Overview:

You had to have been there in the 90s to understand how big this game was when it was released.  It put Nintendo and Mario on notice that there was a new mascot in town and that the Sony PlayStation was the only place to play it.  I believed the hype and was kind of bummed I couldn’t play it.  Luckily I did get to finally give it a shot some 30 years later.  You play as Crash as you travel forward, backwards, or side to side in levels.  You’ll have to cross massive chasms, break boxes to find powerups, or even run from a string of boulders trying to take you out.  This was a new take on a platformer!

Visuals:

I don’t know how to feel about how this game looks.  I feel I should be impressed with what Naughty Dog was able to do with the system in making the world look lush and vibrant but I don’t feel that way.  The main character, Crash, just looks kinda ugly with his disproportioned body but at least he looks different than Mario but not so much Sonic.  Going back to the environments, some of the levels do look good but the fact you’re limited to either an X or a Y axis takes away some of the luster.

Audio:

I played this game yesterday and I’m already drawing a blank when it comes to everything related to the audio of this game.  I remember the floating mask making his mumbling noise when I got him.  I also remember the sound I make when I die.  As for the music and everything else, a complete blank.

Completion:

I beat a few levels here and everything was going alright.  I thought it was an OK platformer and could see how some people would like it but then I got to that fucking boulder level.  Talk about a level that’s just trial and error over and over again until you get that run where you beat it.  This type of level has really become a staple of Naughty Dog games as it seems to pop up in all of them they’ve produced over the decades.  After completing this level I didn’t want to play anymore so I stopped it right there.