On June 30th Vicarious Visions and Activision released a collection of remasters of the first three titles in the Crash Bandicoot series.
“Remasters” are by no means a new thing in the gaming industry but this particular remaster is unique in its own ways. What I mean is if we look at say a 2002 remake of the original Resident Evil game or Tomb Raider Anniversary, a 2007 remake/re-imagining of the first Tomb Raider game, we can clearly see a lot of differences from the original games; be it controls, items or slight change of the story. Developers justify because they believe that die-hard fans would appreciate some change and modernisation. Crash N.Sane Trilogy proves that you do not need to go further than graphic improvement for a successful remaster of a twenty-year-old game. Even controls did not change and there is still that fixed camera.
It is actually hard to believe that Crash N. Sane Trilogy was not produced by Naughty Dog, the original developers, the fidelity to the original is absolutely “n.sane”!
Activision went an extra mile to please the fans of the series and priced this remaster collection of three games £34.99. This is actually very fair for remasters in my opinion and I wish that every publisher would do the same.
Hats off to Vicarious Visions and Activision for making these remasters so faithful to the original. It is such a rare thing these days.
I am now looking forward for Capcom’s Resident Evil 2 remaster and I hope I will not be disappointed as Activision just raised my expectations for remasters to a brand new level.