About the Game

In previous Crash Bandicoot games, the villainous Dr Neo Cortex and Dr Nefarious Trophy (yes, Dr Entropy, the groan-inducing puns are still here too!) were defeated by Crash with the help of a witch-doctor’s spirit which inhabits a sentient mask called Aku-Aku. In this game, Aku-Aku’s evil twin, also inhabiting a mask and called Uka-Uka, help the evil pair escape their imprisonment, and the game is on…

But the villainous pair do not want world domination in this game – nor even universal domination. No, what they want this time is to dominate the entire multi-verse, and that is a step too far for not only Crash and Coco, but also for a former enemy, Dingodile, and for an alternate reality version of Crash’s ex-girlfriend, Tawna. Tawna, in previous incarnations, was a bit of a babe: in this one, she is a badass with a tragic past and she has her own reasons for fighting…

Dr Neo Cortex and Dr N Trophy will only succeed if they manage to lay their hands on the all-powerful Quantum Masks: so Crash and co decide that the best way to stop this happening is to get hold of the masks themselves. (See more about the masks below). As well as the four main masks, there are other masks to collect on every level, and doing so will give your character power-ups and useful features that will help to get them through the level.

When you have completed the game for the first time, make sure you go back in for a replay: this unlocks new game modes. These include special trials, such as completing a level in the shortest possible time, or trying your hand at N Verted mode: a mirror world in which levels could be underwater, or a blank canvas to be painted as you play – and, as if that wasn’t challenge enough, your controls no longer do what they should, having been inverted, you could say.

There are five playable characters in total, although the first playthrough must always be done by Coco or Crash. Replays and bonus levels can be played as Dr Neo Cortex, Tawna or Dingodile, and each of these secondary players have unique powers that the siblings do not.

For example: Cortex uses a ray-gun that takes out enemies or transforms them into platforms (which can be solid, bouncy or gaseous) that can then be climbed; Dingodile uses a vacuum gun sucking up enemies, crates and TNT, then shooting them out again (at other enemies, of course); and Tawna, as well as having some of Crash and Coco’s regular powers uses a grappling hook that is as effective a long distance weapon as it is at busting open crates from afar.

The game is bright and cartoony fun – with fiendish levels of difficulty, so don’t be thinking you will just cruise through it!

How to Play

As with the other Crash Bandicoot games, you must smash crates and explore hidden nooks to find gems that you then collect. You can also get gems by grabbing Wumpa fruit, and simply by not dying too often. Collecting all the gems unlocks up to 28 skins, as well as ‘VHS tapes’ that take you into playable flashbacks that are bonus levels.

Wumpa fruit in this game are not as crucial to your survival and success as in other games, depending on the mode you choose to play in – they do give you gems, collecting them all does give you bonus points, but there are unlimited lives, so when you die, you just go back to the last checkpoint, forever, unlike in the old game in which you gathered fruit to earn more lives.

Having said that, if you play in retro mode, aka the 90s game, you will rely on Wumpa fruit for survival. This will please the purists who can, nevertheless, ‘cheat’ by changing modes to get through tricky levels when they’ve run out of lives in retro!

Other modes of play include both cooperative and competitive multi-play as well as solo play. In the multi-play modes, up to four people can play at once. The games in multi-play include: Bandicoot Battle – in which you race other players through time trials, which come in two types.

The first is Checkpoint Race where you must reach a certain point and the second is Crate Combo in which you smash as many crates as possible while being timed. Pass ‘n Play mode is the co-op play in which all the players take turns to complete the campaign, so more experienced players can get beginners through tricky levels.

Which Mask to Choose

The four Quantum Masks, and their various powers, are:

Lani-loli: which phases things in and out of existence, including platforms, enemies and more

’Akano: which lets you spin indefinitely across gaps, and also helps with blocking what is usually unblockable, and smashing what used to be unsmashable. Be sure to stay in control, though…

Kapuna-wa: which slows down time for a – ha! – minute, giving you moments in which to act or react

and finally, Ika-Ika which flips gravity – sometimes to your own detriment if you do not time it right!