Crash Bandicoot 4 Will Be A Divisive Addition To Xbox Game Pass

After being rumoured for Xbox Game Pass months ago, Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time was finally announced for the service as part of today’s June 5-17 roundup, joining the Ultimate, PC and Standard tiers on Tuesday, June 17th.

We know a lot of Xbox fans have been waiting ages for this one, and there’s good reason – Crash Bandicoot 4 is a great game that received fantastic reviews at launch, including here at Pure Xbox where we gave it an “excellent” 9/10. And yet, despite all of its fantastic qualities, I’m still of the belief it’ll end up proving divisive on Game Pass.

The thing is, Crash Bandicoot 4 isn’t all that similar to the game that preceded it – the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy. That one was obviously a remake of the original three PS1 titles, but when Toys for Bob took over with Crash 4, they embarked on a pretty different approach. The levels are longer and more varied, the art style is completely different (personally, I don’t like it!), and crucially, the difficulty is significantly harder than any of the originals.

It’s not too difficult at first, and you’ll breeze through the initial levels without a hitch. Give it a bit longer, though, and you’ll likely start to feel that frustration creeping in – the result of tricky platforming sequences, tight timing windows and the ever-increasing number of deaths you’ll rack up. It really depends on what kind of player you are – if you love the idea of a serious challenge, Crash 4 might be right up your alley, but others may find themselves bouncing off it more quickly than expected. There are even plenty of hardcore fans of the series that feel this way:

The challenge doesn’t feel as pronounced in the N.Sane Trilogy, partly because the levels are significantly shorter – and I have to admit, I feel much more compelled to master the N. Sane Trilogy’s levels because they’re only a certain length. In Crash 4, the levels are stunning, varied and plenty of fun to play through, but their extended duration leads to more frustration and less of a desire to go for the 100% (or even 106%) completion that many players crave.

That’s not to say you should fear Crash 4 though! The big way to reduce the difficulty is to turn on “Modern” mode instead of “Retro”, which takes away the finite number of lives and allows you to restart from the latest checkpoint every time you die. As long as you do this, and you’re willing to put up with a lot of deaths throughout your playthrough, most people should be able to roll the credits at least – but only the absolute purists will want to persist further.

This isn’t meant to be a hit piece on Crash Bandicoot 4, by the way – as I said, we gave it an “excellent” 9/10 in our Pure Xbox review a few years ago, and the Metacritic stands at a really impressive average of 85. This is a great platformer that’s packed with content that’ll take you a very long time to get through, and if you’re on-side with the approach it’s going for, there’s every chance it’ll end up being your favourite game in the series to date.

In fact, that’s what PJ said in his review at the time – he wasn’t even a huge Crash Bandicoot fan going into it!

“Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is an excellent modernisation of a decades-old franchise that was beginning to really show its age. This is a thoroughly entertaining, slick and addictive addition to the series that funnels players through a meaty campaign packed to bursting point with inventive set-pieces and devilishly devious level design.”

The game is also better than ever since it was upgraded for Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S. These days, it runs at a near-locked 4K, 60FPS on Xbox Series X and looks beautiful (significantly better than the N. Sane Trilogy), while it also benefits from 1080p, 60FPS on the Xbox Series S. However you play this one, it’ll look and run great.

But yeah… just be prepared that you may love or hate this game. I’m somewhere in the middle, PJ’s obviously a massive fan of it, and some people have been turned off it entirely. It’s a hard-as-nails platformer that even non-Crash fans may get a kick out of, and I’m fascinated to see how the Xbox Game Pass community responds to it when it arrives on June 17th. It might be worth getting some practice with the N.Sane Trilogy until then!