

Shooting stuff is just a thing we can do now. Sure, why not.

Much as I appreciate the larger variety of levels here, I fully admit that this is the one I will feel least likely to come back to for potential 100% completion. While testing Crash 2 and Warped!, I would often go back to the first installment to finish it. Warped!, however, locks a chunk of its progression behind something that I still believe should be bonus content for the most dedicated players only (even if the levels of the game WERE designed for speedrunning), and that’s rubbed me the wrong way. Which is a shame, because everything else is pretty much exactly how I’d expect a Crash game to go, and it would in my opinion from very good to outright excellent otherwise.

I also like the variety in level designs and hazards found in
this one. The rising water in the pyramid is clever. Really,
these Bandicoots need to learn to swim.

Yup, the dogfight levels still involve smashing crates.
Well, shooting at them, anyway.

In the span of three entries, Crash Bandicoot went from an almost pure platformer to regularly mixing things up for fun; only half the levels here are proper platformers, the other half is varied between jet skis, planes, motorcycle racing, and of course the usual animal-riding. I think I might have preferred a balance closer to 66/34. The reason? The Bandicoots are more versatile than ever thanks to the new moves earned from beating bosses (double jump, ground stomp, the Death Tornado, and the Wumpa Bazooka), so it feels like a missed opportunity that we can only use these moves for about half the game. Getting to use these abilities for two thirds instead would have felt like a better opportunity. At least we have the brand-new, ultra-tough bonus level Future Tense, made by Vicarious Visions, to sink our teeth into.

Once again, I love that on top of her dedicated parts (like Pura-riding or jet-skiing), Coco Bandicoot was added as playable in most platform levels. I also love the more varied environments, thanks to so many time periods being visited.

I would not recommend Future Tense unless you play it after
beating Warped!'s final boss; it basically requires using all
the skills you've obtained, and then you still have to be
really damn good at using them.

The difficulty is still very much present; that’s a staple of this franchise. Although I was so used to it by this point that the actual tough stages took a while to pop up. The real challenge only started around the fourth set of levels, so 16th and beyond. I had stricken the right balance between speed and carefulness, for most of my run. Even Game Overs aren’t that punishing here, since they only makes you restart the current level, and you’ll sometimes be very familiar with the path by that point. That’s something I could have said of all three games, really; the games in this collection were indeed tough, but enough changes were made to reduce how frustrating they could have been… which, I’m told, the originals were. A fair bit, too.

Word-of-mouth is the best I can do since I haven’t played those and, therefore, don’t have the point of comparison. But I know I enjoyed the remastered versions a lot! So, clearly, whether it be by staying faithful enough to the originals for the newcomers like me, while also making enough changes to round out the rough edges these originals had, Vicarious Visions did a great job here! It's just missing some Woahs from Crash when he gets hurt.

Here’s the kicker though: I played these only so I could get to the next game… which I’ll be talking about next week, closing the anniversary celebration with Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time!