While it comes as no surprise after a series of leaks and yesterday's announcement that a reveal was coming, Activision has officially shown off Crash Bandicoot: It's About Time to the world. The game marks the first new entry in the franchise in years, though Crash Bandicoot: NSane Trilogy, a remastered bundle of the first three games, launched in 2017.
Revealed during a Summer Game Fest stream, the new Crash Bandicoot game looks impressive. It boasts far superior visuals over what the franchise has accomplished before, a no brainer considering the advancements in technology, and an excellent integration of Crash Bandicoot himself. Neo Cortex has returned, and once again is serving as the primary antagonist.
The new trailer revealed several small pieces of information about the game, including multiple playable characters. Fans will be able to use Crash, Neo Cortex, and Coco in the game, which seems to feature multiple time periods and a wide variety of locations, from cities to jungles. Crash himself has gotten a fresh coat of paint, with a few adjustments to the character's face, but overall the game looks like a traditional Crash Bandicoot experience.
As players journey through Crash 4, they'll collect four quantum masks, each with different abilities. For instance, one will give Crash special time powers, while a different mask will grant the ability to flip gravity. It's an interesting new layer to the game, which should make levels feel a bit richer as players work their way to the end.
Yesterday, the official Crash Bandicoot Twitter account announced the reveal with a particularly strange trailer, though that didn't give players that much info about gameplay. Crash has had a tumultuous relationship with fans of the series since the initial trilogy, showing up in several other games that have apparently been discarded from this plotline, though the NSane Trilogy was a return to form that many fans had been hoping for.
It'll be interesting to see what's next for the characters. There were rumors circulating that Crash Bandicoot could come to Smash Bros. Ultimate, but those haven't been confirmed, and seem pretty unlikely. That being said, he would be a great addition to the lineup, and stranger characters have been featured in the game before.
Hopefully, Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time successfully innovates on what the previous entries have achieved, but fans will just have to wait to find out.
Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time is currently in development.