Usually about 1-2 weeks before the launch of a game, there will be one final trailer to get people hyped. These ‘launch trailers’ rarely offer anything too crazy, and are mainly just a round up of past reveals with some new footage sprinkled in. Though the upcoming Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time just threw all of those preconceptions out the window as it reveals quite possibly the most exciting and “N.Sane” trailer I’ve ever seen!
There’s a LOT to go over and gush about, so let’s jump right in – after you check out the new trailer for yourself below.
Confession Time: I’m a HUGE sucker for visual and audio moments syncing up in video montages. What do I mean by this? Think of anytime in the Friends opening where the ‘clapping’ portion was actually paired with someone clapping or rhythmically tapping something. There’s just something about these tiny moments of audio/ visual synchronicity that feels so satisfying – and this trailer has loads of them!
The song used is “Go” by the Chemical Brothers, and there’s several moments in particular where music and gameplay footage compliment each other so well! The first is when we see Coco running across a keyboard platform as the keyboard portion of the song actually comes on. The second happens as the song cuts into the bridge and the trailer begins showing off the majority of the new N.Verted levels. N.Verted levels are twisted remixes of existing levels, so having the echo-heavy portion of the bridge play over this mini montage within a montage was a great play! It also doesn’t hurt that the initial ‘echo’ of the bridge comes just as Crash is navigating an N.Verted level that visually appears to be the result of echolocation. Though by far my favorite example in this launch trailer is when the giant robot drummer that we saw during the N. Gin boss battle in the reveal trailer tap his sticks together to the beat of ‘Two, Three, Four’.
Seeing moments like these – where someone clearly put a lot of effort into seamlessly matching the cuts – might not tell us anything directly about the game itself; but it does tell us about the team behind it. And when you’re trusting someone to breath new life into one of your favorite franchises, that is incredibly important!
Rounding Up All We Know – Playable Characters & Masks:
One of the biggest features of Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is how there’s multiple playable characters, each with their own motives and gameplay style. As such, the launch trailer of course shows off Cortex (whom we got to play as in the Demo) as well as alternate-universe Tawna and Dingodile. Additionally, we also got to see all of the new Quantum Masks on display – as well as our first ‘in-Trailer’ look at the 4th mask ‘Akano. Much like Lani-Loli’s ‘phasing’ ability, Kupuna-Wa’s ‘time slow’ ability and Ika Ika’s ‘gravity flip’ ability, ‘Akano of course comes with his own power – or should I say powers!
‘Akano is the Mask of Dark Matter – or maybe Chaos is a better descriptor. Unlike the other masks that have one powerful ability, ‘Akano seems to have two – or rather one with two very different applications. ‘Akano will power up Crash and Coco’s spins to not only allow them to jump/ hover over longer distances, but will also empower their spins to redirect projectiles. It’s unclear if only some projectiles can be reflected and not others; but considering the masks are level/ area specific, I’m willing to bet that any kind of projectile you encounter while wearing ‘Akano is fair game!
Final Trailer, First Look – Polar & N. Tropy Cutscene!
Considering launch trailers usually just recap previously revealed items, I certainly didn’t expect anything new to be revealed; but here we are with our first look at the newly designed Polar – and much like Coco and Crash, Polar’s redesign is so overwhelmingly adorable! Seriously, who thought it was safe to give him such big brown eyes! In the footage, we see Polar lending a hand like in past games as Crash rides him to chase after Cortex. Though I’m curious if the reveal of Polar also means that Crash and Coco’s other pets/ mounts – Pura and Baby T – will also make an appearance in the game. And even if they don’t, I wouldn’t be surprised if we saw some scrapped concept art ideas for them in the upcoming Art of Crash Bandicoot 4 book!
Though the other big reveal we got in this trailer was actually a substantial look at who is starting to seem more and more like the main antagonist, N Tropy. We’ve seen him in past trailers arguing with Cortex and looking menacing, but this is our first good listen to a cutscene with him – and it is perfect! With lines like that, it’s hard to imagine him being anything but the main antagonist. Either way, after having example after example of Crash, Coco, Cortex and Tawna being filled with life in terms of cutscenes/ voice acting, this was the perfect time to drop a foreboding look at N. Tropy.
Overall, even if you’ve never played a Crash Bandicoot game before, this launch trailer will get you N.Sanely hyped! From the sheer multitude of levels and gameplay to the expressiveness and charm of its characters, the release can’t come soon enough! Crash Bandicoot 4 releases on PS4 and Xbox One on October 2nd. And if you PreOrder Digitally, you’ll get to play the 2-3 level long Demo!
