Nothing epitomizes the 90's console war more than Crash vs. Mario and back in those days we were staunch Mario supporters. The truth is that Crash Bandicoot kinda sucks. Sorry. The first game does, anyway. The sequels were better. So, yeah, that's what kind of blog this is going to be, but click anyway as we talk about Crash Bandicoot 1.
The first time I ever played any Crash Bandicoot platformer was on the N-Sane Trilogy for Xbox One. And even with the most "perfect" introduction point, I was still kind of underwhelmed. It's fine. The N-Sane Trilogy is gorgeous looking and plays well and, because I don't have rose-tinted nostalgia telling me whatever hardcore fans found "wrong" about it, it all felt fine to me. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. Crash 1 is rough, mostly due to wonky inconsistent difficulty in some levels. Crash 2 and 3 are better. We'll get to them eventually. Probably.
As I said in the opening, we were Nintendo fans back in the day and didn't even have PlayStation systems until well after Crash's popularity started to wane. Even after I opened my eyes and stopped being a dumb fanboy and bought (several) PlayStation systems over the years, I never played Crash. It wasn't just the fanboyism that made me dis-interested, it was just core things about the games that were unappealing to me.
The N64 vs. PSX was all about 3D vs. wonky sort of 3D for me. Whether that was right or wrong, it was hard to look at N64 games and then look at their equivalents on PSX and not be disappointed. Crash specifically was disappointing because it was still a linear experience compared to the sprawling open worlds of Mario 64 and other N64 platformers and I didn't see the point in playing something that was a side-step at best compared to past generations when I could leap into the future on N64.
I, of course, found lots of other things on PlayStation to like that the N64 wasn't capable of - Metal Gear Solid, Gran Turismo 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Final Fantasy VII, etc. - but Crash always seemed like an inferior experience to what I could already play so I didn't bother until the N-Sane Trilogy came out.
So, uh, Crash Bandicoot is fine. I guess. I don't really feel like I missed out on anything by not playing it until now.
U mad, bro?
