Crash Bandicoot

[Benji]

Oh it shares them? That's cool.

[DavidMarrio]

17 minutes ago, LiBenji Belle said:

Oh it shares them? That's cool.

Yeh it shows a leaderboard with a few random people on it and any friends that have played the game. There's some times on there that I can't get my head around how someone has managed to do it that quick. 

[Benji]

Just now, David Mortyio said:

Yeh it shows a leaderboard with a few random people on it and any friends that have played the game. There's some times on there that I can't get my head around how someone has managed to do it that quick. 

I think I only did two or three so far. How could you tell it was me? It only asked for initials and I put BBP, which I wouldn't expect anyone here to recognise.

[DavidMarrio]

Just now, LiBenji Belle said:

I think I only did two or three so far. How could you tell it was me? It only asked for initials and I put BBP, which I wouldn't expect anyone here to recognise.

The initials are for only playing on your console so say if someone else played it with you, it comes up with your PSN name on the leaderboards so I was putting initials of DPM yet it shows up as IAmMarriott when you go on the leaderboard. 

[stokeriño]

Oh thank god, it's not just me.  

 

[Bobfoc]

Gameplay-wise, I think most people would agree that the first Crash Bandicoot is the weakest of the three, but I think it had the best atmosphere. I liked the warp rooms in Crash 2 and 3, but there was something I loved about the traversal through the islands towards the ever-looming fortress. The level designs were, at times, really quite harrowing and sinister-looking, and there was a coherent sense of logical progression as you made your way through the jungles, followed by the temples, followed by the laboratories and factories before the final showdown with Cortex. The locations of the boss battles fitted in with these locations too, making them seem like the guardians the story made them out to be.

I think what help prop this all up were the colour contrasts too. While there were enough bright colours to make everything imaginative and child-friendly, there was always an element of darkness lurking in the backgrounds and surrounding areas too, which is part of what made Cortex seem like more of a threat than he did in the later games. Looking at the footage of the new games, that's something I'm worried could have been lost in translation. The new colour scheme looks a little washed out on the same levels, and the music seems a little lighter and less punchy too. That's probably just miserable git talk, though. I'm glad the games are being made available in any form.

[DavidMarrio]

I saw a tweet that perfectly captures my current feelings with Crash

"spare a thought for anyone aged 25 or over trying to play Crash Bandicoot now"

Don't remember it being this bloody difficult!!

[GoN_]

I had never played the first one past the first boss (I believe it was either loaned to me by a friend, I had some kind of demo or I got it way after I got a PS2)... I had no idea it was this hard.

Maybe when I get to 2 and 3, which I played much more as a kid I will come to the conclusion that it is not the game's fault and that it is just nostalgia and me being a worse player now than when I was 10 years old.

I just got to the lab, but I had a such a bad time with some of the levels (basically all of the ones everyone has been complaining about). If it wasn't for the ropes on High Road, I think I would have gone insane.

[DavidMarrio]

I've been trying to do The Lost City on Crash 1 in order to get the green gem... yeh I turned the game off because I just can't break all the boxes without dying and having to restart. I tried it that many times I ended up building up lives from getting all the wumpa fruit. 

I need a break

[The Sandman]

I've never finished the first one either, but I didn't remember it being this hard. One of the early levels Great Gate i think, with the spinning platforms I used to hate as a kid and still do, also Lost City and the bridge levels. Got stuck yesterday in the High Road trying to do it without the ropes and it just wasn't happening. 

Actually played 3 few months ago and it's nowhere as infuriating as the first one is. The tiger levels were always so much fun in the third one, that's always been my favorite of the three.

Edited July 4, 2017 by The Sandman

[Bobfoc]

There's a rather technical post by someone who has theorised that Crash's collision box is "pill-shaped" in the remasters. In real terms, this means that he slides a little bit on landing, even on a flat plane, and that causes him to fall when he lands on the edge of a platform. This is something that wasn't present in the originals, which is likely to be why nailing jumps correctly is said to be more difficult this time round.

[apsham]

Yikes. Just more of a reason to just say fuck it and play the originals. Though I guess with a PS4 that isn't an option.

[Skummy]

Yeah, someone was trying to explain that to me last night - can't pretend I fully understand the tech, but I'm falling down holes or bumping into bad guys with over-sensitive collision detection all the time, and I'm sure I'm not that bad at Crash Bandicoot these days!

I'd assumed it was a combination of HD graphics and analogue controls not quite mapping to how the games originally played, but whatever the reason, it's bloody irritating. Seems far worse in Crash 1 than 2, haven't tried 3 yet.

[apsham]

The pill shape basically means less surface area is fully impacted when you land, especially on the edge of a platform and there are a lot of really precise jumps in the Crash games. Think of the standard collision box being the eraser side of a pencil, and the pill shaped one being more like the sharpened edge - when Crash is hitting the edge, his velocity isn't being slowed because it's taking a bit more to spread that all out, ergo you'll slip off the edge.

[Skummy]

Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, but that sounds like an explanation for overshooting a jump, whereas I seem to more often than not undershoot on the jumps, which presumably wouldn't be caused by a difference in collision detection on the landing? Unless, of course, you're landing in the same place but the original game sort of compensated for that and treated you as having landed on the platform while the new game recognises that you fell down the hole?

Or could it be that I'm accommodating for the difference, and subconsciously jumping at the wrong time? Or is this is a separate issue and just me sucking at Crash Bandicoot?

[Benji]

I feel like I'm in a minority in being the only one who feels like it's almost the exact same. Crash 1 was always tough. Play 2 and it's much easier like it always was.

I'm probably wrong, but I don't feel like it's different to how I remember. My only issue is that the camera is tighter on Crash on levels where you move forward, so on parts with two paths where you have to track back you don't get as much in your line of sight.

[apsham]

17 minutes ago, Skummy said:

Maybe I'm not understanding it correctly, but that sounds like an explanation for overshooting a jump, whereas I seem to more often than not undershoot on the jumps, which presumably wouldn't be caused by a difference in collision detection on the landing? Unless, of course, you're landing in the same place but the original game sort of compensated for that and treated you as having landed on the platform while the new game recognises that you fell down the hole?

Or could it be that I'm accommodating for the difference, and subconsciously jumping at the wrong time? Or is this is a separate issue and just me sucking at Crash Bandicoot?

Undershooting.. hmm could relate then to when you visually think you should be jumping vs. when the collision boxes themselves would be best for jumping. Even if it's not an issue with the specific shape of the collisions, anything thats off from the original could throw a player off.

Crash 1 vs. the others wasn't a difference in controls for me, it was the level design and the way that the save system worked. But even in the crazy levels, the jumps were perferctly spaced so you only have to really worry about direction and landing on the right space - distance jumped was never really an issue I dealt with.

[Sean O'Game]

They did actually change a BUNCH of hitboxes, and the physics in all three now match, and are based on NA Crash 3's physics. (Region makes a difference because in the originals, the different regions got different physics in a lot of cases. For instance, the PAL version of Crash 2 had a slightly faster ground movement speed for Crash and a higher jump.)

The biggest change, and one that is definitely fucking veterans over more than anything, is the fact that now all jumps are pressure sensitive. In the originals as long as you hit X, you jumped full height. Now, how high your jump is depends on how long you hold X, so it's causing people to whiff jumps just because they held X for just one frame too short.

.... TL;DR I'm a current/practicing speedrunner for the Crash games and have been helping crack open the N Sane Trilogy to find the best speed tricks, and here's the best answer I can give as to why the N Sane Trilogy feels much harder. 

[stokeriño]

For some bloody reason, the level in Crash Bandicoot: Warped that is giving me by far the most grief when it comes to the gold relic is Level Bloody 13 (High Time - the second Arabian level). 30+ levels and this one is the hardest? That doesn't make a lick of sense.

Also, my left thumb is now all bruised and battered from too much desperate analog stick work.

(Disclaimer: I haven't even tried to go for the relic in Hot Coco yet, in which they've massively reduced the target time for the relics from the original version...so what I really mean is that High Time has been the worst up until this point. )

[Regia]

Finally got my hands on this today. I'm having fun, but some of the levels frustrate me no end. I'm not even bothering trying to 100% the levels yet, just sticking to trying to beat the first damn game.