So, here are my first impressions of Crash 4 after the few hours I've played of it.
First of all, I'll just say I went with modern mode. Usually I don't like to go easy when it comes to game difficulty, but one major issue with the Crash games, and really a lot of other games, are lives. I feel lives are very outdated for the most part and I don't really want to waste time losing lives all to start from the very beginning. I really love modern mode because I feel like I can mess up as many times as I want and I won't be penalized for it, which is great. I appreciate that Toys For Bob included an option for lives, and retro mode will be great for those who feel really masochistic, but I'd rather stick with modern mode personally.
Just to get my one negative out of the way first, I personally feel the controls aren't as good as I thought they'd be. That's not to say the controls are inheritably bad, but I think the controls are actually worse than the N. Sane Trilogy. Crash and Coco feel a lot more slippier and faster to me than they were in the N. Sane Trilogy and it can mess me up from time to time. I'm honestly not quite sure if this is an unpopular opinion, but it is an observation I made of the gameplay and I personally am not the biggest fan of it.
However, that's really all I have for negatives. Where do I even begin with the positives? I guess I could start off with the graphics. Obviously the graphics aren't gonna look as good on the Switch compared to other systems, but the game still looks gorgeous and it is easily the best looking Crash game in my opinion. While I didn't like how slippier and faster Crash is, their are definitely a lot of great things out of the gameplay. For one, I absolutely love the fact that they included a little orange icon under Crash every time he jumps. On paper, this may not seem like that big of a deal, but one of the major complaints in the older Crash games is that sometimes you couldn't really tell where Crash would land, and I always felt like it wasn't my fault when I missed a jump in the older games. Now, I can tell where Crash is gonna land and now I always feel like it really is my fault when I miss a jump. It's the little quality of life improvements like this that really make the game great in my opinion.
As for the levels themselves, they're a lot of fun. From the levels I've played, I feel like the levels are much more diverse than in the original trilogy, which is something I really like. On top of that, I really like how some characters like N. Gin will taunt you in the background of a level. It doesn't change anything, but it's a really funny feature and it definitely adds more personality to each level.
But, the Quantum Masks are easily my favorite new feature in this game. Granted, I've only played up until Lani-Loli, which is the first mask, but even then, I can just tell I'm really gonna love this gimmick. These basically act like power-ups, and I'm shocked we've never had something like this up until this point. I feel like this adds so much more to the gameplay of levels and this gimmick is what truly makes Crash 4 standout compared to the other entries, and I'm excited to try out the other Quantum Masks as well. Besides, it's a blast phasing objects and platforms in and out of existence.
As for some quick minor things, I really love the addition of skins. I love the skins not just because they're awesome looking, but also because they make 100%ing each level completely worth it, and they are a nice reward for getting all the gems on a level. I already got a few and I really like them a lot! I also played one of the Flashback Levels, and it was pretty fun. I really love the idea of playing from the perspective of Crash actually being a successful experiment from Cortex, and it was fun to jump over all the crates. I'm nervous though considering I already thought this first one was pretty difficult, so I'm pretty nervous about what's to come later lol.
Aside from that, that's all I really needed to say. Crash 4 is pretty fun and I'm definitely excited to play more of it!
