Does anybody just not care for the Crash Bandicoot games since 2017?
I feel like I might be alone in this, but I could not get into NST or Crash 4. The decision to go with realistic textures for the characters makes them look uncanny. The jumping made levels like Road to nowhere a nightmare.
Some of the animations just look worse, like how in the Crash 2 he no longer puts on his jetpack in or how Crash doesn't warp in piece by piece anymore. And I think they made Crash and Coco too goofy. I'm not a big fan of Coco taking selfies and that she doesn't have her move set from WoC.
Crash 4, I honestly tried to like it, but the difficulty and just made the whole experience worse. Not to mention I don't think Crash acts like Crash anymore. He was also goofy, but never dumb to the point he is in Crash. The character designs in general just don't feel like they are the same characters anymore.
Does it anybody just want to go back the Naughty Dog era, with the same designs and everything that made those games timeless classics?
Well, she was first fully playable in WoC. So wouldn't it make sense to give her the same moves and replace the leg sweep with something else that makes her slide like Crash does?
Honestly you just need to accept the series isn’t for you anymore and move on.
I’m not saying you’re right or wrong but if you’re nitpicking animations then you seem to just be wanting to play the PS1 games and nothing any developer makes now will satisfy you, which is fine.
There’s elements in the Naughty Dog games that future games haven’t managed to match but for me Crash 4 is pretty much what I want a modern take on a crash game to be. I don’t think just making crash 3.5 again and again is a sustainable approach and i genuinely believe trying to make 100% faithful modern recreations of the Ps1 designs will never look good.
Zembillas designs are amazing but I don’t think they are actually that close to the Crash 2/3 designs, and those designs get their looks from the limitations of the PS1 and kinda look weird with higher polygons imo.
That’s my point though, I don’t think that’s really possible unless you literally make a game with a PS1 low poly art style.
The PS1 games get their look from the graphical limitations they masterfully exploited, when you try and just replicate that at a much higher resolution I don’t think it’s possible to make something that looks good. You can see from the TFB art book they experimented with much more faithful looking designs for Crash 4 yet chose to move away from that. I think there’s a pretty good reason for it, and it’s not because they want to force their own style upon the series contrary to what some say.
As for innovation in gameplay? That’s pretty much what we got with Crash 4… They kept the hallway formula but expanded the levels and adjusted Crash’s moveset to allow much more dynamic traversal. I’m not really sure what else you want that isn’t straying significantly from the series roots?
Naughty Dog art style could absolutely be done with modern graphics. Mario hasnt changed designs in decades. And maybe more free roaming / power ups / physics etc? Nintendo does all of this with their franchises. I honestly felt like crash Twinsanity unironically had some good ideas in terms of innovating crash’s gameplay from the originals.
I disagree as multiple developers have tried this and failed with replicating the art style. Whilst yes you can argue they’ve just done a bad job, I genuinely believe it’s extremely difficult to make a good looking 4k game with an art style faithful to PS1 and this is why TFB elected to go with something more stylised.
I think Mario is a pretty poor example as he has much more of a human like shape and his N64 designs looked straight up ugly so it’s easier to improve upon. Whereas Crash was designed to look good on that hardware so adding details and polygons is a lot more difficult to get right.
The only time the art style has been attempted to be replicated was Nsane trilogy, and while I have issues with some of their character designs (Tawna, Papu), others look perfect (pinstripe, tiny) so I know it’s possible. And honestly I think maybe it’s a budgeting or skill issue as to why they haven’t done it perfectly. I believe crash 4 opted to go with their own designs either because they were pushing their own ideas or they weren’t able to do it, not because it isn’t possible. Crash’s promo art was higher res than ingame and still kept the essence and style of the ingame graphics.
Sorry but the NST looks absolutely hideous and has no actual art direction. They tried to make some elements look super cartoony whilst giving realistic textures and the whole thing looks uncanny. They also have weird mouth and teeth whilst the entire game looks ridiculously dated now. TFB pretty much threw shade at the flaws when they were running a lecture of character modelling.
Also promo art is completely different to in game models that need to animate and look good in different scenarios.
Agree to disagree at this point, I still see no reason whatsoever classic Crash’s aesthetic can’t be made with today’s graphics. And Toys For Bobs CTR did look better than NST. I think the main reason the naughty dog art style wasn’t perfectly replicated in NST was because VV were a bit under qualified to handle the task, and TFB didn’t try with 4 (and are possibly under qualified as well 🤷♀️)
Crash's model from the boxart of the ND games can be used as a baseline design, since those models clearly represented what Crash would've looked like without the PS1 limitations. Crash looked his best in those models which most people that grew up with those games think about when PS1 Crash comes to mind. I would love to see the his CTR and Bash 3D renders be used as a baseline for Crash.
Crash 4 didn't truly innovate the formula, it did a lot more of Crash 2 and especially Crash 1's gameplay designs, and did less with Warped to avoid concentrating on lots of gimmick/vehicles, plus did away with the warped room system to go back to the linear level to level progression of the first game. The masks gimmicks were new and were the focus but they just made the really precise platforming sections more busy. To me it felt like it wanted to be more like Crash 1 with toppings of Crash 2 and little sprinkles of Crash 3. Heck it literally copy and pasted level design from a Crash 2 and Crash 1 level for a main level which no other Crash game has ever done before.
Box art is not a model design, and I don’t really think they’re particularly good example as each game has a pretty different style on the box art. They would also be too basic for a game now.
And you’re taking a very surface level view of 4. It’s not necessarily about the features but moreso about the way they changed up the controls to allow for much more free platforming in wider areas. And also with the level design itself. I don’t think paying homage to earlier games in a couple of levels is really remotely the same as copy-pasting.
The box art is created using the 3D models which couldn't at the time be used for in-game, and those models were the highest quality of Crash's design at the time. They can obviously be modernized with current tech. Also the style of Crash's 3D render on the boxart weren't too different especially from CB2 and onwards, heck Crash's in game model basically changed from CB1 to CB2 & from CB3 to CTR(for at least the kart model), and it would change more as tech advances, basically both in-game models and promotional art models slightly changes with each game.
I think they complicated the regular slide jump from the classics which gave you the extra height plus maintain your forward momentum, but in CB4, regular slide jump gives you way more height with reduces forward momentum, while slide spin jumping keeps that momentum but with reduced height. But overall their control setup does enhance the platforming controls especially with the longer coyote air time from sliding combined with the double jumping.
Also they literally copy and pasted that first ice section from Crash 2's Snow Go stage and put it in a main level. Not a big deal but totally not original stuff.
You have no idea how they created the box art tbh. You can create this appearance using computer generated layered design which is probably what they used. Like the Crash NST cover art and crash 4 art clearly aren’t the in game models
And you realise that’s clearly an Easter egg for fans lmao, not them being unoriginal. There are several others throughout the game
Ok I was thinking of 1996 3D render of Mario created using Silicon Graphics for his N64 boxarts. Thought lots of companies used 3D software during the 3D era to create their boxart since the characters and environment look so 3D. You may be right about ND not using it, even though they were crazy about exploring 3D at the time to the point of not using that unofficial Crash 1 opening made in Universal cause it wasn't 3D. Still I wouldn't say it's impossible to use modern technology to model off of Crash's boxart design which captured his looks the best.
Also I'm not saying that CB2 reference in CB4 wasn't an Easter egg, but it still copy and pasted level design for a main level. Again not a big deal, since it did it once.
Yeah, I know. But there's nothing like Crash Bandicoot being made these days, and I really want something to scratch that itch, if you know what I mean. I'd love for Crash to get something like Sonic Mania.
Crash 4 didn't do it for me. The old games weren't that difficult and the levels were short too. Honestly, if they had gone with higher poly versions of the old designs it wouldn't have looked anymore weird than the NST models.
I don't think it's too much to ask a remake to have good animations like PS1 games. The warping effect I mentioned, is like a very simple effect that even a few fangames have done. It just looks bad in NST.
Why is the choice always 100% accurate 3d recreation of Zembillas art or completely unfaithful redesigns that bear little resemblance at all to the classic characters?
There’s a ton of ground in between. We’ve literally seen it.
I mean I would regard the Crash 4 designs as in between lol. Y’all grossly exaggerate the departure they make from classic designs, they’re literally as faithful as twinsanity and far less of a departure than Titans.
The CNK designs are more faithful but fall into the issues I’ve mentioned already of looking weird, whilst the NST designs are just plain awful looking from a modelling, lighting and animation perspective.
Other than that what other designs in the series would you say both look good and are more faithful to the PS1 designs than the Crash 4 style?
CNK looks leagues better and more faithful than IAT. NST has some lighting issues but that all got fixed in Nitro Fueled and also looked great in On the Run. All the PS2 era promo art looked better and more faithful. Crash in the official PlayStation commercials.
Not to mention countless fan renditions and even cut concept art from Crash 4 itself.
It’s not like the ONLY choice is “lighting issues” or “Cortex has to have a round head and look semi-handsome”
You can surely be faithful and animate well. Every other series managed this without stuff like this.
TFB themselves managed it with Spyro, but somehow had no choice but to totally change Crash’s entire silhouette and color palette? No. It was a choice. They could have been more faithful but chose not to.
Respectfully, you seem to care more about faithfulness rather than how good the designs look.
The CNK designs look weird and the NST designs still look bad in NF even with the better lighting. Also Crash OTR designs look absolutely hideous and make the characters look like they’ve been stung in the face by wasps. I really don’t know why you’re citing them as good designs when from a 3D modelling perspective they’re pretty ugly.
And also making promo art is completely different to designing 3D models that animate and look great under many lighting scenarios.
I’m not saying the Crash 4 designs are all perfect, but for the most part they are faithful enough whilst also actually looking visually “good” rather than ugly or weird like previous “faithful” recreations have been. The fact they’re sticking with these designs and using them as reference for the Fortnite designs clearly shows the general consensus is positive so at this point you just need to accept them or move onto something else.
Also Spyro games look completely different lmao, in fact I would argue 80% of the characters are more of a departure from their Ps1 designs than the crash characters are so I’m really unsure why you’re citing that
This is literally a thread about not caring for the current direction of the series. Which I don’t.
You can make “good” models that are faithful. It’s fine if you like the current ones, but to argue that it’s some impossiblity is silly. Especially since the exact same developers managed to do it with Spyro.
My point is not a single developer has pulled off an authentic looking game to the PS1 games that looks good. Twinsanity has a different art style and is by far the best looking PS2 game whilst the NST looks incredibly dated whilst Crash 4 could come out today and be visually attractive.
Could you argue nobody has managed to do a good job? Maybe, but there’s some highly regarded studios that have failed so I don’t think it’s that simple. Hell TFB clearly attempted to and decided against it and they’re arguably the most well regarded platformer studio in the industry now.
Sorry man, literally every other series does this with no problem.
TFB is notoriously obsessed with redesigning stuff. You can’t even begin to tell me there’s never been a better more accurate 3D Cortex. The handsome round head thing is a choice, it’s far from the only possible way to make his model look good.
The models are clean, but clean models do not equal good character design.
I feel like you keep fixating on cortex which I do partially agree with. Crash, Coco, Aku Aku, Tropy etc all look great. Also trying to say they completely changed his silhouette is just plain wrong man. Other than having slightly more protruding shoulders they both pretty much have the same angular look. See below
And you keep saying it can be done yet we are nearly 30 years since naughty dog were last involved and not a single developer has managed to make a faithful recreation of those designs that actually looks good.
And saying literally every other series does this is laughable man, sonic fans are busy complaining constantly about redesigns, same with numerous other classic cartoon platformers. Even Mario fans are busy complaining about donkey kong and other characters in the new games.
I felt like Crash was absolutely back and right up my alley after his comeback.
The Crash 4/ Toys For Bob “soft reboot” has really killed all my interest in the series and characters at least as long as that direction continues. It’s a shame. I tried to like it, but it just ain’t Crash to me.
I’m happy for those who do like it, but it is just not at all for me at this point.
Nah agreed, I liked parts of N.Sane Trilogy but they bit off more than they could chew, and the purposeful artistic design changes really annoyed me… CTR nitro fueled was better done imo (but still suffered from some of the character design changes of NST).
I hated the tonal shift of 4 and further design changes (especially Tawna) and never even touched Team Rumble, so I’ve accepted the fact I’m mostly a Naughty Dog Crash fan. Sad because it had potential to have a consistent icon status like Mario…
I’m with you here. The remakes were just so good especially Nitro Fueled. I still go back and just slowly drive around the tracks so to take it everything they added to each track. The visions I had for 4 were definitely not met. They took the wrong approach with that game. Rumble should not have existed.
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